Women

Egyptian Female Volunteers in Suez Crisis and Their Armaments  

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Whenever you think of female warriors in the Middle East, the very first thing that crosses the Western mind is the YPJ (Women’s Protection Units), an all-female Kurdish militia that fights with other Kurdish militias such as the YPG (People’s Protection Units). Of course, with the war raging against ISIS, and the terrible atrocities committed against women, the global media fixated their spotlights on the female warriors who fought tooth and nail against a patriarchal, barbaric and medieval-minded opponent.

Within modern Arab history we have examples where women carried arms and fought as well.

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The “Female” Variant of the Galil

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The integration of female soldiers in IDF combat roles is a much-debated topic in Israel the last decade or so. Today we will ride on the wayback machine to a time when the place of women in military service was very different.

In the December 8 1982 issue of the IDF weekly magazine, Bamahane,  a short news piece was published with bold letters titled: “The end of discrimination! A major victory to the women’s liberation movement; a Galil assault rifle developed especially for female soldiers!”

The paper includes several pictures taken of an IDF female soldier ‘modeling’ a bent barrel Galil AR and further explanation states that the most problematic issue with designing a feminine rifle is that regular rifles keep colliding in the soldier’s breast whenever it was carried and practice in foot drills.

According to the news piece the development of the gun took two years and was tested by 350 female soldiers that were “carefully selected for their outstanding physical characteristics”

That ‘news piece’, as you might guess by now, wasn’t a real news report. It was the weekly satiric column called ‘על הגבול’ which literally means ‘On The Border’ but the more accurate translation means ‘Borderline’.

 

The prop gun was manufactured by none other than Yisrael Galil , the inventor of the Galil, for the satiric column.

The gun was a modified Galil AR with an absurdly bent barrel and vertical foregrip attached instead of the regular foregrip. The bolt carrier lacks a gas piston and there was no gas tube. All removed to achieve the described breast clearance. In one of the photos, the rifle is lacking a buttstock.

The gun was issued with a 12 round magazine, presumably to lighten the load on those top-heavy girls in uniform. The magazine is in fact a blank magazine used to propel rifle grenade.

The column summarized that since the rifles were introduced into military service they already proofed their value and the developer is flooded with purchase orders.

 

 

 

 

 

This article made possible by the courtesy of IDF & Defense Establishment Archives.

The photographer was Reuven Yehudai.