Finally, Something To Be Proud Of

Of course, I'm not very pleased that the Indians say even Malaysia puts women on warships - as if Malaysia is the lowest standard possible.

But yes, at least in the military, there are no (or little) glass ceilings for women.

From The Times Of India:

PORT BLAIR: At first glance, Lieutenant Farah al Habshi presents a demure picture, with a hijab around her head, even though she dons the white and blue Royal Malaysian Navy uniform. But appearances, as one learns, can be extremely deceptive.

An engineer by training, a naval officer by profession, young Farah is the deputy weapons and electrical officer on the spanking new Malaysian warship KD Perak. And she is quite articulate to boot, not at all deterred by journalistic questions, some quite personal. "I have no problems serving on a warship with men," says Farah, in her early-20s.

Her presence, and of some other women officers on board foreign warships during the ongoing multilateral Milan exercise here, is a stark reminder that Indian armed forces are still to shatter the glass ceiling for women. Indian women, after all, are not allowed on seafaring warships, cannot fly fighters or serve in combat arms like infantry, armoured corps and artillery.

A predominantly Muslim country, Malaysia has left India far behind in this regard. "We even have a woman fighter pilot, who flies F/A-18s, apart from helicopter pilots," says Farah.

Does it feel claustrophobic to be part of the 91-member crew of KD Perak since there are only two women on board? "No. I have been in the Navy for over two years now. There is no problem. The other women officer and I share a cabin, with an attached bathroom," says the religious Farah, who wears the hijab "by her personal choice".

"Its a good experience just as long as there is no physical contact and bad language. When someone talks funny, I just walk away," she says. Her commanding officer, Captain Ismail Bin Othman, adds, "Our new warships are designed keeping the future in mind to give privacy to women. From deploying them in supporting roles in warships around five years ago, we are moving towards women in purely combat roles."

Recently, five women were commissioned as seamen lady officers.

Some other of the 13 navies taking part in the Milan conclave, like Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh also allow women on warships. "Three-quarters of our warship crew have women on board. They serve in all roles, right from being cooks to commanding warships. A woman at sea can do exactly the same as a man can do," says Lt-Commander Shane Doolin, the captain of Australian warship HMAS Glenelg.

This completely destroys the argument of the top Indian military brass, which holds that there are "operational, practical and cultural" problems in having women officers with permanent commission or deploying them in combat roles.

While women officers have been inducted into armed forces since the early 1990s, the government only last year approved permanent commission for them and that too in only the legal and education branches.

Those in other wings like ordnance, engineering, air traffic control, logistics and the like can even now serve a maximum of only 14 years in uniform. Women, of course, constitute a minority in the predominantly-male environs of the over 13-lakh strong armed forces.

There are just about 1,100 women officers in the over 35,000-strong officer cadre in Army. Similarly, there are 750 women among the 10,500 officers in IAF, with Navy having 180 out of 7,000 officers.

While there are over 60 women pilots in IAF, they fly only transport aircraft and helicopters as of now. IAF top brass believes that in order to have women fighter pilots there will have to be certain pre-conditions like not allowing them to have children till a specified age since it takes Rs 11 crore to train a pilot and tight flying schedules cannot be disrupted. Even if one buys this argument, what about allowing women on warships?