Here’s a news item that I found particularly interesting. The first women ever to be accepted into training for front-line combat positions have just graduated from their training and become full-fledged pilots in the Pakistan Air Force.

PAKISTAN welcomed its first female pilots into the country’s air force yesterday, breaking into the all-male front-line bastion of its armed forces.

Saba Khan, Nadia Gul, Mariam Khalil and Saira Batool were among 36 cadets who received their wings after three and a half years of intensive training.

“I want to fly fighter jets and prove that girls can equally serve our country in the best possible manner as men are doing,” Flying Officer Gul, 22, said after graduating from the air force’s academy in the north-western town of Risalpur.

General Ahsan Saleem Hyat, the deputy chief of army staff, said the four had “shown the spirit and courage to rise above the ordinary and break new ground for others to emulate”.

“If Pakistan is to rise to the height that it deserves, both men and women of our beloved land must find equal space and opportunity,” he said.

Carrying rifles and dressed in the same green uniform as their male colleagues – except for a kameez (tunic) flapping over their trousers, and one wearing a headscarf – they paraded before hundreds of family members and diplomats, and took the military oath.

Standing in front of a T-37 training jet, Flying Officer Batool described her training as tough but “very thrilling”.

“My parents, their prayers and my instructors and above all, almighty Allah, helped me achieve this success,” said Ms Batool.

Given that we’re talking about Pakistan here, this is a pretty big deal. On the official level, the male pilots seem accepting of their female counterparts. But I doubt that’s the whole story. Even in the United States many men have problems with women holding combat positions in the military. What this does generate, however, is the acknowledgement that women can do many of the same things that men do. In the very least, they will get respect.

This is a very important step for a country so well known for its abuses against women that go unpunished. While many men may not like this, the key to preventing these abuses is to empower women. By allowing women to take to the front lines, they are proving to be an example of what all women can one day become in the country.

Heck, I’d be afraid not to show them respect!