Female Police Given Ranks Equal to Men
The Police Academy attracted 16 women with university degrees – HOOOO-AHHH! I imagine these women are going to shake things up a little – in a good way – around police headquarters. Mabruk, mabruk, Kuwait.
Women officers given rank equally to men
Staff Writer – from Al Watan
KUWAIT: An Amiri decree was issued requiring female police officers to be put on equal footing with their male counterparts in terms of rank. Accordingly, Minister of Interior Sheikh Jaber AlـKhaled AlـSabah issued an executive order to rank women police officers according to the same requirements as given to male officers.
The first batch of women police now includes 16 Lieutenants, all of which have university degrees, eight Warrant Officers, all holding technical diplomas, and three Sergeants who have secondary school certificates.
Last updated on Friday 27/3/2009
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respect very good for the country, are the male officers also with university degrees?
oo I want to quit what I’m doing and join the force. I’d cuff any woman who pleases my senses and do things that are too inappropriate to be typed here.
like the men are getting respect?!
If they were really meant to cover areas where women are required, then there was really no need to parade them in public for all to see this way in a forcefully manly manner.
Certainly, the ceremony was a bad sign of things to come…
Depending on the positioning, expect the onslaught of harassment and sexual assault claims :$
It just boggles the mind the lengths taken to degrade women even further by false claims of giving them ‘equal’ rights with total disregard to Islamic or even cultural guidelines!!! Just a showing off to the ‘outside’ world… ohh look at me look at me look at us.. we have women policeMEN now looool.
“I imagine these women are going to shake things up a little”
I’ll tell you what kind of shaking they’ll be doing… the only kind of shaken they can… :p
Well, that was a bit harsh I know… it is just ridiculous… following the footsteps of other cultures this way (as warned by the Prophet) for what reason I don’t know!!!
Oh well. we’ll see.
According to the paper, that is how rank is assigned, Peter. The paper was saying that whatever the rank given by benefit of increased education, the women get it too.
WonderWoman – LOL. Thank you for being discreet.
Shaken – You sound just like many Americans back in the 1970s and 80’s when women were integrated into the armed forces and police forces and national guards. They turned out to be every bit as good as the men. Any major social transition is not without turbulence and instability. You are right, sexual harassment cases and sexual assault cases take a dramatic rise as men are confronted with limits to their allowed actions – something we need desperately in Kuwait.
Probably you don’t know any of these people, but there are groups of young men who abduct women – usually domestic workers, but sometimes Arab girls or Kuwaiti girls – who abduct them and take them to the desert and gang rape them. There are men who have no manners, and approach women aggressively in the malls and other public places, seeking phone numbers, seeking a relationship, seeking attention.
Until there are penalties for this misconduct, and those penalties are enforced equally against all offenders, men will do what they like.
I am betting women will be tougher enforcers. 🙂 And I am betting they will not be asking traffic stops for phone numbers.
“You sound just like many Americans back in the 1970s and 80’s when women were integrated into the armed forces and police forces and national guards”
Well, we are not talking about the U.S. society now, are we? We are talking about a different time and place and goals and society and culture and religion.
“I am betting women will be tougher enforcers”.
I don’t see how? Especially in Kuwait. They are just as suceptible to the things men are suceptible to. For example, if they were susceptible to wasta, why wouldn’t the women be as well? Perhaps even wasta from other women lol.
“You are right, sexual harassment cases and sexual assault cases take a dramatic rise as men are confronted with limits to their allowed actions ”
The difference is, in this case we are deliberately pushing them to the limits without just cause or need. Thus, more (men and women) will fall because of this who wouldn’t have falled without it. We are increasing the chances for bad.
“And I am betting they will not be asking traffic stops for phone numbers”
Why not? This is sexist of you! Are you saying women do not have the same drive and needs as men? tsk tsk tsk… shame on you :p
By the way, I wouldn’t hold my breath for women patrols just yet. The entity they graduated from is called something like “Assistance committe to the ministry of interior”. They will apparently start mostly in border control like airports, etc.. we already have civilan women there anyway! and in security supervisor positions mostly for frisken women? again, we already have women there! Interesting… so all they did was put them through official curriculum to do some studying plus some physical excercise/fittness to justify paying them more? That’s not such a biggy if it wasn’t for the public parade they were subjected to during graduation. Plus, it seems head/hair covering is obligatory in their uniform…
The thing is of course, it probably won’t stop at this and there will be attempts to ‘exapand’ their roles in ways that may not be appropriate in the society.
We’ll see.
add to the list of duties, from what I read:
special cases and domestic disputes
well, I wouldn’t be so eager to sending them into a domestic dispute situation where most likely the (bad) man is already in a furious frenzy at one woman in the house only to be sent another women to control him? loool. That can’t end well!
Shaken, do you really think we are deliberately pushing men to harass women by giving women jobs as policewomen? There seems to be a whole lot of harassment going on in Kuwait without any policewomen. I can’t imagine it any worse than it is. I am hoping it will get better, with an increasing number of women in the police force. From what I read on Kuwait blogs, most Kuwaitis feel that the major problem with sexual harassment is men who haven’t a clue how to behave around women.
If there are consequences for harassing women, and those consequences are regularly and equitably enforced, behavior will change.
