Some good news dug up by La Vanguardia the other day. They discovered that two Arabs were working as police officers in Nou Barris one of the areas where many immigrants live (17.6 of all the city's immigrants) and they had been particularly effective in policing Cuidad Meridiana which has a 35% immigrant population.
It seems Zuhair and Soraya ( not sure if they were real names) inspire confindence in that they prevent the communication breakdown which often takes place when an Arab person is arrested - or even just questioned. They also have a good nose as to what's going on out there anda re able to ferret out information that Catalan officers would have difficulty in finding. So why don't we have more? OK, maybe we do as they were not reported as being the first ones in the force, but it's very difficult to find out. It's like asking how many people from Sabadell eat fish on Fridays or how many people in Cornella under 13 have had sex.
What was interesting is that local Arabs were surprised that an Arab woman had become a police officer since she would be moving in a predominantly male environment but seemingly the uniform was the important thing in giving her the respect (DareI say it?) that she all too often does not have not only in the Muslim world but in Spain too. For that matter in the UK as well where gender violence is one of the highest in Europe.
As a footnote to this in Dubai where I worked for many years, a local paper ( The Gulf News) reports that the nunber of complaints to the police about wives beating up husbands has increased enormously in the last five years. The culprits are it seems drugs, alcohol - and western television programmes. Now if they got Spanish TVout there I'd certainly agree with that!
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