Angham Ahmed Mofeed.. The first woman to bear the insignia of a brigadier general in the history of the Iraqi army

BAGHDAD -

With high confidence and love resembling the Republican eagle hanging on her shoulder, Brigadier General Angham Ahmed Mofeed seems happy with her work, which is one of the most difficult and toughest professions that can be undertaken.

A profession that has always been the preserve of men, Brigadier General Angham was able to penetrate strongly, and become the first woman in Iraq and the Middle East with the rank of brigadier general in the Iraqi army since its founding in the early twenties of the twentieth century;

That is because the Iraqi Staff College was the preserve of men only, but the competence and strength of Brigadier General Angham enabled her to get the red ribbon well deservedly.

Dean Corner Angham says she likes to take risks and serve the country through a strong position (Al-Jazeera)

female military passion

"Nothing comes easily, and human tendencies and natures are not alike, and I am a woman who loves to take risks and serve the country through a strong position, and I felt that this place alone gives me the honor of the authority to defend and serve my country." , specifically in 2004, in the darkness of events and chaos that followed the US invasion of the country in 2003.

She added that after graduating from the Medical Institute, Department of Physiotherapy, she trained in computers through intensive courses, and wanted to learn something at the time, after her separation from her first husband, and she tried hard to provide a happy life for her son, and then decided to enter a course at the Military College in Jordan.

Angham explains - to Al Jazeera Net - that this course was the first to be opened after the American invasion, and it lasted for 4 months, and "it was like hell and physical and psychological torment. And I endured enormous pressures, while some of its participants could not continue; because you live For a long period of your life a civilian, suddenly you're a military. They depend on the element of surprise in our training, we don't know which move or move is required; they ask us tough questions while we're in physical focus. My son, these were difficult days."

Brigadier General Rokn Angham believes that the military is not a monopoly of men (Al-Jazeera)

secret commander

After Angham managed to obtain her rank, she became an "infantry company commander", a combat class that participates in battles and is responsible for purifying the area and maintaining its order. Like free death.

Brigadier General Angham used to participate in military patrols and head to dangerous areas, despite some officers trying to dissuade her from doing so, fearing for her life. They used to tell her, “We are men and we fear these places, so what about you?” The military car, they would surrender to me staying with them on these missions.”

Brigadier Angham says that she was able to contribute to the liberation of a not insignificant number of those trapped in those areas, noting that she was subjected to many death threats;

An envelope was sent to her home with bullets in it.

She was terrified, and moved from one place to another, and many of her colleagues were killed, and she recalls that, saying: “I did not even have personal protection at that time, I only had a small pistol in my pocket, and a shield that I wore when I went out in the morning, changing my ways and going out at different times so as not to watch, until I arrived exhausted at the work".

Brigadier General Angham in a meeting with Iraqi army leaders (communication sites)

Men's Staff College

Angham was submitted to the rank of staff, and the conditions for approval were very difficult, and as the first woman in Iraq and the Middle East to be submitted to her, the difficulties were many, but she managed to pass them, despite "pain, confrontation, and discrimination."

She says, "I faced unspeakable discrimination and wars of all kinds, because I am a woman. Some did not accept my presence beside him, let alone if she was studying the pillars too!"

After Angham returned to the Military College and won the staff, she faced a lot of psychological pressure, attempts to fail and even harm, only because she entered a place that served as an "impervious barrier to their masculinity", because the Staff College is limited to them alone.

She says with a sigh, "They fought me hard, so I thought about leaving the job because of everything they did to me. Some of them stood with me, but they are very few, and they cannot stop or prevent the discrimination that was chasing me."

She moved in her work more than once, until she took over - before entering the Military Staff College - managing the department of evacuating the military wounded and transferring them from civilian hospitals to Ibn Sina Military Hospital in the Green Zone in central Baghdad.

It was an arduous and difficult task, and she never depended on her assistants, but rather she went by herself, to get her wounded soldiers out.

She describes what she was doing in this mission, saying, "I was wearing civilian clothes, and making up a thousand stories, they did not allow any military wounded to leave a civilian hospital, and the process was more complicated in light of the chaos that engulfed Iraq in the years of sectarian violence between 2006 and 2008, and because I am a woman, I was telling them that I am the sister of the wounded man, his mother, his wife, his daughter, just to keep him, because their stay in the civilian hospitals was a real threat to their lives.”

Brigadier-General Angham explains that - fortunately - she was transferred to the department of evacuating the wounded, without her desire at first, but she confirms - to Al Jazeera Net - that this step helped her guarantee the rights of many of the wounded and guarantee their salaries without deducting them.

Salute to the republican decree

She asserts that many soldiers, and perhaps even officers, still deal with women in the military ignorantly, as some of them do not perform the military salute, because she is a “woman,” and “some of them are ignorant that there is no difference between a woman or a man. And not for her. And when I tell them this, I feel that they do it reluctantly, only for the woman and to disparage her."

Despite all these hardships, Brigadier General Angham still made time for her second young son, Darvan;

She plays with him in her military clothes.

She says, "I used to come home at six in the evening, although the actual working time ends at three in the afternoon, but I prefer to follow everything myself to ensure the success of the tasks, and then go back to my second son, in order to play with him."