At the unveiling of the B.C. Afghanistan Memorial on Quadra Street in September 2017, Shinkai Karokhail, Afghanistan’s ambassador to Canada, spoke with passion:
“As a woman who has stood for women’s rights and has represented men and women for a decade in our parliament, I know very well what the Canadian sacrifice has meant to my nation.”
She went on to point out the changes in Afghanistan since 2001 — more women in parliament (about 28 per cent now, just ahead of Canada’s 27 per cent); 36 per cent of all students are female (there are three million girls in school, compared with about 50,000 in 2001) and better health care across the nation. She thanked Canadians for the sacrifices of their “daughters and sons.”
Daughters and sons. We don’t often hear it stated that way, but as an Afghan woman, she has a right to put the emphasis on the role Canadian women played during the operation and the change it meant for women in Afghanistan.
I first met Karokhail in 2011 in her home village of Khak-e-Jabbar, the tiny capital of a district about an hour-and-a-half drive south of Kabul. Our meeting in the village included about 20 men and one woman, Karokhail, the local member of the lower house of the Afghan parliament.
She was the only woman there, but she was the dominant voice in that room and held everyone’s attention by her dignity, her understanding of the history of her region, the fighting of the 1990s, the departure of half the population of her district as refugees, the status of women locally and throughout the country, and by her ability to articulate the needs of her region in English, Dari, Pashto and Urdu.
A champion for the future of Afghanistan, not the past, Karokhail went on to fight for revisions of textbooks and changes in repressive laws, and she played a strong role in mentoring young women and fighting for their rights.
So when she thanked Canadians for the sacrifices of our “daughters and sons,” I knew she wanted to place a special emphasis on the women who served in Afghanistan, not just for their service, but for their examples.
About 4,000 Canadian women deployed to Afghanistan. While many supported reconstruction efforts or delivered humanitarian and medical projects, more than 300 served in frontline combat roles in the infantry, artillery, combat engineers or armoured corps.
They also distinguished themselves doing so. Maj. Eleanor Taylor received a Meritorious Service Medal for her service as an “exceptional combat leader” of an infantry rifle company. After intense combat in Nakhonay, Capt. Ashley Collette’s Medal of Military Valour citation reads that her “fortitude under fire and performance in combat were critical to defeating the enemy.”
On the B.C. Afghanistan Memorial, the range of women’s contributions is carved in stone. There are better-known names, such as that of Capt. Nichola Goddard, who died while directing artillery fire and close air support on May 17, 2006. Not only was she the first female Canadian combat soldier to be killed in conflict, she was also the first forward observation officer to direct fire missions in support of Canadian manoeuvre operations against a known enemy since the Korean War.
Journalist Michelle Lang’s name also appears on the memorial, as she was embedded with the Canadian Task Force when the vehicle she was riding in rolled over an improvised explosive device. Her name is etched alongside four others who died in that explosion: George Miok, Zach McCormack, Kirk Taylor and Garrett Chidley.
There are other women’s names on the memorial, less known to Canadians, but each showing the range of women’s service in Afghanistan: Karine Blais from Gaspesie, a 21-year-old trooper in the armoured corps, Michelle “Mic” Mendes, a 30-year-old major in the intelligence branch, and Kristal Giesebrecht, a medical technician from Petawawa, share space on the memorial.
They not only served Canadians, but each in her own way served as a role model for a generation of Afghan women. As Karokhail said, as she finished her comments in Victoria last September: “You have all made the world a better place and there is nothing more noble than serving others.”
Col. (Retired) Jamie Hammond, OMM, CD, served around the world for 28 years in Canada’s infantry and special forces, including several tours to Afghanistan and Bosnia. This is the fourth in a series leading up to Remembrance Day.
