Guest Blog: “Winning the bet” by Lt. Enas Salem Sheyyab

I am happy to host a blog written by Lt. Enas Salem Sheyyab who is a Lieutenant in the Jordanian Armed Forces currently undergoing initial officer training at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in UK.

Women are slowly creeping into combat positions across the Jordanian military and that has encouraged me after I got my bachelors degree in human nutrition and dietetics to join the armed forces as a real Infantry soldier. Although I am a junior Officer but I believe that I really have rich experience. I graduated from the Royal Military Academy in Jordan in 2012 which trains the best qualified Officers based on examination and merit, regardless of gender or anything else, to find myself an operational staff in an Infantry Brigade, which is a male-dominated world. This was not a preferred or pleased position for a female who lives in a conservative society with a lot of customs and rules to be followed.

In the early days of my career as one of few females working in a combat unit, I was primarily focused on dealing with all challenges I was facing and improve myself by learning the job and trying to become “one of the boys”, which didn’t always work out well for me. It truly takes a very strong personality to be a lone woman in a male world; where you have male supervision, male colleagues and the type of work is very dependent on strength, the ability to be tactically sound and think on your feet. Obviously, I may not be as strong as a man, but if I have to go in and fight I will put up my best because it’s not about being big and strong, it’s about knowing how to handle yourself. That is why I took a place in the two high level manoeuvres which were important enough for me to appear in front of His Majesty the King.

It is great for your self-esteem if you can really go out and excel at the field, if you can get past all the nonsense such as men thinking that women shouldn’t be in this job. You really have to persevere and persist. If you can prove yourself in the field the sky will be the limit. My supportive family gave me enough hope, faith and strength to work very hard and pass all the obstacles I faced. I believed in myself when no one else did and now I am winning the bet to be a female Officer Cadet in one of the best academies in the whole world, the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in the UK which proves that female’s set of skills are just as good, if not better than, male Officers.