William & Mary hosts members of Afghan female tactical platoon
By Emma Henry '25
Originally appeared in The Virginia Gazette, Sept. 28, 2024
Members of an Afghan female tactical platoon appeared at William & Mary this week to talk about mental toughness, resilience and what it’s been like since the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan.
The panel, hosted by the Reves Center for International Studies, drew dozens of attendees to W&M’s Tucker Hall to hear from veterans Rebekah Edmondson, Mahnaz Akbari and Kathleen T. Jabs about their experiences.
Akbari and Edmondson worked directly with the first Afghan Female Tactical Platoon in Afghanistan as high-ranking members of the special unit. The platoon, or FTP, combined both Afghan and U.S. troops with the aim of working with women and children during raids. Due to Afghan cultural norms that often prohibit men from touching or speaking to women, the FTP was an integral part of gathering information that could lead to Taliban targets.
The pair met in 2014 during one of Edmondson’s four deployments to Afghanistan as an enlisted member of the U.S. Army. Prior to 2011, Edmondson was deployed to support Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Freedom Sentinel before being selected for the Joint Special Operations Command’s Cultural Support Team to help integrate women into combat. Eventually, her role was to work with Akbari to train Afghan women and conduct direct-action night-raids.
Akbari, who is from Afghanistan, grew up in Iran and joined the Afghan National Army in 2011. For 10 years, she served as commander of the FTP and worked alongside U.S. Special Operations Forces. In 2021, she was forced to flee Afghanistan with 30 other members of the FTP following the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country.
Jabs, a retired U.S. Navy veteran, witnessed the arrival of many Afghan refugees during her time as acting secretary and deputy secretary of veterans and defense affairs for Virginia. She now works as special assistant to the president for military and veteran affairs at the university.
“What made the FTP unique was because it broke all the cultural barriers in Afghanistan,” Akbari said. “We had a lot of brave, strong women, that in the past had fought against the enemy, but we didn’t have the structure of the military.”
Growing up in Iran, Akbari explained that there was a lot of discrimination against Afghans, so joining the military in Afghanistan was a way for her to represent her country in a powerful position and fight back against the restrictions she grew up facing. In fact, many of the questions she asked women serving in the FTP revolved around their purpose in the military, and the mental energy it took to come back stronger the next day.
“The work we did was initially classified; it was very unsafe, especially for Mahnaz, to be known as this individual that was going out on night raids,” Edmondson said. “But seeing the environments that people were living in and how women were being treated, it just reinforced the need for this type of work.”
Jabs mentioned that, despite never serving in combat herself, the three women have bonded over the shared pressures they experienced as women in the military. To her, giving “forgiveness and compassion” for oneself is an essential skill to cultivate in these high-intensity situations.
Edmondson and Akbari also spoke to being women in a male-dominated culture, with Akbari adding that there was an additional layer of cultural norms, family life and motherhood for Afghan women serving in the FTP.
After the evacuation from Afghanistan, Akbari and the rest of the FTP came to the United States as refugees, with Akbari only recently granted asylum and still waiting for her green card. She reflected on the evacuation as one of the worst things in her life, especially with the knowledge that the Taliban were now ruling her home country.
Edmondson added that it is important for people to understand that, despite the lack of media about Afghanistan post-withdrawal, citizens of the country are still suffering at the hands of the Taliban and refugees are still waiting for the family reunification process.
“These people have literally given everything that one could give for our protection and for the safety of our country, and now their family members are unsafe,” she said. “There’s still more that we need to do to support those people that have worked so hard to protect us.”
To support the rescue and resettlement of Afghan War allies and their families, Edmondson started a nonprofit called NXT Mission. Follow the fledgling group’s efforts at nxtmission.org, facebook.com/nxtmissionorg, or email FTP@nxtmission.org.
