A few outlets today picked up a report by Muneeza Naqvi of the AP on the imminent departure for Liberia of a contingent of 105 Indian women police officers (Thanks, tipster kit-and-kumari!). This is the first-ever United Nations all-female peacekeeping contingent, another achievement in the lengthy record of service that India, Pakistan and Bangladesh have contributed to UN peacekeeping missions for decades.
Liberia has already benefited from a strong woman’s touch: the democratically elected president, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, is Africa’s first female elected head of state, and is considered to be doing quite a good job thus far dealing with some pretty intractable problems, like mass unemployment, a completely collapsed national infrastructure, and widespread trauma from the civil war. Now, some strong Indian sisters are going to be lending a hand as well:
There, they will likely be called on to train Liberia’s national police, help conduct local elections or assist with prison security as the West African country struggles to recover from years of civil war. ..
However, this is the first all-female peacekeeping team, and participants have said it would have unique advantages in conflict zones.
“Women police are seen to be much less threatening, although they can be just as tough as men. But in a conflict situation, they are more approachable and it makes women and children feel safer,” Seema Dhundia, a unit commander, said recently.
This news deserves more coverage. Here in the US though, aside from a few papers running the wire report, all we have is some ignorant and vulgar comments from… Rush Limbaugh. Here’s what America heard on talk radio today:
Well, it was on this program, if you listen to this program, by the way, you are on the cutting edge. It was a long time ago, it had to be the early nineties, during the discussions of women in combat in the military, that we came up with the unique idea of the All-American First Cavalry Amazon Battalion, a bunch of combat ready females on PMS, way to go, great tactic. … Well, the United Nations has ripped me off.
After reading part of the wire story, he continued:
Okay, well, interesting theory, keep an eye. Make a note. Keep an eye on Liberia. Let’s just see if women as peacekeepers are more approachable by women and children. You know, a lot of UN peacekeeping forces engage in rape and child rape, particularly in Africa. WeÂ’ll see if there’s any change in that behavior here with the all-babe police force.
I’m in the mood for a lathi-charge right about now.
From the Chickenhawk database
awww… you make me blush with you public gratitude. just happy to help the cause.
This is real empowerment of women. I like it.
Limbaugh makes a good point 🙂
Still, goes to show that the US – and Europe – are not flag bearers of ‘liberal’ thinking, action, or media. Women’s political empowerment and gender balance at work are better in Asia (and ex-communist states). Why else would Segolene Royal/Hillary Clinton be so special?
as a political junkie, i love the chickenhawk argument. it’s one of the most cutting insults in modern political history. its emotional appeal is almost too much to bear. It’s absolutely emasculating. of course, intellectually, it doesn’t go too far–especially if one believes in a civilian controlled military, or if one believes FDR was a great war leader. i think kerry’s failure to capitalize on it, like the republicans failure to capitalize on clintons sexual harassment, should be a case study in over-playing the emotional card.
emotional appeals, whether positive or negative, should be left more or less unsaid, and allowed to boil underneath the surface. mccain understands this in regards to his own, and his sons, military service. he doesn’t really mention it, thus allowing the press to carry his water for him. kerry couldn’t stop mentioning it; reminding me of on old friend whose 1st words upon meeting a woman were always; “i’m a neurosurgeon”. and he couldn’t understand why he always went home alone.
i second u on that lathi charge.
and i have a ton of “pms” right now…so it’s just the perfect moment.
I think something really interesting to come out of this will be the (likely) difference in statistics on sexual and physical abuse of civilian populations by UN peacekeepers based on a gender breakdown.
On a totally irrelevant note, that chick second from the left looks like she could doesn’t need the lathi to charge…and her sister next to her looks like she could take on Africa any day.
