Iraqi policewomen once again armed

[RamboLiberal]

Source: LA Times

Police officials said today they had rescinded an order requiring all policewomen to turn in their weapons that had angered women's activists and U.S. officials trying to bring females into the security forces.

A spokesman for the Interior Ministry, which oversees police, said the order was revoked after objections were raised both within the ministry and from outside. A memo dated Jan. 17 said the ministry had "reconsidered" and "decided to return all the pistols" to the policewomen.

Col. Saddoun Abulollah said few policewomen had abided by the order in the first place, but that all who did had their weapons given back to them. He described their number as "a handful" of the roughly 1,000 women who have qualified as policewomen since U.S. forces introduced female recruitment efforts in late 2003.

Abulollah said the order came about because some policewomen were either giving their officially assigned Glock pistols to male relatives or selling them.

The order was quietly issued Nov. 14 without an announcement by the ministry, but it became public knowledge after a Los Angeles Times report. Female police officers interviewed at that time disputed the claim that women were misusing their weapons and said that by taking their guns away, the ministry was continuing an effort to force women into administrative jobs and deny them the same opportunities as men.


Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraq1feb01,0,3154065.story

[Mnemosyne]

1. The way too many in our military have acted, I imagine these women are relieved to

have a weapon to better defend themselves again.

Was defending themselves the "misuse" of weapons spoken about? Dammit that I even have to think of such a question!