In Pakistan, Female Police Officers Are Rare. This One Quelled A Militant Attack

January 1, 2019

December 31, 2018: Suhai Aziz Talpur was training to be a police officer, she was ordered to jump off a cliff during an endurance test. She recalls staring seven feet down to the ground. "I said no, I won't jump and break my leg."

So her supervisor pushed her.

Talpur landed unscathed. Later, her supervisor told her, "The fear is here." Talpur taps her head. "So fight it from here."

Talpur, 30, has fought ever since. Now a senior police officer, she has overcome obstacles facing women in conservative Pakistani society and upturned its traditions. She has become a rare Pakistani woman who, if not celebrated exactly for her defiance, is celebrated for what it led to: something that is widely seen as an act of heroism.

Read the full story: In Pakistan, Female Police Officers Are Rare. This One Quelled A Militant Attack (www.npr.org)

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