[lbo-talk] Pakistan air force inducts first female pilots

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Friday, March 31, 2006

Pakistan air force inducts first female pilots
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/7598_1663331,000500020000.htm

Associated Press

Risalpur, March 31, 2006

With ceremonial pomp and aerial acrobatics, Pakistan on Thursday  welcomed
the first four female pilots into its air force at a grand parade watched by
the Islamic nation's number 2 general.

Saba Khan, Nadia Gul, Mariam Khalil and Saira Batool were among 36 aviation
cadets who received their wings after 3 and half years of intensive
training, breaking into an all-male bastion of Pakistan's armed forces.

"I want to fly fighter jets and prove that girls can equally serve our
country in the best possible manner as men are doing," Flying Officer Gul,
22, told AP after graduating from the air force's elite training academy in
the northwestern town of Risalpur.

General Ahsan Saleem Hyat, vice chief of army staff, said the four had
"shown the spirit and courage to rise above the ordinary and break new
ground for others to emulate."

Carrying rifles and dressed in the same blue uniform as their male
colleagues - except for a kameez (tunic) flapping over their navy blue
trousers, and one wearing a headscarf - they paraded before hundreds of
family members and diplomats, and took the military oath.
Standing in front of a T-37 training jet, Batool described her training as
tough but "very thrilling."

The four women are the first female pilots in the 58-year-history of the
Pakistan air force. They trained in MFI-17 Super Mushfhak and T-37 jets, and
depending on their abilities and the needs of the air force could go on to
fly fighter jets.

About 5 per cent of Pakistan's air force officers are women, mostly serving
in areas like engineering, medicine, air traffic control and administration.