By Amanda Tucker
3rd Sustainment Command
JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq – A Soldier stops a car at a checkpoint and does a vehicle inspection after making the male driver step out. The Soldier walks around the vehicle and sees a woman sitting in the back seat wearing the standard black clothing, her eyes and hands are the only parts visible. She looks nine months pregnant so he doesn't think she needs to get out into the over 115 degree heat and be searched. The Soldier allows the vehicle to pass through, and it happens. A thunderous boom with shrapnel flying and screams reverberate throughout the checkpoint. One act of a Soldier's "compassion" was his last.
Female suicide bombers are becoming more common, and some insurgents are taking advantage of Soldiers who are reluctant to search females. Some men are even dressing as women to get through checkpoints.
Now, Iraqi females are stepping forward to be trained on how to search women and helping to solve the problem at some checkpoints.
"Having the females searching Iraqis is a good thing," said Col. Hussein Al-Aalan, the Balad District director of police. "She can search females that are something males can't do."
Manar Abdul Mutaleib, the only female member of the Balad City Council, started inquiring to the council about using Iraqi females after seeing a story on the television about a female suicide bomber blowing herself up in a market.
"My mission [is] to find the females a job to work because right now, in my association, I have more than 950 without any job[s]," said Mutaleib.
Mutaleib fulfilled her mission with more than 50 Iraqi females volunteering to take the job of helping at the Balad checkpoints. The city council chose females who had lost their Iraqi police husbands to insurgents as priority to help feed their families.
"We have 10 females in Balad that are actually able to search females coming into Balad," said Staff Sgt. Iris Munoz, a Phoenix native and a squad leader for the 164th Military Police Company, based out of Fort Richardson, Alaska.
"We went over all of the search methods and we had hands on training with them on how to search make sure their checking everything," said Cpl. Jamie Brown, a MP Team Leader for the 164th MP Company and Colorado Springs, Colo., native.
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.
"They were really eager to learn and they always had a lot of questions to ask about what to do and in certain situations at checkpoints," said Pfc. Leilani Carroll, a gunner for the 164th MP Company and San Antonio native. "Having the females out there searching keeps Balad safe. They actually go out there and do everyday work."
"Sgt. Munoz and her squad really have bent over backwards to get these women trained, to get them out on the checkpoint and feel like they're part of the team," said Capt. Matthew Norris, Commander for the 164th MP Company, and Phoenix native. "They freely talk to her, they call her by her first name; that right there shows the trust and how they feel about what we're doing here."
The training is going to be a continuous process, said Munoz. Teaching them one class is just the beginning.
With the ongoing threat of female insurgents, Iraqi females' continuous training is important to the Iraqi army by helping male Soldiers to maintain their public relations without compromising security or disrespecting Iraqi culture. The 164th MP Company will continue to train the Iraqi females as long as the mission dictates.
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