- BAGHDAD (Reuters) -- Whipping
out her handgun and slamming a magazine into the grip, 20-year-old Hadeel
Alwan can't wait to start catching criminals.
-
- "My biggest wish is to destroy terrorism,"
said Alwan, one of the youngest of Iraq's new women police recruits. "I
want to go out on the streets and do everything a man does."
-
- Battling a raging insurgency and an explosion of violent
crime since the fall of Saddam Hussein, Iraq has started hiring women police
officers for the first time in decades.
-
- Like the men, they face the risk of suicide car bombs,
attacks by heavily armed militants on police stations and death threats
for cooperating with U.S.-trained forces.
-
- But they must also tackle prejudice from more conservative
Iraqis who think police work is man's work, a throwback to years of male
domination of the security services under Saddam.
-
- "Some of my friends make fun of me," said Alwan.
"They ask me if I'm afraid, and they tell me it's not a woman's job,"
she said, speaking after a practice session with her Glock 19 pistol at
Baghdad's police academy.
-
- "I can't get into a debate with them, because they've
got a different mindset."
-
- As recruits fired pistols at a range, a series of blasts
echoed across Baghdad -- a reminder of the bombings and other attacks that
have killed at least 800 police officers over the past year.
-
- Iraq may be one of the most dangerous places for crime
fighters, but Alwan, who is not married, said her relatives encouraged
her to pursue her dream despite their fears.
-
- "They worry about me, especially when they hear
about explosions," she said.
-
- U.S. army trainers say the women can feel intimidated
by male instructors, but often turn out to be as tough as the men when
it comes to using truncheons and restraining suspects.
-
- "Next week we have defensive tactics. We teach them
how to use the handcuffs and batons," said U.S. Army Sgt. Carmecia
Rodriguez, 22, from Augusta, Georgia. "That'll get interesting."
-
- OPEN MINDED
-
- Iraq has not hired women recruits since the force experimented
with the idea in the 1960s, according to senior officers, but that changed
with the fall of Saddam.
-
- The U.S.-led administration, which handed powers to an
interim Iraqi government on June 28, encouraged the police to start employing
women when it began training the force, notorious for corruption and human
rights abuses under Saddam.
-
- About 115 women recruits have passed through the academy
since U.S. forces took control of training after last year's invasion,
keeping their 1,200 male counterparts on their toes.
-
- "They shoot better than some of the guys,"
said U.S. Army Spc. David Dunn, 26, from Buffalo, New York.
-
- "A lot of the females are kind of intimidated by
the weapon, so they're more open minded to listening to what we've got
to say," he said, after teaching a handgun class.
-
- Women have traditionally played a more prominent role
in Iraq's work force than in many more conservative Muslim cultures, but
many women say they feel under more pressure to keep a low profile since
the invasion.
-
- Crime is much worse now that Saddam's oppressive rule
is over, while a growth in the kind of Islamic radicalism he kept in check
has left many women exposed to the risk of harassment if they venture out
unaccompanied by a man.
-
- Preparing to impose law and order on the streets of Baghdad,
women recruits brush such worries aside.
-
- They learn the same skills as men during the eight-week
basic training course, which has been kept brief so Iraq can deploy officers
as fast as possible to combat the insurgency.
-
- Clad in the same kind of light blue shirts and dark blue
trousers worn by Iraq's male police recruits, the women do nevertheless
enjoy some differences in dress. Some wear blue headscarves instead of
regulation baseball caps.
-
- GUNFIGHTS
-
- Like the men, many women have signed up for the salary
-- about $140 a month -- seizing a chance to provide for their families
in an economy ravaged by war and years of sanctions.
-
- "Iraqi women are known for being strong," said
Batool Mohammed-Sayid, 35, whose husband was killed in the 1991 Gulf War
by a U.S. missile, leaving her to provide for five children.
-
- "I can go back home, cook, clean and spend time
with my family, and I won't feel tired if I come back here tomorrow."
-
- Privately, top police officers say it would be difficult
to deploy women to the sharp end of operations given conservative attitudes
among some Iraqi men, although all police officers in Iraq face the risk
of attack.
-
- "In the civilized world, there are always female
police officers," said Brig. Hussein Mehdi Juma, director of the police
academy. "They go out on patrol, but we don't think it's suitable
for them to get involved in gunfights."
-
- For now, ambitious women officers like 25-year-old Suad
Hussein will have to be content with the safer side of duty.
-
- "I wish I was going out on the streets, but for
the moment I've been left in the courtroom," she said.
-
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