“It’s hard for men to accept that a woman can be a police colonel”

I joined the police against my parents’ wishes

Early in the morning, she puts on a pink T-shirt, a tracksuit, and sneakers and goes for a jog. Since February 24, she starts every day with a jog.

Holosiivskyi Park, where Iryna Zalialova goes for a jog, is her power place. Here, she is just an athlete and a woman who maintains physical and mental fitness. However, after breakfast, which her daughter usually makes for her, Iryna changes her sportswear to black clothes with three stars on her shoulder straps. And she turns into a police colonel.

Iryna Zalyalova jogging in Holosiivskyi Park
Photo: hromadske

Iryna knew that she would become a police officer since she was a child. She liked those guys in uniform that she would see on the streets. The girl would always greet police officers, and they answered her. She would pretend to be a detective while playing with her friends in the yard, catching criminals and investigating offenses. And when Iryna found out about the woman who headed the investigative unit in her native Horlivka, she decided that she wanted to become just like her.

“I saw how strong and professional she was, how fast she would make decisions, and how people respected her — it was fascinating. I wanted to be like her, I wanted to investigate crimes and punish criminals,” she recalls.

Iryna’s father was a policeman himself, but he wanted Iryna to become a foreign language teacher. He considered working in law enforcement agencies not suitable for a woman. Iryna even graduated from a pedagogical university, wrote a Ph.D. thesis, and was teaching at the Department of Criminology and Penitentiary Law. But later she started working in the security sector: “If I decide something, I won’t deviate from this path!”

Photo of Iryna as a child with her parents and sister
Photo: hromadske

Seeing the war coming twice

On the morning of February 24, Iryna heard explosions. But the beginning of a full-scale war did not shock her: the police were prepared for different scenarios, they had to have a “go bag”.

Iryna didn’t even consider leaving Kyiv — on the morning of February 24, she just went to work.

“I took the oath to the Ukrainian people, and for me, these are not empty words, but an unshakable principle. I don’t remember being scared at all. But my husband really worried about me. But he accepted my decision not to leave, and he also stayed in Kyiv,” says Iryna.

For her, that February day was not the “beginning of the war”, because the war came into her life 8 years ago — in 2014. Back then, Iryna lived in Horlivka and worked at the Donetsk Law Institute.

When pro-Russian militants entered Donetsk Oblast, Iryna and her daughters (the younger was 4, the older was 14) were hiding at home, and armed men were walking outside, shooting at cars. From the window, Iryna could see shells fly over residential buildings.

“My teacher colleagues and I let all the cadets graduate, gave them the opportunity to pass exams and moved the younger students to safer regions. And only after that, in June, I left the city with my family. Soon, Horlivka was occupied, and we ended up in Kyiv,” Iryna recalls.

Iryna with her husband and daughters
Photo: courtesy of hromadske

In the capital, she began working at the Institute of Criminal and Executive Service and was promoted to the rank of Colonel. Four years later, this institute was closed down. She had to start her career from scratch.

Back then. the National Police was being created, and Iryna decided to try herself there. She prepared for the tests, was selected, and got a job as a district police officer, unranked again.

“My rank was restored later, and now I am a police colonel. It was a difficult period, which showed that you should not be afraid to start all over again if you believe in your vocation and want to be useful,” Iryna shares.

“Domestic violence” article did not exist before

Iryna really liked working as a district police officer — feeling that she was helping people. But she would get upset when she didn’t have enough authority to help. Even back then, Iryna dealt with complaints about domestic violence, but she did not think that it would become her lifework.

“A woman turned to me once, saying that her daughter’s husband beats her. The girl didn’t want to report it to the police. Her mother asked me to do at least something — for example, hang an information poster at the entrance to her building with information that the police can protect against domestic violence and that one can contact the police to report it. The mother was hoping that her daughter’s husband would see this poster, and it would change something. We put up the poster, but I still don’t know if it had any effect. This was one of the first times when I encountered domestic violence at my work. Now, this is the main topic that I work with,” Iryna says.

Now she is the head of one of the departments at the Human Rights Directorate. She deals with such issues as gender equality and countering domestic violence. To get the current position, she spent a long time preparing — she studied legislation in the field of human rights protection and international standards. She took all the online courses on human rights and domestic violence she could find. She was finally chosen out of seven candidates.

Iryna at work
Photo: hromadske

“Before, when I worked as an investigator, I also had criminal cases when a husband beat his wife or vice versa. But back then, it was qualified as “bodily harm”, the article on “domestic violence” did not exist at all,” Iryna recalls.

Now, one of her tasks is to make sure that the police respond more effectively to cases of gender-based and domestic violence. They specifically teach police officers about it and try to convey information to all law enforcement officers in all regions.

Iryna advises contacting their Directorate if people face the improper reaction of policemen to such cases, or their rights are violated. The Directorate will check and find out why this happened. If the fact is confirmed, the perpetrators will be punished.

“Everyone has gender stereotypes. I understand that I still have stereotypical thinking. I struggle with it, but it’s a gradual process. I think it comes from my upbringing. Since childhood, everyone is told that girls are “fragile”, and that they need to be protected. Men are told the opposite — “don’t cry, you must be strong.” It is very difficult to get rid of these stereotypes in adult life and perceive all people equally, regardless of gender,” says Iryna.

One out of every four people in the police is a woman

There aren’t many women with the rank of colonel in the police. Zalialova says that there are men who cannot easily accept the stars on her shoulder straps.

“I met a fellow police officer at an event once, I was wearing a uniform with shoulder straps. But he was still very surprised to learn of my rank. Until I said it out loud, his mind refused to believe it, even though he could see my shoulder straps,” she says.

Statistics show that currently, approximately 27% of the Ukrainian police are women. 5 years ago, there were significantly fewer of them. Every year, the number of women in the security sector increases, but there are still few female leaders — for example, only 16% of police leaders are women.

Police colonel Iryna Zalialova
Photo: hromadske

“I feel that the situation is changing. No one doubts that women in the police are just as important as men. What matters is how well you do your job. From the very beginning of a full-scale war, female police officers in heavy bulletproof vests stand at checkpoints in any weather, just like men. We have female explosives technicians in the police who clear the territory and female special forces. This doesn’t surprise anyone anymore,” says Iryna. And she adds: “A full-scale war has changed me, I feel stronger, more resilient. I started making decisions faster because there is no time to think during the war. I don’t consider myself a superhero — I’m an ordinary woman, there are millions of such women.”

The partnership material is published as an advertisement. The article was created in collaboration with the UN Women project “Decentralization and Community Security Reforms: Transformative Approaches to Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Ukraine” funded by the Danish government.

Journalist Tetiana Honchenko, editors Khrystyna Kotsira and Victoriia Beha, designer Tetiana Kostik, and creative producer Anna Sokha worked on the material.