American Lionesses

On Saturday my church hosted a breakfast and the speaker was a Navy Chaplain (Catholic Priest) who had done two deployments to Iraq with Marine units.  It was fascinating and he was a superb speaker.  However one of the things that amazed me was a tale of Women Marines who were making a enormous difference throughout Iraq.  They were part of the “Lioness Program.”  Lionesses were volunteers originally assigned to put Women Marines on the scene where Marines were to encounter culturally sensitive Iraqis.  Their primary function in the beginning was to find female bombers.  According to the Chaplain Lioness employment has been expanded to empower Iraqi women and kick Iraqi men in the ass to move real change, honest change in the cultural mores of Iraq.  What a fabulous story – why isn’t it front page news? 

There are very few stories about these courageous women though I did find a few:

First Person Account of Iraq’s Lioness Program (America’s North Shore Journal)

From the Marine Corps News Room    

Lionesses work to improve community in local Iraq city (jdnews.com)

Lionesses of Iraq (Seattle Weekly News) Details the army program through the eyes of an embedded reporter – very compelling. 

 

God Bless these Warrior Women