Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Gender and Ethnic Discrimination Confined Female Pilots at Home

While chatting with a Korean friend and talking about their new female president, another friend from India posted this on Facebook "Two Hazara female pilots are being ignored by the government"I clicked the link which led me to the Los Angeles Times and said this:"The two women in their 20s were trained in the U.S. how to fly military helicopters, but in Afghanistan, they have been ignored and put off by the air force."

Reading the story, I found out that these two women had longed to become pilots; so they joined the air forces to actually reach their goals and serve their country as pilots. They go to the U.S, get trained for 18 months, and now are combat qualified, having passed courses in basic war skills and basic combat skills.

But after returning home, no assignment is given to them and so despite having dreams of contributing to their country, they have no choice but to spend their days at home watching TV, cooking, shopping, etc just like housewives.

The main reasons why these two women haven’t been given any assignment are: first; they are women, and second, they are from the ethnic group Hazara, which counts even a bigger reason than the first one.

After I stopped chatting with my Korean friend, I found myself thinking about this quote of Jostein Gaarder I really like "“A state that does not educate and train women is like a man who only trains his right arm.” But to me, it seems that the current Afghan government officials are too dumb to understand it. And in the future, no one knows...

Read the details here on LA Times Click Here



4 comments:

  1. Send Recharge to Afghanistan with www.ezetop.com

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  2. I like your reference to the Jostein Gaarder quote, from a great book. I didn't know the women are being neglected because of ethnicity, because as far as I know the state of pilots and air froce is pretty shambles in Afghanistan. there's lots of dispute because of NATO about the air force's ownage of certain planes and where they can fly etc, so thought it would be because of that these ladies are not working. But i am not surprised that it is hazara women who are training.time and time again hazaras show themselves to be the most hard working and progressive and true patriots of our country. :)proud of these female pilots.

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  3. The afghan air force is still being built brother. So I'm guessing, they must be pretty tight on who they recruit or train.

    Most of the pilots are older pilots from the soviet era..anyways.. give it some time. they should get their desired positions :) Proud of you all..

    from a fellow Afghan
    http://Afghan-defence.com

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