Seminar: Women police officials seek equal opportunity at workplace

Participants complain of lack of acceptance.

ISLAMABAD:

Ahead of the International Women’s Day, women police officials gathered to discuss the issues they face at work and ways to fully integrate them into all policing organisations at a seminar on Monday. 

Participants who had converged from all over the country, discussed approaches to supporting and empowering women police officials. “Men and women work side by side in other organisations, why are we caged in a separate women’s police station?” said ASP Laila Bukhari. All policymakers and decision makers are male, stated Sana Butt, an additional director at the Federal Investigation Agency. “Biasness creeps in and sometimes there is neither acceptance nor recognition.”



Most women police officials were of the view that women should be part of decision-making at the top so they could contribute towards more gender-friendly policies. They also felt women were not tasked with investigative duties and hit a glass ceiling. They called for promotions based on merit to ensure more women make it to the top.

Some of the female officers present at the event had gone on an exchange programme shadowing women police officers in the US where they were inspired by their counterparts’ professionalism. “It was interesting to see that women police officers work independently over there. They work as police officers and not female police officers,” stated a participant.

The Women’s Police Programme funded by the US assists in the professional development of female police officials by providing training, equipment, and infrastructure.



US Ambassador Richard Olson said, “You are breaking the barriers of traditional models and roles in policing, with your help, police across Pakistan are reforming practices to improve policing in their communities.” The bravery and dedication of the women seated in this room, rival that of any police force in the world,” he stated.

The seminar was organised by the US government’s International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Agency and International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Programme.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 5^th, 2013.