2011 Muslim Headscarf Controversy
In March 2011, Rotunda weighed in on a controversy over whether their superiors should have encouraged female GIs in Afghanistan and Iraq to wear Muslim head-scarves while deployed to Iraq., stating that anyone familiar with military culture understood this suggestion was tantamount to an order, which inappropriately put female GIs at risk.
On April 8, 2011, in a Chicago Tribune op-ed about those risks, Rotunda triggered controversy. Rotunda pointed out that photographs, released by the U.S. Military and published in the Washington Post, showed women wearing headscarves, in lieu of helmets, while on an armed patrol alongside male troops, who were wearing helmets.
Military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Michael Lawhorn disputed Rotunda's safety claims, stating that a helmet could be worn over top of a headscarf.
According to Rotunda, the objections from Lieutenant Colonel Martha McSally, a female fighter pilot stationed in Saudi Arabia, had influenced Congress to pass an "anti-abaya law". But Rotunda said the 2003 law was specific to female GIs stationed in Saudi Arabia, and that it had expired. She recommended that Congress reauthorize a similar law to protect female troops in the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars.
Read more about this topic: Kyndra Rotunda
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