First women join Palestinian commando unit

(7 Apr 2014) LEADIN: Twenty-two Palestinian women have become trailblazers by joining the all-male Palestinian Presidential Guard. The female officers will provide protection as well as take part in special operations. STORYLINE: It looks like something straight out of a movie. These women, dressed in combat fatigues and headscarves, are set to become the first female members of the Presidential Guards, a Palestinian elite force of 2,600 men. During this drill demonstration of their skills, the recruits are bundling a “VIP“ into a car after a shooting attack. Away from the bullets and flak jackets, there’s also lots of training going on in the classroom. Nour Dar Omar is a Presidential Guards Captain. She says the women will be assigned to protecting female dignitaries or the wives of foreign leaders visiting the West Bank, among other responsibilities. “If we have officials visiting and women coming from abroad, they always request women to be present for their own protection,“ explains Dar Omar. “And the girls also work in all others fields, they’re not limited to a specific task. They work like their fellow male officers.“ The inclusion of women is the result of gradual changes in the West Bank in recent years. Some gender barriers have fallen, with a few women assuming posts as mayors, judges and Cabinet ministers or starting their own businesses. At the same time, unemployment is on the rise, and families are more open to women entering non-traditional jobs if it means another pay cheque. Women make up just 3 percent of 30,000 members of the Palestinian police and other security agencies in the West Bank, but there’s a push to recruit more, say officials. The female Presidential Guards recruits were picked from last year’s graduating class of Independence University, a four-year security academy in Jericho that trains future officers. “I joined the division of the presidential guard because it was my dream,“ says female recruit Kurum Saad. “My ambition is to work here, not to work in an office or as a teacher. I didn’t want any of the opportunities that were presented to me like working as a dentist or a teacher. My dream wasn’t that. I wanted to be in the real military like I’m training now for the presidential guard.“ Saad is convinced that the female presidential guard officers are changing Palestinian society. “My job and especially this group has brought a big change for the girls here and a lot of people, who had an old way of thinking such as ’girls can only stay home’ or ’only be a teacher or be hidden at home.’ What we’re doing here has changed the way people think in all of Palestine,“ she says. Here, Saad and the others in her group are showing the media what they’ve learned during training. They’re abseiling down a six-storey tower in pairs. And some of the group, including non-swimmers, are asked to jump into a pool as a show of courage. They dive in wearing full uniform, including boots. The guards are performing their drills at the walled Presidential Guards training complex in Jericho, having been called back from a break for the occasion. “My work in the presidential guard is not maybe, it is for sure changing a lot in society. Women are considered half of the society. Of course we will make a change as men make a change,“ says Nibal Barahmeh, one of the female officers. Ghassan Nimer, Palestinian Presidential Guard Colonel, says they don’t want women to be “decorations“ in an office. The Presidential Guards were established under the late Yasser Arafat, the globe-trotting Palestinian leader. Find out more about AP Archive: Twitter: Facebook: ​​ Instagram: You can license this story through AP Archive: