The opinions expressed herein are those of the author, and not necessarily those of The New Agenda.

On January 22nd, Congresswoman Gabby Giffords announced that she would step aside from office in the midst of her courageous recovery from a cowardly assassination attempt. She announced her decision to resign by releasing this touching video:

Congresswoman Giffords officially resigned from her House seat on January 25th, and on Friday, February 10th, President Obama signed into law the last bill Giffords co-sponsored—a bill that increases penalties for using small aircraft to smuggle drugs into the country. The Congresswoman vows to return to public service following her recovery. Whoever succeeds her in office has some courageous shoes to fill. Who has the potential to live up to such a task?

Another woman who has displayed great courage in her own right is Republican Martha McNally, who has announced her bid to fill Giffords’ 8th Congressional District seat in Arizona. The election will be held on April 17th. She also has plans to run for the 2nd Congressional District seat—which was created as part of the re-districting process—in the Fall. McNally has quite a compelling and courageous story of her own, as her campaign biography states:

Martha E. McSally is a pioneer. She was the first female fighter pilot to fly in combat, and first to command a fighter squadron in combat in United States history. In 2001-2002, Martha McSally earned national recognition for successfully overturning a military policy requiring all U.S. servicewomen to wear a Muslim Abaya and headscarf when off base in Saudi Arabia.

Originally from Rhode Island, Martha retired from the United States Air Force as a Colonel in 2010. She has made her home in Tucson for a number of years, first arriving in the Old Pueblo in 1994, the first of her four assignments to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.

She is a Distinguished Graduate of the United States Air Force Academy, and earned her Masters Degree, in Public Policy, from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. In 1999, Martha was one of only seven active-duty Air Force officers selected for the prestigious Legislative Fellowship Program, working on Capitol Hill and serving as a national security advisor to Senator Jon Kyl.

Before resigning to run for office, Martha was Professor of National Security Studies at the George C. Marshall Center in Germany where she taught and mentored senior government officials from all over the world in international and national security issues.

Now, Martha McSally wants to bring her extensive track record of leadership, moral courage and public service to the people of Southern Arizona. “It’s time we stopped talking and starting making our government work again,” said McSally, “When I see something messed up, I fix it. And right now, we have a lot of work to do.”

As her biography notes, Martha McSally has fought against the double standards of the military’s protocol which required female military personnel to adhere to the customs of the country they were stationed in, but did not have the same requirements for men. McSally discusses this in a 2002 segment on 60 Minutes:

This is a battle that McSally continues to fight, as female soldiers fighting in Afghanistan are being encouraged to wear similar Muslim garb as a means to, as she notes in a February 2011 opinion piece, “reach out to local Afghan women and win their hearts and minds as part of the new counterinsurgency strategy.” McSally notes that some military women defend this practice as a way of showing respect for the Afghan culture, but also goes on to write:

I applaud these warriors’ desire to do whatever it takes to win this war. But wearing the scarf when in U.S. military uniform is appeasement, not respect. Our troops should not conform to customs that represent the marginalization of people and are incongruent with our fundamental values. Would our military leaders have dared encourage African-American troops to submit to local customs if they had been ordered to deploy to South Africa under apartheid?

America has a long history of pride in the military uniform, and the Army has a 362-page directive on proper uniform wear. Included are guidelines that accommodate freedom of religion by outlining what religious attire or jewelry can be worn with the uniform. Anything that interferes with the wear or function of the military hat or protective gear, including the Kevlar helmet, is forbidden. Under these rules, a Muslim soldier stationed in the United States who wanted to wear a headscarf with her uniform would not be permitted to do so.

The Muslim headscarf, a religious custom that aims to deflect sexual attention from non-male relatives, is certainly a point of much controversy. It is currently outlawed by France and Turkey in public institutions. Scholars disagree whether it is even mandated by the Koran. Some label it as a symbol of female subjugation while others call it liberating.

American servicewomen will continue to be viewed as second-class warriors if leaders push them to take up the customs of countries where women are second-class citizens. The abaya policy in Saudi Arabia and the wearing of the Muslim headscarf in a war zone in Afghanistan are cut from this same flawed thinking. Top military leaders should issue guidance that U.S. servicewomen are not authorized to wear a Muslim headscarf while in their uniform conducting military duties. If they don’t, Congress should intervene again, as they did on the abaya, and prohibit its wear.

McSally’s campaign website prominently notes that, ” [s]he’s fought for our country. She’s fought for the rights of women everywhere. Now she stands ready to fight for you.” As Gabby Giffords continues her brave recovery, it is encouraging to see that a woman who has fought her own set of courageous battles may fill her seat in Congress.