It’s disappointing that the country that proudly vaunted its army’s ‘Nari Shakti’ (woman power) recently, prompting a thumbs up from visiting President of the United States has once again turned its back on its female officers.

An official from the Indian defence ministry stated:

“Given the army’s involvement in counter-insurgency operations, it feels the terrain and working conditions are not conducive for women, either in the jungles of the northeast or in insurgency areas like Kashmir.”

Permit me to state the obvious biological fact: Fortunately, not every woman is an ‘average’ woman.

Like men, we have tall, short, big, small, frail and muscular women, of whom many possess the physical and mental capacity to effectively perform combat roles in the military.

Why would you disqualify a person simply for lacking a Y chromosome, even when she has amply demonstrated the strength and skill required to do the job?

 

Also read: Pakistan's female Rangers: Life on the base

 

And, let’s face it: a ‘combat role’ is basically what the army is all about.

It’s the center-stage, with all other services, however important, essentially the means of bolstering the army’s fighting capabilities.

To make the big league off-limits to women brings to mind centuries of female oppression. Of women serving as nurses, not doctors; secretaries, not CEOs; assistants, not scientists.

The woman, by the accident of birth itself, is doomed to always be second in-command of whatever unit she finds herself in, with the primary role happily occupied by the privileged male.