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)

January 1, 2019

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)

Latest News

Women at the Center of Rwanda’s Peacebuilding and Recovery

NEWS
January 8, 2026

Women have been central to Rwanda’s peacebuilding trajectory since the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, a period marked by extreme violence, including the systematic use of sexual violence as a tool of genocide

Read News Item

Rwandan Women Peacekeepers Lead Action

NEWS
January 8, 2026

Rwandan Women Peacekeepers Lead Action Against Gender-Based Violence in South Sudan

Read News Item

The Continuing Challenge of Violence Against Women in Rwanda

NEWS
January 8, 2026

Violence against women continues to be a major human rights challenge in Rwanda.

Read News Item

Winnie’s Story - Choosing Policing as my career

NEWS
December 18, 2025

Read News Item

Critical Analysis of Rwanda’s Women, Peace and Security Agenda

NEWS
November 11, 2025

Rwanda has often been cited as a global leader in advancing gender equality, particularly in governance and peace building.

Read News Item

Resilient Leaders, Powerful Mentors: Women in Rwanda’s Security Institutions Inspiring Change

NEWS
October 10, 2025

The Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) and the Rwanda National Police (RNP) are security institutions and platforms of transformation, resilience, and mentorship.

Read News Item

Rwandan Female Police Officers Scaling Heights Of Policing Career

NEWS
May 30, 2019

May 30, 2019: In March 2019, the United Nations expressed its gratitude to a Rwandan Police Officer, Assistant Commissioner of Police, (ACP) Teddy Ruyenzi, for her outstanding role in UN peacekeeping. ACP Ruyenzi, who is among the top most senior police officers at the rank of ACP, leads a trail-blazing force of 160-strong all-female Formed Police Unit (FPU) in the Republic of South Sudan under the United Nations Mission in Southern Sudan (UNMISS).

Read News Item

Rwanda to send all-woman peacekeeping force to South Sudan

NEWS
July 10, 2018

July 9, 2018: Rwanda is set to send an all-female formed police unit for deployment in South Sudan under the UN peacekeeping mission, the Rwandan police said Tuesday. The contingent is the first female team to be sent on a foreign mission by the country.

Read News Item