TEHRAN, Oct. 23, Reuter: Black veiled Iranian women, some sporting red headbands emblazoned “allegiance to Khomeini”, pumped automatic pistol and rifle fire into card targets at a military range on the outskirts of Tehran.
Instructors at the revolutionary guard’s camp described the targets variously as “the heart of (Iraqi President) Saddam Hussein”, “the United States”, and “the heart of Atheists.
Some 100 young women will graduate as instructors after an intensive one month course in weapons, military tactics, explosives and chemical, germ and radioactive warfare defence.
It is part of a vast campaign to implement an order last March by spiritual leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini for Iranian women to learn to use arms to “defend Islam” in the course of the war with Iraq, now in its seventh year.
Parvin Daeipour, supervisor of the “The Sisters” Basij (moblization) Center”, told reporters that women from all walks of life took part in the course the fourth since Khomeini’s order was issued.
Zhila Nemati, 21, raised dust at the “Imam Hussein” Garrison Camp when she fired an antitank shell.
Asked if she was frightened of the shoulder held weapon, Nemati said: “No, because I concentrate on the target, the enemy, when taking aim and our main ‘enemy is America”.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 31, 1986