Really good to see images like these, reminds me of why I don’t need to watch the news anymore now that we have blogs. I love a woman in uniform too 🙂
I’m fascinated. I think the fact that this contingent is entirely female is what makes all the difference. Having female officers alongside their male counterparts is not likely to make anything better because Western models of militant policing are inherently masculine and brutally patriarchal. (This may be true for all policing, but IÂ’m not familiar with any non-Western alternatives.) We see that women in policing agencies at all levels simply masculanize themselves (in their approach) – to gain legitimacy with both their colleagues and their charges, and for survival in general. The most infamous examples are the female officers at Abu Gharib and Guantanamo. I guess going to a foreign country on military duty and NOT being a racist sexual abuser is too “girly” and doesnÂ’t get you any props from the boysÂ… might actually get YOU raped.
But an all-female contingent? This might negate the need to masculanize for legitimacy. I donÂ’t have much time to research at the moment, but there are still a lot of variables to consider, like commanders, duties, protocols and interactions with males. IÂ’ll look into this female policing thing a little more when I have time.
Thanks for the post, Siddhartha 🙂
Sid, this news is really old, read about it in September here.
Thanks Kottyam! I deeply apologize to the readers of Sepia Mutiny for giving them stale news. I should have just linked the the insightful comment at the site he/she indicates:
That’s a lot deeper than anything I could have come up with. I express my regret to the Sepia Mutiny readership for wasting their time and direct them to Kottyam’s link for greater insight, delivered months in advance.
Humbly, Siddhartha
no need to apologize siddharta. the indian wire service my publication subscribes to, indo-asian news service, also recently released this news. it’s probably the reason limbaugh addressed the issue just now, too.
F****** hate Limbaugh.
Agree with Shurti, female police officers/military personell feel like they have to over masculinize themselves just to survive and prove themselves worthy. But still I’m amazed and quite happy for our desi women going out there! Hurray!!!
Dweep,
The reason these all-women forces are needed is because these societies (Asian and African) are inherently illiberal. People in these countries have a difficult time approaching those in authority because of the potential for harassment – women have an even harder time. So hard, in fact, that they have had to create all-women police stations here in India. Indian society (the one that I know best) is far worse for women than men.
People who talk about these societies as if they are some sort of progressive paradise need to take a long hard look at reality. Compare how minorities are treated (muslims in India, others elsewhere); compare how women are treated; compare how homosexuals are treated; compare how much power bureaucrats have over individual lives – in every one of these comparisons, Asia and Africa lose to the West.
Who cares if India has had a women prime minister (who, by the way, was a tyrant and a bully) – Indian women have far worse lives than women in the western nations. Political power is a poor proxy for power over your own life. Bangladesh is a grade A example – women lead both major political parties, but I can bet you that life is pretty horrible for women there.
I don’t want to get into a slanging match here, but we Indians have nothing to be satisfied about when it comes to how our society treats women.
Limbaugh isn’t really worth all the time and resources expended to be outraged by him.
Jokes aside, he does make an interesting point about whether female peacekeepers will be more approachable for women and children. I mean, rather than being concerned that a male peacekeeper is just another man with power who will exploit them, maybe they can actually take their problems to these female peacekeepers.
Of course, that assumes that women are naturally more empathetic to other women’s problems, which my experience (at least) has shown is not necessarily true.
An all-female peacekeeping force is also a little sad, when you think about it. Indian society made so little progress in gender equality that the only way women can advance is in a parallel unit with no male competitors, the only way women can be secure is if they ride in “ladies special” buses, etc.
You are the one who thinks this way about women peacekeeping force. Not all Indian women. Nobody is stopping indian women from doing what they want except their moms and sisters and aunties. I don’t know if Indra Nooyi went in “Ladies Special” or not. But I know she became the CEO of Pepsi. I am yet to see a gender equalized nation like US yet to have equal number of women CEOs and presidents. Where are they?. So what is the purpose of sorority houses. I am sure that is also to ensure women can advance in a parallel unit. Maybe we can have unisex bathrooms also to ensure that women are not unequal to men.
