She was clearly looking for adventure and, after taking part in an expedition to South America, she decided to join the British Army, as a lawyer. It wasn't long before she was posted to Iraq. Her job was to liaise with the relatively new Iraqi Government, helping sort out the relationship between the UK troops and the Iraqis and how international law applied in that volatile country.
One day, two British soldiers were arrested by the Iraqis and thrown into prison. The rules at the time set out that they should be handed over immediately to the British authorities but the Iraqis were reluctant and Rabia was told to go in and get it sorted.
It was a pretty sticky situation and she had no training as a negotiator. However, the two prisoners, Rabia and another soldier were finally released. Sounds like a happy ending, but that's when things started to go wrong. As Rabia explained, instead of a debriefing, she was shepherded off to rest. She was kept in the dark about what was happening with the other soldiers involved, but she found out later that they had all been debriefed. She got the impression that she was being sidelined and treated differently because she was female.
The bombshell came when the other soldier was awarded the Military Cross. Rabia didn't even get a mention. By this stage of the book, I was becoming suspicious that Rabia's re-telling of the story was a little biased, with more than a touch of sour grapes, but I read on.
She finally took the British Army to court, accusing them of sexism. Unfortunately, the Army decided to settle so we didn't hear the other point of view. Rabia is now back living in Western Australia. I wish I was able to accept her story without qualification, but I found it a little glib and I couldn't bring myself to believe the British Army could be so prehistoric.
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