Afghan policewomen arrive to a graduation ceremony after eight weeks of training Dec. 17 at a police academy in Kabul, Afghanistan. Just about 500 Afghan women work as active duty officers, compared with about 92,500 policemen.

Kabul ? The young Afghan woman leaves home every morning with her face and figure hidden by a burqa. At her office, she dons a police uniform, grabs a pistol and starts knocking in doors, looking for drug dealers and Taliban sympathizers.

Gulbesha, 22, is one of about 500 active duty policewomen in Afghanistan, compared with about 92,500 policemen. She is also one of just a few dozen who serve in the volatile south, where Taliban influence is strongest.

At a time when the U.S. is sending an additional 30,000 forces into Afghanistan, U.S. and Afghan officials say policewomen play an essential role in winning the war against insurgents. In a culture that strictly separates the sexes, security forces need more women to perform tasks men cannot do, including searching women and homes. Plans call for adding thousands more women in the next five years — a formidable goal in a society where a woman is expected to focus her life on home and family.

Even with a recruitment drive, however, the force has yet to fill the 650 slots already reserved for policewomen. And most of the officers are in relatively safe areas like Kabul and northern Herat province, according to U.S. and Interior Ministry figures. Families discourage their wives and daughters from dangerous jobs often considered corrupt.

Of the 15 female police officers in the southern province of Helmand, only Gulbesha and three others got permission from their families to travel to the capital for an eight-week training course that ended Thursday, said Robert Collett, a spokesman for NATO’s provincial reconstruction team in Lashkar Gah.

Of those, only two felt safe enough to be interviewed. They would only give their first names to protect their families from Taliban reprisals.

Gulbesha’s colleague, 36-year-old Islambibi, joined the force because she needed money. She walked into the police headquarters in the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah three years ago looking for work as a cleaner.

“But when they told me how much they paid cleaners, I said it wasn’t enough,” Islambibi said. “I asked if they had any better paying jobs and they told me I should become an officer.”

She became the first female police officer in Helmand, earning $250 a month in one of the most dangerous provinces in the country.

Policewomen are “an integral part of being able to conduct door-to-door searches,” said U.S. Brig. Gen. Anne Macdonald, who helps oversee the training programs.

Afghans are deeply offended when male soldiers or police search homes where women are present. At border crossings and other sensitive areas, men cannot search women for concealed weapons and other contraband, Macdonald said.

Policewomen must also deal with harassment and threats.

Col. Shafiqa Quraisha, the head of the gender issues unit of the Afghan police, said women regularly complain that male administrators won’t accept applications for promotion until they agree to have tea or lunch with them. And Islambibi tells of being attacked by women in the villages during operations.

“The men tell their wives to attack me. So they come up and try to tear my headscarf off,” she said.

Still, she refuses to quit because she needs the money and is proud of her work.

“I am like a man. I am not afraid,” she said.