WeeklySA_Adminmission: As the United Nations recently marked the International Day of the UN Peacekeepers (29 May), paying tribute to the dedication and sacrifice made by peacekeepers around the world, Lieutenant-Colonel Rubana Nowshin Mithila speaks about her experience as a woman in peacekeeping…
By WSAM Correspondent
Uniformed women – police and military – represent less than 10 per cent of the over 64 000 UN Peacekeeping personnel deployed today. UN Women, in collaboration with the Department of Peace Operations runs a training programme to prepare women military officers for peacekeeping operations. Lieutenant-Colonel Mithila, who has served in the United Nations Operation in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI) and the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), completed the training in 2023.
“I am part of the first generation of female military officers in Bangladesh,” says Rubana.
She was preparing for her undergraduate studies in 2001, when she heard that the Bangladeshi army was accepting applications from female candidates for the military officer role. Lt. Colonel Rubana did not hesitate – she admired the army and was hungry for adventure and equal opportunities. Out of 13,000 applicants that year, she was among the 52 candidates selected for the training.
Rubana has served with UN Peacekeeping in Cote d’Ivoire and South Sudan. For her, women’s meaningful representation in peacekeeping is critical.
“There is balance in everything in nature. Peacekeeping missions too need balanced representation. When women plan things, they see even the minor details, the small things. The men typically look at the big picture. When you combine both, you get the most workable plan. “The women peacekeepers are also more attuned to the special needs of the women and girls in the communities. The local women open up to them,” she added.
Rubana had a supportive family who encouraged her to pursue a military career. However, after joining the military and UN Peacekeeping, she faced and witnessed some recurring challenges.
Getting leadership positions were not easy for female military officers, it was a slow process of breaking stereotypes and notions that men were naturally suited for leadership.
“I had to prove that I could contribute to the decision-making processes and operations as well as a man,” shared Rubana. “I had to prove it more than a man had to.” A common myth that she wants to bust is that women are less strong or capable than men: “Women peacekeepers are stronger than you think – mentally and physically. When they go for combat, they are fiercer than men.”
“There is also a misconception that when [women in military] work with men, they lose their feminine qualities. It’s not like that. Rather, you support each other, you grow more. The military becomes more sensitive and sympathetic to special situations like peacekeeping.”
Rubana also reflected on the challenge of gender-sensitive accommodations and how the lack of such facilities can become a barrier to deploying more women peacekeepers. Something as simple as creating enough privacy and having washrooms for women closer to their living quarters and away from men’s washrooms can make a big difference.
However, when peacekeepers need to deploy to remote locations, she recalled her superiors hesitating to take more women because they felt that would increase their logistical burden. “A battalion may also hesitate to engage the women peacekeepers in patrols because they think they need to be protected. That’s not true – we can take care of ourselves,” she stressed.
Supporting and incentivizing national police and armed forces to increase meaningful participation of women in peacekeeping is an important step towards meeting the UN targets on gender parity among uniformed personnel. Since 2019, the Elsie Initiative Fund, hosted by UN Women, has awarded over USD 17 million in grants to 20 projects to help countries recruit and deploy more women peacekeepers, construct gender-sensitive facilities, and improve deployment conditions.
“Local women open up more to women peacekeepers,” said Rubana. Her statement is backed by numerous reports showing that gender-responsive peacekeeping units build trust with the communities they serve and improve the effectiveness of peace operations.
Sometimes, women peacekeepers can get information that men cannot access. Rubana shared a story from the recent Women’s Military Peace Operations Course she attended.
“There was a Mongolian peacekeeper who told us the story of water pumps,” shared Lt. Colonel Rubana. “They built a water pump in a community so that the women didn’t have to travel too far to get water. But the pump was repeatedly destroyed or stop working within one month of construction. They rebuilt it many times, and finally, the Mongolian peacekeeper talked to the local women and discovered that the women did not want the water pump in that location. Going to fetch water to the original location was the only time that the women had, away from the men in their families. They considered it a respite and did not want to change their routine.”
If not for women peacekeepers, they would have never known why the location of the water pump didn’t work for the women in the community.
The three-week training programme by UN Women and the Training Service of the Department of Peace Operations provides in-depth and practical knowledge to better prepare women military officers for peacekeeping operations. For Rubana, the unique experiences and knowledge shared by women peacekeepers with one another was invaluable. Women peacekeepers are also powerful role models to women and girls in the communities they serve. “When women and girls in the community see us, women peacekeepers, they feel inspired to rise for peace,” added Rubana.
Rubana Nowshin Mithila has a message for women and girls aspiring to join peacekeeping: “Peace is for everyone; everyone, irrespective of gender, has to work for peace to make this world free of war and conflict.”
Comment
INDICTED GOVT. OFFICIALS MUST STEP DOWN
Barely an hour after appearing in court on a charge of corruption, Zizi Kodwa, Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture, did the honourable thing : He resigned with immediate effect not because he believes he is guilty but because integrity is the supreme quality for leadership.
Kodwa, who is also a member of the National Executive Council of the ANC, appeared alongside his co-accused, Jehan Mackay, a former executive of EOH, an IT solutions firm, in the Specialised Commercial Crimes Court, sitting at the Palm Ridge Magistrate’s Court this week on charges of corruption. The State alleges he received bribes amounting to at least R1,7 million from Mackay who, in exchange was awarded government contracts valued at nearly R400 million between 2014 and 2015. Both accused have indicated through affidavits read out by their lawyers that they would plead not guilty. They are out on R30 000 bail each. Described by his advocate, Zola Majavu as a person who respected the rule of law, Kodwa should be lauded for resigning his ministerial post immediately after appearing on these serious charges. He did what many in the ANC had failed to do even when they were facing more serious crimes. The introduction of the step-aside rule for officials who faced criminal charges was challenged with many members claiming that only after you had been convicted, did it come into effect.
Obviously taking into account the ANC’s new journey of renewal and rebuilding as well as rooting out corrupt officials in their midst, Kodwa’s decision should set a precedent to cases of a similar nature where senior officials are implicated in criminal activities. If the ANC is serious about its renewal programme, Kodwa, who is still to be tried in a court of law and may be convicted or acquitted, has set a good example to officials who could find themselves in similar situations.
His court appearance this week followed recommendations of the State Capture Commission which was chaired by Chief Justice Raymond Zondo in which several government officials were fingered in acts of crime. During his appearance at the inquiry, Kodwa had testified that nearly R1 million he had received from Mackay, was a loan.
With more suspects on the radar of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigations, commonly known as the Hawks, we hope that senior government officials implicated in various crimes emanating from the recommendations of the Zondo Report, would also do the right thing. They must hand themselves over to the police and protect the integrity of the government.
Those implicated in corruption must be reminded that the huge amounts looted from State coffers is meant for development for the poor masses who have suffered years of poverty under the apartheid regime. Thousands of Black people are still squatting in shacks throughout the country with no basic services. The suffering in rural areas is also unbearable. The money that is being earmarked for projects to improve their lives, end up in the pockets of greedy politicians all because of corruption – a cancer that is an enemy of good governance.
