WUNRN
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Yemeni
Women Sign Up to Fight Terror |
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Afrah pulls back her
camouflage jacket to show me the pistol strapped to her belt. Her military uniform is specially designed
to meet Islamic principles of modesty, with a long, loose tunic and long
sleeves. She travelled to work this morning wearing
a veil and a full-length black balto, an all-encompassing cloak which is
traditional dress for women in Yemen. But now she is dressed in fatigues, heavy
black boots and shades. Afrah, 23, is one of 20 women recruited to
join Yemen's elite counter-terrorism unit (CTU) last summer. Only 13 recruits have stayed the course,
after a rigorous training programme that has taught them how to enter a house
by force, drive a Hummer military vehicle and shoot. Yahya Saleh, chief of staff of Yemen's
Central Security Forces, sponsored the creation of the women's unit and
supervises the CTU. He says the women's main purpose is to
follow their male colleagues on house raids and search any women they
encounter. "Male terrorists often disguise
themselves as women in order to evade detection and arrest, but Yemen's
strict social code means that women suspects cannot be touched by the men on
the unit," he explains. Yemen's Political Security Organisation
runs a separate team of women, trained to gather and assess intelligence, but
Afrah and her colleagues in the CTU are the only women to put themselves at the
sharp end of Yemeni counter-terrorism. "At the beginning, we were
afraid," she says, "but now we're getting used to our job." Family values The CTU is barracked in a special compound
at the Central Security Forces headquarters in Yemen's capital, Sanaa. The
grounds are bristling with uniformed men carrying AK-47s. Access is tightly
restricted. The women are housed separately from the
men but they study and take part in training exercises alongside their male
counterparts.
As part of the programme,
they learn first aid and study English on-site at the Frances Guy Academy -
named after a former British ambassador. Afrah, Saba and sisters Kfaih and Faten are
resting in the locker rooms during their lunch-break. All in their early 20s, they were recruited
from the military police. Nine of their peers are away studying in
the United States for additional training, but this group of four were
refused permission to travel by their relatives. Yemen is an extremely conservative society,
where a woman's honour reflects on her whole family. Leaving the country without a chaperone was
a step too far for worried parents who had already struggled to accept their
daughters' employment in the police force. "At the beginning, my family was
divided about my new job," says Saba. "My father opposed me but my mother
supported me. Gradually, my mum convinced him that we have separate rooms
from the men, and that we're not mingling with them unsupervised. Now he
accepts my choice." Afrar agrees she is a pioneer who is
"challenging people's ideas about what is possible for women in
Yemen". In a country where unemployment runs at 40%,
these women are evidently proud of their jobs and pleased to take a regular
income home to their families. |
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At
the beginning, my family was divided about my new job. My father opposed me
but my mother supported me. Gradually, my mum convinced him 
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