On a vast concrete parade ground, the women joined 1,050 male classmates in what American military officers, who provided advice on the training, called a step forward for the country and its women.

“Some people have a view of Iraqi women that for them to join the police academy is a shame,” said Alla Nozad Falih, 22, wearing a star on her epaulet that marked her as a first lieutenant. Like about half of the group’s members, she wore her hair uncovered except by a uniform blue beret, and like 26 of her female classmates, she joined the academy after finishing law school.

The job of officer in the national police force is among the highest paying available in Iraq, but also one of the most dangerous; officers and trainees are favorite targets of insurgents.

“It’s been my desire since I was a kid to be a police officer, and now I am one,” Lieutenant Falih said. “We are proud to be officers, and we encourage other women to be officers because it’s a great job.”

Women have long worked in the lower police ranks here, directing traffic or searching other women at checkpoints, but until now they have been ineligible for the elite officers’ corps. The government changed the rules this year. Several police officials who were questioned did not have an explanation for either the change or the previous prohibition.

The women studied and trained separately from the men, but were subject to the same standards, said Col. Randy Twitchell of the United States Army, a consultant on the nine-month course.

Though the graduates do not have their first assignments yet, Colonel Twitchell and others said the women would not be shunted into administrative jobs, but would take part in investigations and forensic work.

For First Lt. Noor Waled, 22, who joined the academy after getting a degree in anthropology, the hardest part was the physical drill. “Everyone knows women have soft bodies, so it’s difficult for us to do military training like jumping or climbing,” she said.

Other graduates said the hardest part was learning to handle firearms, a skill in which their male classmates had much more experience.

“When we first joined, we were shy about wearing the uniforms, carrying guns and everything,” said First Lt. Farah Hameed, 24, who was a legal investigator before joining the academy. “But right now we are ready to do anything. Even the trainer said, ‘Now I can tell you are real officers by the way you walk.’ ”

All said their families had encouraged them to join the academy. But during the course some mentioned receiving threats from men in their communities, said Nana Shriver, a Danish police major who was an adviser on the women’s training.

Though the male students all slept at the academy, there was no housing for women, so they had to commute, some leaving their homes as early as 4 a.m. and returning after dark.

“We had workshops about the challenges they face from males, from society,” Major Shriver said. “Some said they were threatened by others because they were female.”

But Lieutenant Hameed, like others, said their gender provided advantages. They could interview women and children in crimes like rape or sexual abuse in a way that would be hard for men, she said.

“Everyone says men are able to do everything, but that’s not true,” she said. “In investigations, especially with women, women use their compassion with victims to get them to answer questions clearly.”

Next year’s class will have 100 women, Colonel Twitchell said.

As Iraq moved on Monday to prepare for parliamentary elections, the Independent High Electoral Commission suggested rescheduling them to Jan. 21, from Jan. 16, because of delays in the passage of an election law, which was approved Sunday. The constitutional deadline for the elections is Jan. 31.

The United States military on Monday announced three deaths: two American pilots were killed in a helicopter crash west of Tikrit in northern Iraq on Sunday, and a Marine died Sunday of injuries not related to combat in Anbar Province, west of Baghdad. The deaths raised the total of Americans killed in Iraq to 141 so far this year, compared with 314 in all of 2008 and 904 in 2007, according to the Web site icasualties.org.

In the northern area of Mosul, two police officers were killed and one was wounded by an improvised bomb placed near a police patrol, and two civilians were killed and one wounded in a shootout with police officers, according to a police official.

John Leland, The New York Times, 10.11.09

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/world/middleeast/10iraq.html?ref=world