ISLAMABAD, May 11, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Masculinity is no longer a condition to be a fighter pilot in the Muslim world as Pakistan has allowed women to enroll at its Air Force Academy.

A newspaper advertisement seeking female cadets has stricken a responsive chord with many female pilot hopefuls, the BBC News Online reported Tuesday, May 10.

There are now 10 women in two batches in the flying wing of the academy with many more competing with men in the engineering and aerospace wing.

The head of the onetime male-dominated Pakistani Air Force Academy, Air Vice Marshal Inam Ullah Khan, told the BBC that the female cadets have done better than expected.

A Dream Come True

“I always wanted to be a fighter pilot,” said Khan. (BBC)

For Saba Khan and her Air Force colleagues it was like a dream come true.

“I always wanted to be a fighter pilot, and eventually with Allah's wish and the full support of my parents, I made it this far,” Khan told the BBC.

Inspired by her uncles who had been captains themselves, Khan hopes that the unprecedented experience would provide inspiration for many other girls in the country.

Words failed Khan’s colleague when she tried to explain what she felt when she was trained in flying propeller planes.

Cadet Ambreen Gill told the BBC that she hoped soon to fly combat aircraft like F-16s.

And the female cadets do not want their male peers to show any sort of compassion, but rather want them to prove competitive.

“We don't expect compassion, we don't get compassion, and we don't want compassion,” Saman Ahmad told the British Broadcaster.

And Ahmad does match words with deeds. In a rifle exercise, she shot all five bullets right in the bull's eye to the envy of the male cadets, according to the BBC.

Due to religious traditions, the academy segregates between female and male cadets in physical exercises.

Islam does allow women to play a leading role in society and has granted them with wide-ranging freedoms.