Women buck culture to join Anbar police

The women said they were emboldened by the presence of women among U.S. troops.

RAMADI, Iraq (AP) — The women received their first paychecks a few weeks ago — about $500 for a month’s work as police officers. They paid rent, bought food, wiped out debts. But the seemingly simple transaction has left at least one woman in fear for her life, another threatened with divorce.

The strict tribal and religious culture of Iraq’s particularly in its western Anbar province, strongly discourages women from working outside the home and brings shame on men who allow it.

“Right now, our province is safe and peaceful. But anything could shake that up and we could be in danger,” says Genan, a 37-year-old mother of three who’s also seven months pregnant.

She and four other women who graduated in early October from five days of police academy training agreed to speak to The Associated Press on the condition that only their first names be used for fear of reprisals. They are working in the west Ramadi police station.

The U.S. military is recruiting men into the police force and military in droves, anticipating the day when Iraqis take full control of security responsibilities. That effort is going particularly well in the Anbar provincial capital, where the number of police officers has increased from less than 200 in the spring of 2006 to about 8,000 now. Fourteen Ramadi women have joined those ranks.

When they learned recruits were being sought, Genan, Kadmia, 35, and Fatma, 27, said they jumped at the chance.

“In Iraq, a woman’s job is to stay home and be a housewife. Men and women are not equal,” said Genan, the others nodding in agreement, as she tried to explain through a translator why she signed up. “It’s nothing like in the U.S.”

They also felt emboldened, they said, by seeing women among the U.S. troops patrolling and fighting in Ramadi’s streets.

“They left their children at home, not a few houses away, but thousands of miles away,” Genan said. “If American women can do it, we can do it.”

The women had seen female insurgents blow themselves up with suicide vests. Some of those women were getting through security checkpoints because cultural and religious mores prohibit them from being searched by men. The new female recruits said they thought they could help to prevent such attacks.

The recruits learn to fire several types of weapons including AK-47s, conduct searches, identify vehicles likely to contain explosives and spot suspicious people or activities. Right now, their role at their Ramadi station is limited to searching female visitors of jail inmates. Two days a week they pat down women at another downtown location. They spend much of their work day sequestered in a small windowless room with two couches, their cell phones and each other.

Once the three made up their minds, they went to neighbors, knocked on doors and tried to persuade others to join. They ended up as a group of 14.

Kadmia, who has two sons and three daughters, two of whom also joined the force, decided to make uniforms for the women. She altered the men’s long-sleeved light-blue shirts — making them fuller and longer — with an Iraqi police patch on the right sleeve. Skirts are ankle-length, slim, black or dark blue. They provided their own long black or light-blue headscarves.

The women’s pay is equal to men’s, starting at about 785,000 dinars a month. In Ramadi, rent averages about 100,000 dinars or about $80 a month; feeding a family costs about 250,000 dinars or about $200 a month.