Dare to Fly by Martha McSally

Author:Martha McSally
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780062996305
Publisher: HarperCollins

DURING MY FIRST WEEK, I saw a paper taped to the wall outside the colonel’s office with a picture of a servicewoman wearing the abaya and head scarf. I read what was written below. It stated, “the religious police, or ‘General Presidency of the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vices’ is concerned about attire and conduct during off-base recreational trips to Riyadh.” The next sentence noted, “Their patrols have observed incidents in which personnel have engaged in behavior which is offensive to host nation religious sensitivities.” Chief among what was categorized as “offensive behavior” were women not wearing a headcover, not buttoning their abayas to the top, and wearing red lipstick, and “women and men eating and walking together.” The paper then stated how women were to dress, adding “the Koran dictates females [sic] hair will be completely covered,” what makeup they should wear, and then had a separate bullet point stating, “Men and women should not walk or eat together unless married. If a group has only one female, she should walk with a single male, who should be identified as her husband if questioned.” The summary noted that U.S. military personnel, as “guests” of the Saudi government, were “allowed certain concessions in regards to religious requirements set forth in the Koran.” It ended with “See page two for example of properly worn headscarf.”

This one-page document was staggering. It instructed U.S. female military personnel to comply with policies so as not to offend the religious police. But these “Mutawa,” as the Saudis called them, bore no resemblance to Western concepts of law enforcement. They carried sticks to beat women who they deemed insufficiently covered, assaulted children, chased vehicles when they believed their occupants had violated religious codes, and were known for dragging women by their head scarves to place them under arrest. These were the men we were being directed not to offend. This was the system that U.S. female military personnel were being told to adhere to. More than that, our military policy had now been enlarged to state that if a man and a woman chose to eat or walk together in public and were stopped and questioned, both were directed to claim that they were husband and wife. This was presented as necessary in order to comply with the Saudi interpretation of Islamic sharia law, which forbade men and women who were not close relatives from appearing together in public.

One of the Air Force’s three core values is “Integrity First.” Yet here I was looking at a policy directing us both to lie and to follow religious “dictates” from the Koran, when our country was founded on separation of church and state. I was amazed that no one around me seemed to think there was anything wrong with this directive. Perhaps it was because the command leadership was overwhelmingly filled with men, and nobody was trying to throw black cloaks over them.

Now that I was actually in Saudi, I believed there were easy changes that could be made to the policy that would make it more reasonable and appropriate.

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