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Iraqi women volunteer for checkpoint duties

  • Published
  • By Army Pfc. Amanda Tucker
  • 3rd Sustainment Command (Expeditionary)
JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq --  Insurgents are taking advantage of Soldiers who are reluctant to search females by dressing as women to get through checkpoints. They're also recruiting more women as suicide bombers, who killed more than 65 people in Baghdad July 22.

Now, Iraqi women are stepping forward to help solve this problem.

"Having females searching Iraqis is a good thing," said Col. Hussein Al-Aalan, the Balad District director of police. "Searching females is something that males can't do."

Manar Abdul Mutaleib, the only female member of the Balad City Council, saw a story on TV about a female suicide bomber who blew herself up in a market. Ms. Mutaleib suggested the council hire Iraqi females for checkpoints.

"My mission is to find the females a job, because right now, in my association, I have more than 950 without any jobs," Ms. Mutaleib said.

More than 50 Iraqi women volunteered to help at the Balad City checkpoints. The city council recruited women who had lost their Iraqi police husbands to insurgents so that the women could take better care of their families.

Currently, about 10 women are trained and capable of searching females at checkpoints, said Army Staff Sgt. Iris Munoz, a Phoenix native and a squad leader for the 164th Military Police Company based at Fort Richardson, Alaska.

Soldiers in the 164th MP Company organized and conducted an eight-hour class at a local police station to teach the female Iraqis how to properly search another female. The class covered all of the search methods and provided hands-on training to ensure they're checking everything, said Army Cpl. Jamie Brown, an MP team leader for the 164th MP Company and a native of Colorado Springs, Colo.

"They were really eager to learn and always had a lot of questions to ask about what to do in certain situations," said Army Pfc. Leilani Carroll, a gunner for the 164th MP Company and San Antonio native. "Having the females searching keeps Balad (City) safe."

"Sergeant Munoz and her squad really bent over backwards to get these women trained and out to the checkpoints and feel like they're part of the team," said Army Capt. Matthew Norris, commander for the 164th MP Company and a Phoenix native. "They freely talk to her, they call her by her first name -- that shows the trust and how they feel about what we're doing here."

Training will be a continuous process, Sergeant Munoz said.

"Teaching them one class is just the beginning," he added.