The police and national security leadership in the town of Azaz in northern rural Aleppo announced the graduation of the first batch of policewomen in the town. The new graduates will be deployed to official departments where they will have to particularly deal with women.
Police chief Major-General Abdul Razzaq Aslan on Sunday told reporters that about 90 policewomen had graduated in Azaz. The first batch of policewomen graduated in the town of Jarablus, while a new batch of police women is set to graduate in the town of Al-Bab within 20 days.
Aslan pointed out that “the batch of policewomen received educational, professional and legal training. They were also trained on self-defense and the use of weapons according to international and legal standards and according to the Syrian police service system.”
The national police seeks to establish a police force meeting international standards in which there is no gender-based discrimination and one in which women have the right to employment just as men, Aslan added.
Aslan went on to say that the police force is composed of civilian police and special forces whose task is limited to maintaining public security in the area. He added that female recruits will undergo training courses on ordinary tasks of the civilian police as well as on special operations and anti-terrorism operations.
Communications officer for the Police and Public Security Forces Abdullah Zaidan told Smart News Network that they had accepted 90 volunteers to work in the police force to activate the role of women in the community. The volunteers took a one-month training course during which they were taught on how to deal with gunmen and took lessons in forensic evidence, police work, and inspection methods.
In addition to physical training, the volunteers were trained on how to use AK-47 rifles and pistols, Zaidan said. He pointed out that the volunteers will soon be distributed according to the needs of official departments. He said that the volunteers were accepted after a long security study taking into account the factor of age and loyalty to the Syrian revolution.
In July, the national police force announced it was recruiting female volunteer into its female police force in northern rural Aleppo. In addition to successfully passing the necessary tests, the volunteers must be aged between 18 and 34 years old.
On March 2, 896 members of the Free Police were deployed to the town of Azaz after receiving military training in Turkey under the supervision of defector officers from the Assad regime to serve as an “executive force” for law courts and local councils in the areas where they were deployed. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)
