Lioness Program ‘Pride’ of the Corps (March 13, 2009)

Category: Combat

The Marine Corps developed the "Lioness Program," formed in 2004, to provide culturally-sensitive searches on Iraqi women, according to an article written by Regina T. Akers, a Ph.D. historian at the U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command in Washington, D.C. Insurgents in Iraq used women to smuggle contraband and serve as suicide bombers.

The Lioness Program "attached" female Marines to combat units to search Iraqi women and children who tried to smuggle money or weapons through security checkpoints in Iraq. The "lionesses" also trained Iraqi women how to conduct proper searches on other women.

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