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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Monday, December 10, 2001

Military Update
Woman A.F. pilot sues over dress code in Saudi Arabia

Military Update focuses on issues affecting pay, benefits and lifestyle of active and retired servicepeople. Its author, Tom Philpott, is a Virginia-based syndicated columnist and freelance writer. He has covered military issues for almost 25 years, including six years as editor of Navy Times. For 17 years he worked as a writer and senior editor for Army Times Publishing Co. Philpott, 49, enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard in 1973 and served as an information officer from 1974-77.

By Tom Philpott

As U.S. forces help liberate Afghan women from the Taliban, almost 900 U.S. servicewomen in Saudi Arabia can't leave base without a traditional Muslim robe, a male escort and, if inside a vehicle, a seat in the back. Even women who fly combat aircraft are banned from driving off base, under penalty of court-martial.

The U.S. Central Command adopted the rules in 1995 to accommodate Saudi religious sensibilities.

Lt. Col. Martha McSally, highest-ranking female combat pilot in the U.S. Air Force, had decided to challenge their legality in federal court.

McSally's job in Saudi Arabia is classified.

Until U.S. air strikes began in Afghanistan Oct. 7, she was in charge of search and rescue operations for allied pilots downed while patrolling the no-fly zone over southern Iraq.

Trained to fly the A-10 Warthog, a ground combat support aircraft, McSally has been battling restrictions on female service members in Saudi Arabia since her first assignment there, patrolling the no-fly zone, in 1995. Her present tour, begun in November 2000, will end Saturday with reassignment to the 12th Air Force, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz. For the past 13 months, McSally, a devout Christian, has declined to leave base, except on official business, to avoid having to wear a robe of the Muslim faith, called an abaya or burqas, and behave in a subservient manner toward men, which, she contends, harms military discipline and morale.

On Dec. 3, attorneys for McSally filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., against Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, seeking to invalidate Central Command rules that force service women, but not service men, to "adopt Islamic dress and adhere to Islamic customs" while off base in Saudi Arabia.

The regulation, the lawsuit argues, violates First Amendment rights to exercise religion and Fifth Amendment rights against discrimination.

Defense official would not comment. McSally also declined comment. Her lawyers are volunteers for the Rutherford Institute, a civil liberties organization.

Thomas Neuberger, of Wilmington, Del., is co-counsel. McSally is sensitive to the war, he said. The lawsuit was set to be filed Sept. 12. With the Sept. 11 attacks, the legal team shelved the paperwork and McSally extended her yearlong tour in Saudi Arabia by six weeks. She also named Rumsfeld, the department's top political appointee, as sole defendant, rather than any military commanders.

The war does put McSally's complaint in sharper focus, said Neuberger.

"What's happening in Afghanistan, with women and burqas, helps point out the contradiction, of our freeing Afghan women from wearing these but, at the same time, making our own service women wear them."

McSally, 35, was in the first group of seven women selected for fighter pilot training in 1993 after Congress lifted the restriction.

Questions, comments and suggestions are welcome. Write to Military Update, P.O. Box 231111, Centreville, VA 20120-1111, or send e-mail to: milupdate@aol.com.