Asia | Japan | Security

Japan rolls out sleek, all-female police squad to protect Ivanka

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A squad of female police have smartened themselves up to guard U.S. presidential adviser Ivanka Trump, who arrives in Tokyo on Nov. 2. Gone is the bulky body armor used when facing rioters or dangerous criminals, to be replaced by smart black suits. It is the first time that Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department has formed a female-only security team.
North America | United States | Crimes

In Chicago, women worried about violence join gun club

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Her hands slowed by rheumatoid arthritis, 71-year-old Marietta Crowder stands in front of her paper target, steadies her gun and pulls the trigger. Shots are fired in quick succession. Crowder is perhaps not the typical patron of a gun club. But she is one of seven women learning to safely handle firearms at a shooting range in a suburb of Chicago, a city wracked by gun violence and a soaring murder rate. "My husband influenced me and we thought about it a long time. Maybe you need a gun these days, in your house at least," said Crowder, who lives in a gated community with her retired
| United States | Leadership

GROWING NUMBER OF WOMEN LEADING US POLICE DEPARTMENTS

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When Anne Kirkpatrick took the helm at the scandal-ridden Oakland Police Department, she inherited an agency that the city's mayor likened to a frat house. The veteran police officer knew she inevitably would be asked what it's like to combat the culture as one of a growing number of women heading police departments, many struggling to repair their public image. Female police officers tend to use wits over brawn to deescalate potentially violent situations, experts say, and as departments shift their focus to nonviolent techniques, it's natural they would tap more women as leaders.
Middle East | Jordan | Activism

Jordan’s First Self-Defense Academy For Women Wants To Fight Domestic Abuse

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On the fourth floor of a discreet office building in Jordan’s capital, a group of women and girls are being told to punch and kick, punch and kick. This is no exercise class. For many of the women, it’s a chance to change their lives: they are learning to defend themselves against the widespread gender-based violence in their communities. The company that runs the class, SheFighter, is technically a self-defense academy for women. But founder Lina Khalifeh considers it the start of a movement. “I have to empower all women in the world,” says Khalifeh, 32, as she leans against a brig
North America | United States | Security

Women propelling gun sales to all-time highs

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FBI figures show the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) is running more checks than ever before. Nearly 25 million background checks will have been completed by year’s end. By proxy, that means more guns being sold than before and local shops say their sales are getting better every year. A key group driving sales – women. Women are helping propel firearm background checks and gun sales to an all-time high.
South Asia | New Zealand | Leadership

Police women shining the torch

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Retired, current and recently-sworn women police in Palmerston North hosted half of a torch on Saturday, celebrating 75 years since the first woman joined the New Zealand Police. The half-torch arrived from Woodville at midday, and was handed to Inspector Sarah Stewart for a whistle-stop visit. Accompanying the torch, leader for the Central District's 75-year celebrations Jeanette Park said it was important to pause and recognise the milestone. While still outnumbered by men, she said women in the police had come a long way.
Africa | Liberia | Security

UN Mission accomplished: Iconic Indian all-women UN peacekeeping unit to return

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Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has thanked India’s first-ever all-woman UN peacekeeping unit that was deployed in the war-torn African nation as it prepares to depart the country after a nine-year tour of duty. The Indian Formed Police Unit (FPU) which is also the first-ever all-woman police unit in UN peacekeeping history, has served the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) since 2007. It will depart the country on February 14, as Liberia gets ready to assume full responsibility for national security amid the ongoing UNMIL drawdown. “The contribution you have made in inspiring
South Asia | India | Security

India appoints first female chief to border security forces

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India has appointed its first woman director of a security force that guards the country’s borders. Archana Ramasundram, who first joined the country’s police forces in 1981, was named director general of the Sashastra Seema Bal  — or Armed Border Force – a paramilitary force that patrols India’s border with Nepal and Bhutan. Ramasundram, 58, ascended to the position just two years after the SSB began recruiting women with approval from the Indian government.  Prior to the appointment, she led the country’s National Crime Records Bureau. In her new post she will oversee more t
South Asia | India | Security

Manohar Parrikar bats for larger role for women in Indian Coast Guard combat operations

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Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar today batted for a larger role for women in combat operations in Indian Coast Guard (ICG) and said focus needs to be put on facilitating it. He also lauded the Coast Guard for imparting training to a batch of 10 women officers to operate a hovercraft. Woman personnel constitute 10 per cent of the total strength of the force, which guards the country's maritime boundary.
North America | United States | Security

WWII Code Breaker And NSA’s First Female Deputy Director, Ann Caracristi, Dies At 94

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Ann Caracristi, the first female Deputy Director of the National Security Agency (NSA), code breaker and a pioneer of using early computers in cryptanalysis during World War II, died Tuesday at the age of 94. Caracristi, unlike other code breakers of the time did not have a degree in mathematics, but in English and History. Caracristi graduated from Russell Sage College in Troy, N.Y in 1942. In a transcript from the Veterans History Project: Stories From The Veterans History Project, Caracristi said her recruitment to the Signal Intelligence Service (SIS), which became the NS
Middle East | Syria | Military

Syrian Kurdish Female Fighters Expand Ranks Against IS

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Syrian Kurdish female fighters are expanding their ranks on the frontlines of the fight against Islamic State militants in northeastern Syria. In a remote camp near the Kurdish city of Afrin in northwestern Syria, the leadership of Women's Protection Units (YPJ) continues to recruit and train young women to prepare them for combat missions against IS. "We learn how to use weapons and we take military education classes," said Rozelin, a new recruit.  
Middle East | Palestine | Crimes

New hotline offers support to Gaza’s blackmail victims

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The all-female police unit in Gaza launched a campaign in October dubbed “We Are With You” to protect girlsof high school age and older from blackmail by men. Lt. Col. Nariman Adwan, chief of Gaza's all-female police unit, told Al-Monitor, “The campaign’s primary objective is to provide women with a safe haven if ever blackmailed. We have established a free hotline and held awareness and guidance lectures that targeted schools, universities, wedding halls and workplaces such as hospitals and factories. The main problem that women face is the lack of a safe haven and confiden
Africa | DRC | Security

Meet the First Female Rangers to Guard One of the World’s Deadliest Parks

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Wildlife ranger Aline Masika Kisamya recalls the day last year when she was on patrol in the dense forest on the flanks of Mikeno volcano, in Congo’s Virunga National Park, and came face-to-face with a buffalo. African buffaloes are notoriously aggressive and known to kill people. Kisamya froze, assessed the situation, and, calmly and quietly, began to retreat without turning her back. She wasn’t afraid, the 26-year old says: “This is what I’ve been taught to do.” Virunga, in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), is the continent’s most diver
North America | Canada | History

From start to finish, Bev Busson blazed the way for women

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Bev Busson was a newly minted Dartmouth, NS teacher on May 23, 1974, driving to her summer job working with special needs kids, when she heard on the radio that the RCMP was going to accept applications from women. She happened to be driving by the local detachment and picked up an application. “It was like destiny pulling me in another direction,” she says. In less than four months, the then 23-year-old Bev MacDonald was a sworn police officer in Regina for training with 31 other women who together formed Troop 17, the first RCMP female officers. Little did she know three decades l