.Montreal cop says she's up to challenge of working in Afghanistan
KANDAHAR CITY, Afghanistan — Const. Annie, as she asked to be called for security reasons, is unique.
The 44-year-old Montrealer is the only foreign policewoman teaching policing skills in the most conservative corner of an extremely traditional society where women have few rights and many men regard women as chattel.
It is a job that last week took Annie to a dusty firing range in Kandahar City where she instructed several Afghan policewomen in how to shoot a 9-mm Smith & Wesson pistol similar to the one she uses at home.
"As a policewoman, I want to help other women and Afghanistan is a big challenge," Annie said as she sat in the mess hall of a small army base in the provincial capital where she lives among Canadian and American troops and male Canadian police officers who, like her, serve as police mentors.
Annie downplayed the courage she has shown by volunteering to spend nine months at the epicentre of the war against the Taliban, insisting that it was nothing when compared to the every day bravery of the 10 Afghan policewomen she instructs.
For both men and women, policing is a hugely dangerous business in Afghanistan. However, only policewomen have been specifically targeted by the insurgency because of their gender.
Lieut. Malalai Kakar was the highest ranking policewomen in Kandahar when she was assassinated by the Taliban in 2008. Another policewoman was killed in Herat and two more were killed in Ghazni after being accused of immorality. Small wonder, then, that two policewomen fled Kandahar after receiving death threats.
The perils are such that Afghan policewomen seldom tell anybody outside their immediate families what it is that they do. To preserve their anonymity they cloak themselves from head-to-toe in burkas and are brought to and from work in pickup trucks every day by male colleagues. The hope is that nobody can tell whether they are detainees or policewomen. Once inside the police station they can safely take off their burkas .
"I ask them: Why do this when you are in so much danger?" Annie said. "Some tell me they want to feed their children. Others do it because they are concerned about their country."
As of last year, about 550 women were serving as police officers, which is up from about 180 in 2005, according to data compiled by Canadian policing expert Tonita Murray, who assists Afghanistan's Interior Ministry. It was in the south, where there were still only 29 policewomen last year, that Murray concluded policewomen were the most at risk of violence.
Annie's official remit in Kandahar is gender issues, but it is a broad mandate. As well as assisting other police and military mentors to teach courses in such core subjects as first aid and how to conduct cordons and searches and ask questions, she has suggested to those whom she mentors that they be more aggressive when shouting orders such as " 'Drop your weapons!' " so that those they confront will take them more seriously.
"They all want to tell their stories and I listen to them because I want to understand their lives better in order to be a better mentor," Annie said of the long hours she spends chatting with her Afghan female colleagues. "I ask them more about their husbands and kids and less about work because they are more interested in talking about women's things.
"Some are married. One is 34 years old and has 14 kids. Her husband is 70 years old. That's part of the culture. If you live in a society, you understand the limits."
The policewomen who Annie works with are often called out to search the rooms in compounds where women are sequestered away from men. Their services are required because such segregation, which is usual here, can provide insurgents with a convenient way to avoid detection by police.
"Stuff that they want to hide is often put in the room with the women and some of the men sometimes try to hide under burkas," she said.
This is a life very far removed from the Eastern Townships where Annie grew up or the 13 years she has spent driving a patrol car or working at a detention centre before she was recruited by the Montreal force's Bureau des Missions to join a foreign mentoring program run by the RCMP that seeks Mounties and other volunteers from municipal police forces from across Canada.
"I was interested in Haiti, Sudan or Kosovo, but they gave me Afghanistan," she said, laughing. "I had not asked for Afghanistan because I did not think that they were able to utilize women here."
Annie arrived from Canada with what she called "cultural baggage." This has resulted in some surprises. One of them has been how cordially she has been received by male Afghan police officers.
"I never feel a difference with their policemen because I am a woman," she said. "At the police sub-stations, I have been invited alone at night to have tea with the commander. At other times, I have been invited to have tea and to sit down beside the colonel or the chief of security."
Asked what was the biggest difference between police work here and in Canada, Annie only half-jokingly answered "70 pounds." That is the weight of the robust body armour, Kevlar helmet and ammunition that Annie's 137-pound frame must lug around "outside the wire." To be able to handle this heavy load, she trained at home by doing deep squats in scuba gear weighted with lead.
"As I've told my boss back in Montreal, this is the experience of a lifetime. I am living a dream and I have no regrets about having come," Annie said with an enthusiasm that was infectious.
