"When I was in Somalia I was aware that one of the unique characteristics of that conflict from the Australian perspective was that women were now carrying guns within the Army and particularly women within the MPs who were actually at the cutting edge out in the streets of Mogadishu sort of facing potential ambushes and things and there was another interesting aspect which was that in that culture, the Somali culture, Muslim culture women had almost no rights and you know they had no, it was similar to the Talabahn situation in Afghanistan and so here were these modern women with guns and helmets and so on and the situation arose where it was thought that the Somali men were hiding weapons on their women because they knew that the UN being politically correct wouldn't let male soldiers touch Muslim women so the answer was to get Julie Baranowski an MP, an Australian MP woman soldier to go and frisk these women. She had a helmet on and to her she felt, to herself she felt completely feminine. I went out on that frisking women and people starting picking up rocks and wanting to, they thought you know this was a man touching a Muslim woman. So sensing the situation I said Julie pull your helmet off. She didn't realise how quickly and how dangerous it was becoming and she took her helmet off and her long blonde hair fell down and immediately she became like the seventh wonder of the world. People couldn't believe that there could be a woman ordering men around with stripes and a gun in pants and I think this is one of the great things of Australian peace keeping has taken to places like Somalia, the sense that there is a potential for women to have some kind of equality."

GEORGE GITTOES, FILM MAKER & PAINTER