One of the first female cadet school has opened in Mardan, Pakistan with 70 girls in total as the pioneering batch. Talking to AFP, Durdanay Banuri (13 years old) is one of the 70 girls enrolled in the school who has high hopes and dreams of joining the military forces.
According to a report of 2016, 24 million Pakistani children do not go to school, with females making a larger portion than males (12.8 million in comparison to 11.2 million).
According to sources, it is also said that “women make up less than 1% of Pakistan’s armed forces.”
Previosuly women were only allowed for administrative forces in Pakistan’s military until Pakistan’s previous president General Pervez Musharraf introduced combat branches to women in 2003.
Retitred Brigadier Naureen Satti says about the initiation of the college, “Such colleges can help girls qualify to be part of the armed forces, foreign service, civil services or become engineers and doctors.”
Retd. brigadier Javid Sarwar (Girls’ Cadet College principal) said, “I want these girls to avail their brilliance and fight injustices in society, and this is possible if they get a standard education.” He also said that the plan is to induct 80 girls from all over Pakistan by March in the next year.
Considering the fact that the school has been placed in one of the more ‘conservative’ areas of Pakistan, this will be a “game changer”, vice principal Shama Javed said.
