The coalition of Arab countries joining the air strikes against ISIS/ISIL in Syria marks a departure from the past. There was an even greater departure from the past when we read that the United Arab Emirates' air attack was led by squadron leader Major Mariam al-Mansouri, a 35 year-old graduate of the UAE's air force academy. Given the fact that in countries bordering the UAE women are not allowed to drive, as a Muslim woman in a restrictive culture, Major al-Mansouri's accomplishment is staggering.
ISIS/ISIL has a brutal record of kidnapping, murdering and raping women captured in the areas it has seized. Their ideology demands that women be nothing more than subservient chattel to men. What a wonderful twist that a Muslim woman is leading her nation's air strikes on them. May she fly in safety and with great success.
UPDATE: In dog-bites-man news, Fox "News" buttmunch makes sexist jokes about Maj. al-Mansouri.
(photo: Major al-Mansouri in the cockpit of her F-16, by Emirates News Agency)
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