Jihadi Du Jour

Women are involved in the war agaisnt Islamic terror, whether they want to be or not. Around the world women fight in whatever way they can. Some women join the military, some simply defy Islamic law in small ways at home.

Sergeant Tzipora Schindler, 20, moved from Newton to Israel two years ago. She volunteered for the only infantry battalion in the Israel Defense Forces that includes women. Schindler’s battalion helps patrol the southern region of Israel. (Alon Tuval for the Boston Globe) [snip]

Now, while much of the world focuses on Israel's tense northern border with Lebanon, Schindler and her comrades in the Karkal, or ``Lynx," battalion -- about 70 percent of whom are female -- are attempting to choke off a sophisticated criminal and terrorist smuggling network that poses a growing threat to the Jewish state.

They are on the hunt not only for Palestinian terrorists from the Gaza Strip and other Islamic militants. The soldiers are also seeking to capture thousands of would-be illegal workers and a growing number of women from such countries as Turkey, Georgia, Russia, China, Sudan, and Colombia who are being smuggled into the country to meet the demands of a burgeoning sex industry.

``All our borders must be protected," Schindler said in an interview last week, sipping soda with her fellow soldiers. ``But part of the mission is also to show that women can also be involved in combat and conflict."

Schindler's battalion is part the Edom Division, 1,500 soldiers responsible for border security in about one-third of the country, including the entire southern region of Israel. source

In Iran, women who don't dress according to Islamic law are verbally chastised or jailed by green-suited enforcement police who patrol the streets, thanks to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Almost from birth Islamic women are taught to cover their bodies from head to foot when in public. We are all familiar with the vision of women clad totally in black with only their eyes showing in places like Afghanistan and other Arab nations. But this is also a familiar site in Europe. More familiar are the blue burqas forced on women by the Taliban in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.

A manteau, or chador, is a coat; the roosary is a headscarf. The garments help women cover their hair and skin in public year-round.

In theory, the country's Islamic law requires women to wear the manteau over pants or long skirts and the roosary over their hair when they leave the house. Tradition also holds that nowhere in public may women - including Western tourists - remove the articles or otherwise dress as they please. source

Iranian women fight these laws by purchasing and wearing coverings of bright colors, thin fabrics, patterned materials. It's a small thing, but it gives them some feeling of independence and fighting back.

"They want us to stay quiet and fit the mold they've created for us. It's not something I accept nor am comfortable with, but there's little we can do."

In fact, most women in Tehran, a city of about 12 million, seem to favor brightly colored headscarves. And several said they care more about style than American women do. Even many who wear traditional dress are letting their bangs and ponytails show and wearing flashy manteaus tight and short enough to reveal the shape of their bodies.source

These small infractions in dress may sound silly to us here in the United States, but it is a brave step in the Muslim world.

India has women in the airforce and police force.

India will for the first time send an all-women police contingent to participate in a U.N. peacekeeping operation, with the 120-strong contingent expected to leave for Liberia in the coming weeks, officials said Wednesday.

The contingent from the Central Reserve Police Force, a paramilitary force under the Home Ministry, is being sent to the troubled West African nation at the request of the United Nations. source