I totally get that you don’t want your society turning into some kind of Western wanna-be and losing your own traditions and customs. I know wasta is part of those customs. I don’t know how it works with women in Kuwait. You might have a legitimate concern. And I suppose there might be women who come on to men they stop, I can’t say it would never happen, but I have never heard of it happening. Yeh, shame on me, I do think the presence of women has a civilizing effect, for the most part. I guess we shall see how this works in Kuwait.
For me, anywhere in the world, I just want every little girl to have choices and opportunities, not limited by gender. I don’t want to be a policewoman, but I want my daughters and granddaughters to be free to exercise that option if they so choose. If they want to be bankers or ambassadors or judges or ministers of parliament – I want them to have that option.
You are right, domestic disputes are about the most dangerous of all patrol duties, and anyone, male or female, who is sent in needs to have had thorough and intense training in dealing with those kind of emotion laden situations. Trained women tend to be very good at de-fusing these situations, diffusing the emotion, lowering the emotional temperature.
As you say – it’s bound to be rocky at the beginning. We shall see.
“do you really think we are deliberately pushing men to harass women by giving women jobs as policewomen?”
We are cetainly not helping!
“most Kuwaitis feel that the major problem with sexual harassment is men who haven’t a clue how to behave around women.”
That is the nature of things from the beginning. The way that women have been forcefully shoved out into unnecessary work-force (whether they want to or not as the economic situation that results is very pressing) makes them vulnerable, wether people admit it or not. That is why in Islam the burden of support and alomony is always on the man. Messing with this tried and tested equilibrium is just asking for trouble as evident from the mess we see in falling apart family structures and the increased probability of uncertainty in lineage in the societies where the male/female roles have been severely disfigured, as we’ve started to notice in our own societies.
“If there are consequences for harassing women, and those consequences are regularly and equitably enforced, behavior will change”
Really? Care to support that with statistics that show an acceptable margin of change? Besides, sure, the outward behaviour may be tamed for a while, but the inner-whims and thoughts can only increase the more that we try to suppress them with laws! Sure we can enforce and bring into account an employee who violates our “Thou shall not harass your collegues” ‘law’, but we CAN’T enforce a “Thou shall not have thoughts about collegues and suppress them for a while, only to act them out so frustratingly on some other unsuspecting victim or vent them off violently in your household affecting your family and children and bringing the societal gender balance down to crumples; or worse, keep them inside you and have them affect your work and role in the society detrimentally or worse yet have an AFFAIR” LAW!! Either that or we need to end up with castrated men and women out there which isn’t good for the survival of mankind! lol. Sure, we can put laws that punish the violators, but the damage in such cases is very horrendous and extends to the families invovled and thus affects the whole society, that is why it is not worth it! And that is why the punishment for fornication in Islam is so severe (lashing for non-married men and women and stoning if married to counter act the equally severe natural urges for those who are tempted in a moment of weakness; of course, perverts are perverts no matter what)
“For me, anywhere in the world, I just want every little girl to have choices and opportunities…”
“If they want to be bankers or ambassadors or judges or ministers of parliament – I want them to have that option”
OR call-girls or strippers or lap-dancers or pole-dancers or prostitues?!!!! There’s got to be an acceptable working framework or guideline and a proper utilization of functions and roles (which includes avoiding unnecessary placements just for the heck of it despite the huge risks to societies well being!), otherwise, we are not civilized humans with brains anymore… not humans with a goal and a message… just cattle in the playfield of life! We deliberately take an unnecessary risk and then try to offset the devastating results or side-effects with enforcement laws that can never counter-act the required natural urges (in both men and women) that we are trying to fight! This is not civilized at all.
This is getting to be a very interesting debate , but as a male unfortunately it is beyond my intellectual depth
LLOOLL, Daggero, I won’t insult you by telling you not to worry your pretty little head!
Shaken – Ask most college graduates – most younger women are EAGER to be in the work force. Most want an arena where they can exercise their educations and God-given talents. Other women find themselves needing to work because they have been divorced by the man who was supposed to take care of them and their children, yes, even here in Kuwait, or, as you say, they work for the financial good of the family. These women need to be able to work where they choose. There is great blessing in doing that work you were created to do.
Shaken, so the penalties imposed by the law suppress inner whims and thoughts, while the punishment of stoning and lashing does not? And stoning the offender doesn’t punish or shame the families? Both are systems of law; if you want to talk about civilized society, please, let’s not talk about stoning or lashing.
Laws are necessary where people fail to control themselves. No, they don’t eliminate crime, but they impose a penalty which discourages crime. Places where there are no laws, or where laws are not consistently enforced experience greater instability, even chaos. In Kuwait, for example, where family honor is important, I think if the names of people who violate the law were published in the papers, the families would put pressure on the violators to obey the law.
Why would any woman choose to be a call girl or stripper or lap dancer, etc? I can only imagine it would be that she can earn more money than working as a domestic or cashier? It isn’t a pretty life, is it? I am not saying that women don’t make poor choices as easily as men do. I am saying that gender restrictions place limits on a woman’s ability to use the gifts God gives her. A civilized society is where men and women limit themselves in the interest of the greater good of society. It’s a highly regarded value in your tradition – self discipline, self control.
I have a high regard for Kuwaiti women. I see them actively engaged in all walks of life in Kuwait. They are smart, hard-working, and have vision. Those who chose to be police are courageous young women; it’s always tough to be in the vanguard.