As you can imagine I have been swamped with all sorts of people asking me about Azi Ahmed. And before you ask “No woman has ever attempted selection.” So this whole story is being blown out of control by Azi who is selling a story which is based on twisted truth in an attempt to advance her career as an author/speaker and to make a run at the British Parliament. Basically you can’t polish a lump of shit but you can roll it in glitter.
Here is the what has been said from members of the unit at the time. I am not going to disclose who said what, in order to protect their identities, but I am willing to stand by what I have written.
Reference Azi Ahmed. Yes she was attached. And there have over the years been plenty of females attached to the brigade as cooks, drivers, admin and the list goes on. Azi was part of an experiment by then CO of 21 SAS (reservists) Holly, who was known for his creative ideas. I once farted on his leg by mistake to the amusement of a small group of Rupert’s. There was to be no time limit, lighter weight, no Test Week, no live fire, no jungle no E&E (Escape and Evasion) etc, etc. Purely a look at what women who volunteered could be capable of. For certain nobody taking part was going to be BADGED 22 SAS on completion of a simple exercise.
“This girl, plus one other, have used the experience to be self-serving and economical with the truth,” claims a DS (Directing Staff) at the time.
“She claims she did the same as the blokes, that’s an outright lie. That’s utterly disrespectful to the blokes who pass 21/23 selection – which is outrageously hard for blokes holding down a job and attempting one of the hardest courses in the UK military. It was about 13 years ago, but I do remember her dating one of the DSs at the time, which conflicts with her other claims about her home life,” says another member of the so-called directing staff.
The following was written by one of the senior instructors on the TA course.
“Ahmed and (Rachel) Kelsey were two of the more hopeless females there. Their performance was very poor with the DS having to ‘drag’ them round the hills to make sure they finished.
They did some blank contact drills. No test week and no battle camp, (only the TA do a battle camp. It is because they don’t do the jungle or any other parts of selection).
As you can imagine I have been swamped with all sorts of people asking me about Azi Ahmed. And before you ask “No woman has ever attempted selection.” So this whole story is being blown out of control by Azi who is selling a story which is based on twisted truth in an attempt to advance her career as an author/speaker and to make a run at the British Parliament. Basically you can’t polish a lump of shit but you can roll it in glitter.
Here is the what has been said from members of the unit at the time. I am not going to disclose who said what, in order to protect their identities, but I am willing to stand by what I have written.
Reference Azi Ahmed. Yes she was attached. And there have over the years been plenty of females attached to the brigade as cooks, drivers, admin and the list goes on. Azi was part of an experiment by then CO of 21 SAS (reservists) Holly, who was known for his creative ideas. I once farted on his leg by mistake to the amusement of a small group of Rupert’s. There was to be no time limit, lighter weight, no Test Week, no live fire, no jungle no E&E (Escape and Evasion) etc, etc. Purely a look at what women who volunteered could be capable of. For certain nobody taking part was going to be BADGED 22 SAS on completion of a simple exercise.
“This girl, plus one other, have used the experience to be self-serving and economical with the truth,” claims a DS (Directing Staff) at the time.
“She claims she did the same as the blokes, that’s an outright lie. That’s utterly disrespectful to the blokes who pass 21/23 selection – which is outrageously hard for blokes holding down a job and attempting one of the hardest courses in the UK military. It was about 13 years ago, but I do remember her dating one of the DSs at the time, which conflicts with her other claims about her home life,” says another member of the so-called directing staff.
The following was written by one of the senior instructors on the TA course.
“Ahmed and (Rachel) Kelsey were two of the more hopeless females there. Their performance was very poor with the DS having to ‘drag’ them round the hills to make sure they finished.
They did some blank contact drills. No test week and no battle camp, (only the TA do a battle camp. It is because they don’t do the jungle or any other parts of selection).
Apart from Kelsey and Ahmed there were three others that I remember. I have their last names but no reason to disclose since they’ve not been making any claims for fame. All this happened at A Squadron once we’d moved to Regents Park Barracks.” A Squadron being the part timers from London and not Hereford and 22 SAS.”
Another senior instructor at the time was quoted
“Ok, Ahmed and the other girl Rachel Kelsey who was in the paper about 2003/4 claiming the exact same thing, were put on our selection course for 21 in 1999 as a pet project of the colonel at the time. They were fully aware of this and knew it was nothing to do with women joining the ranks or earning the blade.
They never did the same tabs as us and as we were carrying 50lb they were carrying 15 max , they had their own DS for their safety and did shorter walks even though they would say different to the media, they were in clip all the time, no one wanted them there but we were told they had to be due to being admin staff. They were an admin nightmare.
They disappeared two weeks before we all went on test week and we thought “Thank fuck for that,” but appeared again when we started continuation.
That’s when the fun began.
You have never seen such mongs in all your life, Ahmed with pink socks tucked into her combats dragging her Bergen around crying , they gave her a long back Bergen which came down to the back of her knees but they were both in shit state and again no one wanted them, they weren’t allowed to live fire because their weapon skills were shit.”
He continues:
“In her story she said she fell in a river face down and nearly drowned, well that was a drainage ditch on a training area when we were doing a night ex and she stepped off the edge and fell face down. We had to lift her out by her Bergen but spent 30 mins looking for her SA80 as she dropped it and let go.
Loads of other things went on but long and short they never did test week! And never did battle camp and knew they were never going to get badged!! They were there as some fucking pet project and they knew it.”
The nuts and bolts are that it was a poorly thought-out idea by a colonel serving with the Territorial SAS who additionally have no Special Forces status any more.
Ahmed was never the first woman to attempt UKSF Selection as she was never on it in an official and professional capacity in the first place.
She is obviously an intelligent women and has sniffed at what she sees as an easy dollar and wrote a book. She served in the TA as an admin clerk and got involved with a scheme which started and was never ever going anywhere. To say she attempted UKSF selection in any way, shape, or form is a blatant lie. Having worked alongside women on the frontline in Syria I would love to see the first woman to complete selection. She just ain’t there yet.
Image courtesy of Dailymail
COMMENTS
There are on this article.
You must become a subscriber or login to view or post comments on this article.