"Letting Women Reach Women in Afghan War"

I read an article by Elisabeth Bumiller entitled “Letting Women Reach Women in Afghan War”, that discusses the United States newest team going out to aid in the effort in Afghanistan. What is special about this new team is that these are “female engagement teams”, solely comprised of female marines. These marines had to take “cultural awareness” class in order to learn how to communicate with the villagers in Afghanistan. They were also told that they have to pull their pony tails through their helmets in order to make it visibly clear that they are female marines. The marines know that Afghan women are culturally off limit to outside males. The female marines will accompany the males on their patrols meeting with Afghan women to assess their need for aid and gather intelligence. General Stanley A. McChrystal started this campaign in order to win the hearts and minds of the Afghan people. They want to gain the trust of the people, and they have only been talking to the men. They needed this team in order to also communicate with the other half of the Afghan population. “A team is to arrive in a village, get permission from the male elder to speak with the women, settle into a compound, hand out school supplies and medicine, drink tea, make conversation and, ideally, get information about the village, local grievances and the Taliban.”

The article makes the point that this new team shows how much things have changed in the 9 years that the United States has been in Afghanistan. The military has changed its fighting tactics as well as the gender roles within the ranks. Although women are still not allowed to be in certain positions, they are being used for more important roles and accompany men on dangerous missions. Women in these teams said they weren’t looking for combat positions; they just wanted to get off of base and be used for more than just searching women at checkpoints or being cooks or engineers. Part of their cultural awareness when engaging with the Afghan women includes them wearing scarves on their heads as a sign of respect if they decide they feel safe enough to take their helmets off. The troops hope that by gaining the trust of the Afghan women that overall the men and women of Afghanistan will be less suspicious of the American troops. The marines are apprehensive to start these new missions, but hope with all the right training that they will be prepared for whatever comes their way.

After reading this article I am curious about how these new teams will work out and if there is a visible difference from before there were these female outreach teams compared to after. I really hope that with these teams and through other efforts that the American troops will be able to gain the trust of the Afghan citizens. I have never really been interested in the effort overseas, because it didn’t seem like we were getting anywhere in the War on Terror. I normally would pass over any type of article on the war, but for once this article grabbed my attention and held it while I was reading. I also think it is really awesome that women in the armed forces, in this case the Marines, are getting increasingly important positions. After reading this article, whatever rules there are in place against women in front line combat does not seem like that big of a deal. These women said that that wasn’t there main desire being a part of the military. They want to do important work and be knowledgeable enough to handle weapons and defend themselves in crisis situations, but they do not necessarily want to be on the front line. I do think that it would be nice to change those rules though to create general equality as well as to open up the opportunity to women who meet front line combat standards. This article was very interesting on all aspects.