"I have talked to a few policewomen in Montreal who have told me that they want to do this, too, and that I am their model. So maybe I will light the flame for others to follow."
VancouverSun
The 44-year-old Montrealer is the only foreign policewoman teaching policing skills in the most conservative corner of an extremely traditional society where women have few rights and many men regard women as chattel.
It is a job that last week took Annie to a dusty firing range in Kandahar City where she instructed several Afghan policewomen in how to shoot a 9-mm Smith & Wesson pistol similar to the one she uses at home.
"As a policewoman, I want to help other women and Afghanistan is a big challenge," Annie said as she sat in the mess hall of a small army base in the provincial capital where she lives among Canadian and American troops and male Canadian police officers who, like her, serve as police mentors.
Annie downplayed the courage she has shown by volunteering to spend nine months at the epicentre of the war against the Taliban, insisting that it was nothing when compared to the every day bravery of the 10 Afghan policewomen she instructs.
For both men and women, policing is a hugely dangerous business in Afghanistan. However, only policewomen have been specifically targeted by the insurgency because of their gender.
Lieut. Malalai Kakar was the highest ranking policewomen in Kandahar when she was assassinated by the Taliban in 2008. Another policewoman was killed in Herat and two more were killed in Ghazni after being accused of immorality. Small wonder, then, that two policewomen fled Kandahar after receiving death threats.
The perils are such that Afghan policewomen seldom tell anybody outside their immediate families what it is that they do. To preserve their anonymity they cloak themselves from head-to-toe in burkas and are brought to and from work in pickup trucks every day by male colleagues. The hope is that nobody can tell whether they are detainees or policewomen. Once inside the police station they can safely take off their burkas .
"I ask them: Why do this when you are in so much danger?" Annie said. "Some tell me they want to feed their children. Others do it because they are concerned about their country."
As of last year, about 550 women were serving as police officers, which is up from about 180 in 2005, according to data compiled by Canadian policing expert Tonita Murray, who assists Afghanistan's Interior Ministry. It was in the south, where there were still only 29 policewomen last year, that Murray concluded policewomen were the most at risk of violence.
Annie's official remit in Kandahar is gender issues, but it is a broad mandate. As well as assisting other police and military mentors to teach courses in such core subjects as first aid and how to conduct cordons and searches and ask questions, she has suggested to those whom she mentors that they be more aggressive when shouting orders such as " 'Drop your weapons!' " so that those they confront will take them more seriously.
"They all want to tell their stories and I listen to them because I want to understand their lives better in order to be a better mentor," Annie said of the long hours she spends chatting with her Afghan female colleagues. "I ask them more about their husbands and kids and less about work because they are more interested in talking about women's things.
"Some are married. One is 34 years old and has 14 kids. Her husband is 70 years old. That's part of the culture. If you live in a society, you understand the limits."
The policewomen who Annie works with are often called out to search the rooms in compounds where women are sequestered away from men. Their services are required because such segregation, which is usual here, can provide insurgents with a convenient way to avoid detection by police.
"Stuff that they want to hide is often put in the room with the women and some of the men sometimes try to hide under burkas," she said.
This is a life very far removed from the Eastern Townships where Annie grew up or the 13 years she has spent driving a patrol car or working at a detention centre before she was recruited by the Montreal force's Bureau des Missions to join a foreign mentoring program run by the RCMP that seeks Mounties and other volunteers from municipal police forces from across Canada.
"I was interested in Haiti, Sudan or Kosovo, but they gave me Afghanistan," she said, laughing. "I had not asked for Afghanistan because I did not think that they were able to utilize women here."
Annie arrived from Canada with what she called "cultural baggage." This has resulted in some surprises. One of them has been how cordially she has been received by male Afghan police officers.
"I never feel a difference with their policemen because I am a woman," she said. "At the police sub-stations, I have been invited alone at night to have tea with the commander. At other times, I have been invited to have tea and to sit down beside the colonel or the chief of security."
Asked what was the biggest difference between police work here and in Canada, Annie only half-jokingly answered "70 pounds." That is the weight of the robust body armour, Kevlar helmet and ammunition that Annie's 137-pound frame must lug around "outside the wire." To be able to handle this heavy load, she trained at home by doing deep squats in scuba gear weighted with lead.
"As I've told my boss back in Montreal, this is the experience of a lifetime. I am living a dream and I have no regrets about having come," Annie said with an enthusiasm that was infectious.
"I have talked to a few policewomen in Montreal who have told me that they want to do this, too, and that I am their model. So maybe I will light the flame for others to follow."
VancouverSun
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