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Pak lone female fighter pilot ready for combat

Sargodha (Pakistan), June 13
With an olive green headscarf poking out from her helmet, Ayesha Farooq flashes a cheeky grin when asked if it is lonely being the only war-ready female fighter pilot in the Islamic republic of Pakistan.

Farooq (26), from Bahawalpur in Punjab province, is one of 19 women who have become pilots in the Pakistan Air Force over the past decade - there are five other female fighter pilots but they have yet to take the final tests to qualify for combat.

“I don’t feel any different. We do the same activities, the same precision bombing,” the soft-spoken 26-year-old said of her male colleagues at Mushaf base in north Pakistan, where neatly piled warheads sit in sweltering 50 °C heat. A growing number of women have joined Pakistan’s defence forces in recent years as attitudes towards women change.

“Because of terrorism and our geographical location it’s very important that we stay on our toes,” says Farooq, referring to Taliban militancy and a sharp rise in sectarian violence.

Deteriorating security in neighbouring Afghanistan, where US-led troops are preparing to leave by the end of next year, and an uneasy relationship with arch rival India to the east add to the mix.

Farooq, whose slim frame offers a study in contrast with her burly male colleagues, was at loggerheads with her widowed and uneducated mother seven years ago when she said she wanted to join the air force.

“In our society most girls don’t even think about doing such a thing as flying an aircraft,” she said. Family pressure against the traditionally male domain of the armed forces dissuaded other women from taking the next step to become combat ready, air force officials said.

“They fly slower aircraft instead, ferrying troops and equipment around the nuclear-armed country of 180 million.

Women are becoming more aware of their rights and signing up with the air force is about as empowering as it gets.

“More and more women are joining now,” says Nasim Abbas, Wing Commander of Squadron 20, made up of 25 pilots, including Farooq, who fly Chinese-made F-7PG fighter jets.

“It’s seen as less of a taboo. There’s been a shift in the nation’s way of thinking,” Abbas says. There are now around 4,000 women in Pakistan’s armed forces, largely confined to desk jobs and medical work. But over the past decade, women have became sky marshals, defending Pakistan’s commercial liners against insurgent attacks, and a select few are serving in the elite anti-terrorist force. — Reuters