We’re used to seeing the Islamic world’s women as victims. From old-fashioned discrimination to rape, torture, mutilation and murder, it’s tough having two X chromosomes in some of the more regressive Moslem states, especially in the Middle East. But in the developing long war against the Daesh (or ISIS or…
Miriam has brought (don’t ask) to my attention an interview in today’s Los Angeles Times with Major General Orna Barbivai, Israel’s highest-ranking female officer and commander of the Israeli Defense Forces’ Manpower Directorate. In it, MGen Barbivai talks about some of the challenges of integrating two almost diametrically opposed groups…
How close to reality is Zero Dark Thirty? The Pacific Standard online magazine ran on 16 January an article written by Nada Bakos, a former CIA analyst and targeteer, in which she compares the hunting-bin-Laden movie to her own work in the Agency’s Counterterrorism Center, and then with the Zarqawi…
The recent flare-up in Gaza got me thinking about Miriam Schaffer – Our Heroine in Doha 12 – and her connection to that troubled area. Her experience ties directly into the history of women in Israel’s armed forces. We’ve all heard the stories of Israeli female warriors during the 1948…
A follow-on article to the Israeli business magazine Globes’ interviews with female Mossad agents (mentioned in this post)extensively quotes the agency’s director, Tamir Pardo, on his attitudes toward female operatives. In short: he’s all for them. A couple of the more interesting quotes: “Women start at the Mossad at younger…
Some of Mossad’s female agents have spoken semi-on-the-record to Lady Globes, an Israeli monthly women’s magazine, about their lives in “secret warfare.” You can read the English-language wrapups in the Times of Israel (includes a link to the original article, in case you read Hebrew) and RT-Novosti (somewhat different quotes…