In Afghan War, Letting Women Reach Women

In Afghan War, Letting Women Reach Women – Elisabeth Bumiller, New York Times.

… These are not your mother’s Marines here in the rugged California chaparral of Camp Pendleton, where 40 young women are preparing to deploy to Afghanistan in one of the more forward-leaning experiments of the American military.

Next month they will begin work as members of the first full-time “female engagement teams,” the military’s name for four- and five-member units that will accompany men on patrols in Helmand Province to try to win over the rural Afghan women who are culturally off limits to outside men. The teams, which are to meet with the Afghan women in their homes, assess their need for aid and gather intelligence, are part of Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal’s campaign for Afghan hearts and minds. His officers say that you cannot gain the trust of the Afghan population if you only talk to half of it.

“We know we can make a difference,” said Capt. Emily Naslund, 26, the team’s executive officer and second in command. Like the other 39 women, Captain Naslund volunteered for the program and radiates exuberance, but she is not naí¯ve about the frustrations and dangers ahead. Half of the women have been deployed before, most to Iraq…

More at The New York Times.

Also see Half-Hearted: Trying to Win Afghanistan without Afghan Women – Captain Matt Pottinger, Hali Jilani, and Claire Russo, Small Wars Journal.