Women’s participation in all social, economic and political spheres of Afghanistan has encouragingly increased since the ouster of Taliban government in 2001. Although Afghanistan still faces grave challenges in respect of women rights and violence against them, in major cities of the country a great number of families allow their women and girls to get education and play an active role in the society. While many female activists accuse the government and say its slogans on women rights are symbolic, there are scores of success stories.

On Tuesday, officials of Ministry of Interior said they have designated a women colonel, Jamila Bayaz, as chief of one of the most important police stations of Kabul city. This is unprecedented, occurring for the first time in the history of Afghanistan and should be welcoming for Afghan women. MoI has further stated that it will soon assign a woman police officer as provincial police head in one of the provinces of the country.

In the recent years, women have been encouraged to join Afghanistan’s police force due the important role they can play as police. According to MoI, there are around 2,200 women serving in Afghanistan national police force that make only 1% of this force. Meanwhile, the ministry plans to recruit 10,000 more females in the police force.  

Although the process of involving women in the police job is appreciable, evaluations indicate that women in police face more difficulties than women working in civil organizations. There is an average of one female police officer for every 10,000 women in Afghanistan, where reports of violence against women rose by 25 percent in 2011-2012, international aid agency, Oxfam said last year. Women who join the police face huge challenges, both inside and outside the force, such as violence, sexual harassment and lack of equal treatment to their male colleagues, it said.

Participation of women in Afghan police, despite the unfavorable condition prevailing for them, indeed speaks of their courage, zeal and determination to serve the country. In the traditional society of Afghanistan, the policemen can play a pivotal role especially in crimes that are related to girls and women. Investigations of such crimes should be handed over to women police officers, they should be delegated more authorities and their male counterparts should not be allowed to treat them as inferior part of the force.

Appointment of women for various important positions such as that of Jamila Bayaz can do much to lessen the problems facing other policewomen. Such designations will also result in motivation of other Afghan families to allow their women join the Afghan police.