First women graduate from Syria's new police academy

Some 150 Syrians on Tuesday became the first graduates of the country's new police academy for women, as the Islamist authorities rebuild their security apparatus.

Rows of new policewomen, mostly wearing hijabs below their regulation hats and berets, lined up holding weapons for the ceremony, before they joyfully embraced their families. Brigadier-General Huda Sarjawi, director of the Women's Police Institute in Al-Tal north of Damascus, told that the graduation marked the first cohort of policewomen in a "new Syria".

"The participation of women in the security sector is a social necessity, and also supports the participation of women in all fields," she said. Authorities inaugurated the academy in March, and the women, who undertook around six months of training, are to be part of the interior ministry forces across the country.