He’s worth it. He’s very powerful and serious, despite the jokes. So is D’Souza for that matter. I’ve often expressed opinions in line with theirs on this site and people think I’m joking, or even worse, trolling…when I’m really dead ass serious.
One of the reasons the right ascended in the 70’s and 80’s is b/c the left never took them seriously enough to engage. Reagan was a joke and the dems were just dying to run against him. Then he won and the next thing you know that which was considered so radical became mainstream.
So ignore at your own peril.
Nobody is stopping indian women from doing what they want except their moms and sisters and aunties.
Yes, I’m almost certain that their dads, brothers, and uncles have nothing to do with it. There is a huge difference between what society (not government) appears to sanction, and what it actually sanctions. You cannot legislate away social discrimination. For every female CEO in India, there are five women being repressed in some way, and not just by other women either.
By the way, I don’t limit these comments to Indian society either. The western world is just as bad, and because gender discrimination is so “in the closet” in the US (for example), it is actually more invidious.
So ignore at your own peril.
I don’t feel that I’m imperiled by ignoring Limbaugh’s various pronouncements any more than others are imperiled by ignoring the pronouncements of Al Franken. Any serious substantive content in Limbaugh’s statements is lost, because of the manner in which he chooses to deliver them.
There are plenty of other commentators whose message is delivered with more depth and less vitriol. So I’ll just stick to ignoring loudmouths like Limbaugh, thankyouverymuch.
Women in the police force and the military are not neccessarily “over-masculizing”. Rather, they are in positions which require a higher level of testosterone than corporate office jobs or whatever.
A high level of physical fitness is needed in these professions and exercise increases testosterone levels. There is no escaping that.
Ahhh, now there’s the late-morning pick me up I was looking for 🙂
Manju, that was just…PRICELESS…
i’m off now to ignore at my own peril…
I’ve got mixed feelings on this one.
On one hand, it is good to see women take a fair share of peacekeeping duties. On the other hand, depending on where they’re deployed (and how) can be either ineffective, simply a PR stunt, or effective, or a total disaster.
I’m more worried about such a contingent being targeted for specifically being all female in a place as crazy as Liberia, where women aren’t really considered high up in the respect chain. A lot depends on how said peacekeepers are deployed and the ROE given to such unit. They better be able to shoot and call heavy backup when necessary, else, they’re stuck between a rock and a hard place.
GD – it was my impression that Liberia was pretty calm now. Not as calm as Sierra Leone next door, but pretty stable. I’d have to check first, but I’d have no objection to going myself or having my sister go there (although not as a cop, she’s not built for the task).
Ennis – you maybe right, haven’t checked up on the latest in Liberia recently.
Regardless of what the current situation is, my concerns still stand from a larger, general point of view about all female units going into hot zones. There is much I (we) don’t know here of how said units are used on a tactical level.
Even though it is good to see women taking matters into their hands, Liberia for one is not exactly a place for glory for any soldier including man. Not long ago, there was voilence to the core. Some french civilian women were raped on their way to the airport. I am sure the situation might be better now. But back then none of the UN peace keepers had a dominance over the rebels. The only soldiers who really controlled the rebels and were feared by them were the mercerneries from the company executive outcomes. They did a splendid job removed the rebels right out of their nest until the UN intervened and banned them. These were soldiers who came from special forces all over the world. Liberia definitley requires exceptional skill as a soldier to survive let alone police it. If the prblem was population appeasement only, then the problem would have been solved long back. The rebels want power do does the gvt. And there is no space for apeasement here. Yes the women contingent can be used for social programs but crowd control and teaching policing would require some field work which can be extremely dangerous. This is not india, where very few people with guns have to be worried about. We are talking of rebels from ages 8 to 50 atleast all of them yeilding ak 47s. 105 women cannot really hope to control all that. this is madness. The problem is to make sure the govt forces are in a postion to control areas for policing, then start all the other programs. Liberia is defintely not yet ready for a women contingent.