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As the world marks International Women's Day on Wednesday, whose theme this year focuses on “women in the changing world of work”, the Israeli military says it is ahead of the curve in providing combat roles for female soldiers. The Haraam battalion began accepting women in 2000. Overall, female soldiers now make up 7 percent of the fighting ranks in the Israeli military, where men and women are conscripted at the age of 18. Men serve for three years and women for two. Israel's Arab citizens and ultra-Orthodox Jewish community are largely exempted from military service. “I think that the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) is very advanced by giving women equal opportunities”, Lieutenant-Colonel Oshrat Bachar, an adviser to the office of the chief of staff on gender issues, told Reuters at the Defence Ministry in Tel Aviv. “I believe that we are much more advanced than other armies in the world because (service) is mandatory and of course because we believe in equal rights”, she said. Here: Female Israeli soldiers from the Haraam artillery battalion stand in their living quarters at a military base in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights March 1, 2017. (Photo by Nir Elias/Reuters)
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