Two birds, one stone

Any time the Canadian public gets to see front-line CF members telling their own stories in their own words and images, everyone wins: the soldier who feels their experience is valued; the CF, whose soldiers consistently show themselves to be worthy of Canadians' compassion, admiration, and respect; and the Canadian people, who get a glimpse into the world of one of their military professionals, and invariably come away knowing and liking those who defend them in uniform a little bit more than they did before.

In other words, it's the individual CF member who keeps the heady and overblown discussion of defence and security in this country real.

That's why I was pleased to see this story by Lt(N) Hayley Mooney at the CEFCOM website today: it's real.

By the time I came to Kabul, the men of the ANA were used to seeing women from the many NATO countries going in and out of the Ministry of Defence in a variety of camouflage uniforms. Women before me had paved the way so that I could enter an office, run through a meeting and lay down business plans and deadlines, while Afghan men listened attentively through their interpreters and argued points they disagreed with. Don’t get me wrong, though: this wasn’t Canada. General Eqbal Ali was known to stop in the middle of an important meeting to ask if I was eating enough and tell me that my husband would appreciate it if I tried to fatten up some more. There were still people in the hallways who would stare over their shoulders as I walked by. And I was the star of at least a dozen pictures with ANA soldiers ranging in rank from private to general who wanted to show off to their friends the foreign female soldiers who wore no veils and seemed to have no shame in bossing men around.

...

My female friends and I joked that we would go back to our hometowns and feel neglected, having gotten used to basking in the supermodel-type attention we received in some of the more remote parts of the country. Beyond the joking though, I did feel that the stir we were causing was having a positive impact. Here were capable women in uniform, working alongside the men. Our countries had deemed us worthy of the tasks we were taking on, and let us work independently, showing confidence that we could do our jobs well. In Kabul we were already well entrenched. The local men were used to working and talking to us, and in the provinces we were creating an awareness of our presence. Opening minds to new possibilities for women in the future, perhaps. To me, this was an incredible bonus to my mission. Not only was I doing a job that I considered important to development, but I was pioneering a little bit of female equality in a country where there had been so little in previous years.

I've spoken with people who have a hard time believing Canadian soldiers are as idealistic as they come across in the media. I've replied that the vast majority are every bit as idealistic as they come across: they believe in what they do. That doesn't mean that bitching isn't refined to a fine art form in barracks, or that they don't have frequent BOHICA moments, or snake-pits where it seems everyone is trying to outdo the next person with cynicism. But at the end of the day, if you pare all that good-natured posturing away from the core of it, these are incredibly dedicated men and women who do our work far from our shores.

The beauty of a story like this one is that Lt(N) Mooney isn't just changing Afghan attitudes towards females by being a strong and competent woman, she's changing Canadian attitudes towards the CF along the way.

To the folks at CEFCOM: more, please.