Image via people.cn
The first batch of Chinese women pilots took to the skies to fly heavily loaded killing machines-the Flying Leopard fighter-bombers machine on July 2, 2015. In India, women are prohibited from combat service. The question to ask is-when will Indian women get a chance to be in the frontline of our nation’s security? The stereotypes are too many and it’s time to disprove them before gender inequality becomes a reality in Indian military service.
Women prisoners of war face the threat of physical and sexual violence:
Don’t men face the threat of physical violence and torture too? Innumerable horror stories from conflict zones from around the world are testimony to the fact that the bullet doesn’t see gender!
Women will crumble and reveal strategic secrets:
Physical strength alone doesn’t determine as to who will crumble under the enemy’s torture techniques. How can we be sure that women won’t prove just as strong as or stronger than some, when it comes to holding their ground under torture?
Families and children are dependent on women:
Aren’t children dependent on their fathers too for financial and emotional stability? Don’t families suffer equally when a male soldier is killed in combat?
Combat units won’t take well to women in command:
That’s the mindset that needs to change and it can only be done by inducting women in traditionally male-dominated roles.
Women and men forging romantic relationships will be a distraction:
In today’s world where women are working shoulder to shoulder with men and heading top conglomerates, this argument is a throwback from the Stone Age. Even if romance does brew, two consenting mature adults will know that duty comes first. It takes two hands to clap and blaming just women as a source of distraction for the dutiful males smacks of hypocrisy.
Women will not be able to live up to the physical requirements of combat training:
Women aren’t asking for any concessions here! Women who can’t meet the rigorous physical standards expected of them, won’t make the cut. Women with the right zeal are ready to train as hard as their male counterparts to make the mark!
History would have been different if the top brass of the Indian Defence services had been around when Lakshmi Bai Rani of Jhansi led her troops into a historic battle or when Begum Hazrat Mahal of Awadh fought against the British heroically. Gender doesn’t define ability, societal stereotypes do. Give a chance to the young women who have it in them to be valiant soldiers.
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