By Igor G. Barbero, IANS/EFE,
Abbottabad (Pakistan) : Amid shouts of “Allah Hu” of hundreds of men cadets, a group of 38 women does stretches, push-ups and a series of other exercises in their new dark green tracksuits, like that of the national flag, on the outskirts of the city of Abbottabad, in the north of Pakistan.
Having had good education and fulfilled their dream of entering the most powerful institution in Pakistan, the army, the first few batches of women officers of the Military Academy also hope to hold arms soon and defend the country on its frontiers.
They are the seventh batch of women to arrive at the prestigious Military Academy of Kakul, where around 200 have graduated since the ex-president and former chief of Pakistan Army Gen. Pervez Musharraf decided towards the end of 2006 to let women join the army as officers. And the motivation keeps growing.
“It has been a successful experience. The number of cadets has increased with time and so has that of the applications. We have passed from a hundred (four years ago) to 2,350 currently,” General Rahil Sharif, in charge of the centre established decades ago by the British, told the Spanish news agency EFE.
Ever since the formation of the country in 1947, women have been a part of the medical department of the armed forces in which today there are more than 1,000 women including a doctor who is a general.
But the new generation of officers not only goes beyond this field and joins others like public relations, teaching or legal services, but it is also more ambitious.
“It will take some time, but there will be a future when women will take up arms. The ones coming here are ever enthusiastic and inquisitive; they want information. In this sense I think there is a possibility” of taking part in operations, Captain Huma Khan assures EFE, dressed in the traditional khaki sari of the officers.
One of her superiors, Col. Nadim Rehmatullah, thinks that the eventual participation in combat will depend only on their “motivation” and “the progress of their leadership capabilities”, one of the factors that he says is seen in the first batches of the women officers coming from Kakul.
Nevertheless, Rehmatullah states that this step is quite complicated as of now because there is still a gap in the training of scores of women compared to those of men, something that is partly due to the different paths that men and women follow to get into the academy.
While the men join Kakul between 18 and 20 years of age to start a course of four semesters, which includes physical training, education and military doctrine, the women do so around the age of 24, after completing their university education.
Besides, their stay at the centre is limited to six months during which the “emphasis” is on physical training.
“Our women have a distinct culture. They are not in the habit of swimming or going around in jeans like in the West. They hardly do any sports (in the university) during years and their condition is worsening. There is a gap,” Rehmatullah said to EFE, citing as an example the scores of speed per mile which is 9 minutes 30 seconds for the women and six minutes for the men.
But the current chief of the army, Ashfaq Pervez Kiyani, “has a vision” for women in the military force, according to Rehmatullah, who went on to say that they are considered a key factor in the fields of digitalization and informatics.
In fact, at the Rawalpindi headquarters of the branch of Inter Services Public Relations that deals with the investigation and analysis of intelligence sources, nine out of 20 workers are women.
“Just being able to enter (the military academy) is an experience that we just can’t forget. It is a source of inspiration and there are no limits for us,” Fozia Parveen told EFE.
Parveen predicts that many of the recently graduated women, who are captains like her today, will one day advance in rank and perhaps become a general, for “there have been examples”.
Apart from the Military Academy, in the last decade the Pakistani Navy has also opened its doors to women, with more than 100 officers currently, as well as the Air Force, whose ranks have nearly a dozen graduated women fighter pilots, though they still do not take part in military operations.