Pakistan women excel in elite anti-terrorist sky-marshal unit
KARACHI, Pakistan — An elite force of karate-kicking anti-terrorist fighters will begin riding on domestic Pakistani passenger jets this month. The new sky marshals are gaining attention in Pakistan's conservative Islamic society for their skills and because they include nine women.
The first women sky marshals last month completed a 10-week course in hand-to-hand combat so grueling that some of their 49 male classmates dropped out. Only one woman failed to finish because she broke her wrist.
The women said they're ready to keep Pakistan safe from terrorist attacks. But they also see themselves as making inroads in a society where women are widely seen as separate — and inferior — to men.
"Passing this tough training proves that Pakistani women have the potential to show their skills in all fields that are considered the domain of men," said one woman graduate, Asma Khan, 22.
Pakistan's first sky marshals — all male — began work after the 1981 hijacking of a Pakistan International Airlines jet. Those first marshals were armed and eventually had to be taken off commercial jets after other countries protested.
However, after the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, the sky-marshal program — which is part of the national airport police — was revived, this time unarmed.
The first recruits finished a martial-arts course taught by Pakistani army instructors July 22 and will begin flying in mid-August. Initially, they will be limited to domestic flights, but if the program is successful, officials say the sky marshals may start flying internationally.
The instructors said Khan and the other women were held to the same rigorous standards as men during the training.
"This training is so tough that male recruits often quit, but the women trainees proved their will and determination and showed amazing courage," said Maj. Hamid Raza, who led the army trainers.
Raza said the two top finishers in the course were women. They were awarded the airport-security force's "Sword of Honor," the first women to receive the award.
They did so well that 10 more women will be included in the next batch of 70 sky marshals, Raza said.
Before the program was revived, female members of the airport police had been limited to less dangerous tasks, such as operating passenger X-ray machines and doing body searches of female passengers. None had gone through a full combat-training course alongside men.
Neither have women in Pakistan's armed forces, Raza said.
"For the first time, and in an Islamic country, women have been trained equally as men," Raza said.
Raza said the decision to train women brought no resistance within the armed forces or the national airport police. He said it made sense because would-be hijackers would not expect to confront female sky marshals.
Unarmed sky marshals of either gender would not stand out among the passengers because highly trained terrorists would likely spot anyone trying to conceal a weapon, said Airport Security Force chief Brig. Javed Sattar.
The sight of uniformed women marching alongside men marks a big change for Pakistan's women, many of whom live in neighborhoods where veiled faces are the norm and appearing in public with men other than husbands or close relatives is frowned upon.
Khan, the newly graduated sky marshal, said the atmosphere during training was friendly and supportive. Men didn't mock the women or otherwise try to hinder them, she said.
She said all Pakistani women should be given similar combat training — not to thwart terrorists, but the harassment and abuse she said some women still face.