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When Lt. Col. Martha McSally learned that she would have to wear the traditional Muslim abaya when off base at her new assignment in Saudi Arabia, the tenacious fighter pilot initially refused.

"As a follower of Christ, to have to wear the clothing of another religion … was tremendously offensive," McSally told Christianity Today.

Commanders required the 1,000 female soldiers based in Saudi Arabia to wear the long, black abaya and matching headscarf when off base. But after a drawn-out battle with McSally, the military's highest-ranking female fighter pilot at age 35, the U.S. Central Command in January announced it was dropping the policy. While no longer mandatory, the Muslim clothing is "strongly encouraged."

In December, McSally sued Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in United States District Court over the policy. The suit claims the policy violates her constitutional rights to religious freedom and freedom of speech, and discriminates based on McSally's sex. It also challenges regulations requiring servicewomen to ride in the back seat of a vehicle and to be escorted by a man when traveling off base. These latter restrictions remain in effect.

Saudi Arabia is the only country where the U.S. military has required female personnel to wear the abaya. The policy did not apply to female State Department employees or to military wives.

The suit is "moving aggressively forward" despite the policy change, says John Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute, which represents McSally.

"They haven't addressed the gender discrimination issues," Whitehead says, adding that the policy change may not be substantial. "We don't know what 'strongly encouraged' means. We're afraid it could be coercive."

A Defense Department spokesman says that while the change means Central Command no longer enforces the abaya rule, local commanders may still require it. Some have told servicewomen to continue wearing the abaya. Military officials say the policy was to protect servicewomen from the wrath of Saudi religious police for violating the Muslim dress code. While foreign men can get away with Western dress, they argue, cultural mores do not allow the same for women.

"[Men are] not going to get beaten with a stick for walking down the road, or stoned for not covering their heads," says retired Air Force Lt. Col. Joe Rogan. Women who seek to serve in this environment should wear the abaya, he says.

An experienced pilot, McSally has logged 100 combat hours over Iraq in A-10 Warthogs. She has directed recent combat search and rescue missions over Afghanistan. Long before her deployment to Saudi Arabia, McSally had been quietly working to change the abaya policy.

In 1995, as the first woman to fly a combat sortie in a fighter plane, McSally met with Defense Secretary William Perry and expressed her concerns. Before the meeting, a friend encouraged her to read the story of Esther. "I read it, and God really spoke to me," says McSally. Particularly striking was Esther 4:14 (ESV): "And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" "This totally convicted me that I had to bring it up," says McSally. She did, but no changes came from the encounter.

McSally learned in November 2000 that she was being deployed to Saudi Arabia.

After being threatened with a court-martial if she did not comply, McSally agreed to don the abaya and planned to challenge the policy after she arrived. When she got off the plane at the Prince Sultan Air Force Base, McSally put on the abaya and matching scarf and sat in the back seat of an SUV with lower-ranking men.

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March 11 2002, Vol. 46, No. 3