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Irans Drug Control Organisation has said that there are now 2.8 million people in the strictly conservative country regularly consuming drugs, according to reports carried by state media.

The figure is up from 1.3 million users in the Islamic Republics 80 million strong population six years ago, spokesperson Parviz Afshar said, with opium fuelling 67 per cent of consumption.

The UN said last year that Iran already has one of the worst addiction crises in the world, affecting people from all walksof society. Economic stagnation and high unemployment - the lingering result of years of US nuclear sanctions - are widely thought to be to blame.

What happened when US officials were asked why they criticised Iran but not Saudi Arabia

Marijuana use now made up 12 per cent, but methamphetamines use,popular among younger Iranians and known as 'glass',had dropped to 8 per cent, Mr Afshar said, quoting figures from the health and social welfare departments.

The actual number of addicts and regular users could be higher, Saeed Safatian, the head of a working group on drugs in the Expediency Council, Saeed Safatian, told the official IRNA news agency, because many will have not admitted to drug use for fear of social opprobrium.

A total of 90 per cent of the worlds opium is produced in neighbouring Afghanistan from poppy resin which is refined to make heroin. Despite the authorities' best efforts to clamp down on trafficking over the 600-mile-long border,Iran often serves as a transit point for export to the rest of the world, the AFP reports.

After the US invaded Afghanistan and overthrew the Taliban in 2001, opium production has soared, funding the extremists insurgency.

Since the majority of US and Nato ally troops withdrew from the country in 2014, production has increased even further: the UN says up to 6,000 tonnes of the drug was exported in 2016 thanks to good weather and the intensifying strength of the Taliban, which now controls some 40 per cent of the country.

The global narcotics market is thriving, the UNs crime and drugs agency said last week, with opiates causing tens of thousands of avoidable deaths a year.

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Number of drug addicts in Iran 'doubles' in six years - The Independent

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

New Delhi, June 26: Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei today used a Ramazan message to urge Muslims around the world to support Kashmiris against "oppressors and tyrants", reviving a seven-year-old wound and signalling fresh tensions with India.

Khamenei's message, on Twitter, comes amid concerns in Iran that India has slowed down its implementation of the Chabahar port project on the Gulf of Oman following worries that the US under President Donald Trump may withdraw from an agreement between Iran and the West over Tehran's nuclear programme. That agreement had led to a thaw between the West and Iran, which allowed New Delhi to engage with Tehran without the fear of sanctions.

"Muslim world should openly support people of Bahrain, Kashmir, Yemen etc and repudiate oppressors and tyrants who attacked" people during the Ramazan month-long fast that ended with Id, Khamenei said today.

In 2010, when India was gradually reducing oil imports from Iran under American pressure, Tehran thrice referred to the Kashmir crisis in a period of six months. India had then summoned Iran's top diplomat in New Delhi and registered a formal protest.

Valley protests

Violent protests broke out across Kashmir after Id prayers today, leaving dozens injured, but the authorities were relieved as the trouble was smaller than feared. A cop was lynched outside Srinagar's Jamia mosque last week.

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Iran jab on Kashmir - Calcutta Telegraph

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the former Iranian president, once declared to the world: In Iran, we dont have homosexuals. In Iran, we dont have this phenomenon. I dont know who has told you we have it. Ahmadinejads remarks at Columbia University were met with much laughter and criticism at the time. Ironically, however, his claim is not far from the truth. This narrative is reflective and representative of the states policies and practice that, in fact, do not support a homosexual subject. Conversely, despite how this subject is named, same-sex relationships have historically existed and continue to subsist/persist even in todays toxic environmentthough silenced and under-recognized. This is precisely because every cultural apparatus, from families to society to the government and judiciary, deny their sexual identity and human rights.

Human-rights campaigners report that over 4,000 members of sexual minorities have been executed since the ayatollahs seized power in 1979. However, it is estimated the number and frequency of executions is much higher due to the fact that queer Iranians are often condemned under the charges of rape, fraud, or treason in order to justify their criminality. These camouflaged charges appear to allow the Iranian government to conceal the punishment of queer citizens, thereby continuing to curtail sexual minorities rights to life and security as well as obscuring from reports the circumstances surrounding their executions.

The religious fundamentalism that characterizes the attitude of the Iranian judiciary toward homosexuality is longstanding. To contextualize the strict upholding of such judiciary practices one must first consider the ideology of the Islamic Republic as it is embodied in its religious and political leaders. Within months of the 1979 Iranian revolution, the birth date of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeinithen the highest-ranking political and religious authority in the Islamic Republic of Iran, and its supreme leadercalled for homosexuals to be exterminated. They were to be understood as the parasites and corruptors of the nation who spread the stains of wickedness.

Makwan Moloudzadehs bitter trial and execution is testament to the harshness of this central tenet of regime ideologyone that Amnesty International deemed a mockery of justice. Makwan had been found guilty of multiple counts of anal rape, allegedly committed when he was only 13 years old. The alleged victims in his case withdrew their testimony, claiming to have lied under duress. Makwan also informed the court that his confession had been coerced, and pleaded not guilty. Most important, Makwan was only a minor and under Article 49 of the Iranian Penal Code, minorsthose who have not yet reached maturity [puberty] as defined by Islamic Laware exempt from criminal responsibility.

Nevertheless, according to Article 120 of the Penal Code, in cases of anal sex between men, the judge can make his judgment according to his knowledge, which is obtained through conventional methods. Accordingly, the judge relied on his discretionary powers under Article 120 to rule that Makwan could be tried as an adult. Both the seventh district criminal court of Kermanshah, and later the supreme court, found him guilty and ordered his execution.

Makwan was executed in Kermanshahs central prison Dec. 5, 2007, in the absence of medical evidence testifying to his state of maturity at the time of the crime, and in spite of widespread international uproar. Makwan was invisible throughout the proceedings to those who turned on him, to the prosecutor, the executor, and, most significantly, to the society and the status quo that stood idly by and witnessed it all.

***

Despite the official pronouncements that deny or discount the existence of homosexuals in the Islamic Republic, the existence of legal sanctions, militia actions and relationships indicate that whatever the official pronouncements, thousands of Iranians clearly self-identify as what we would term queers (whatever labels they themselves dare use), while many others engage in consensual same-sex acts. There are, of course, no official statistics regarding the size of Irans queer population. They are visible in a number of Irans larger urban areas such as Tehran, Esfahan, and Shiraz. In the capital city, Tehran, for example, there are public and semipublic spaces known for being meeting places where Iranian queers may discreetly meet or gather. Some of these spaces, such as cafs and restaurants, are associated with the middle class or well-to-do, while others, including several well-known parks, are frequented by queers who have often been rejected by their families and are living on the fringes of society or are even homelessparticularly gay youth and men, as well as transgender individuals, who must resort to prostitution in order to afford basic needs.

Queer Iranians live in an atmosphere of uncertainty, peril, and pressure. There are various factors that contribute to their inhumane living conditions. First and foremost, the religious and patriarchal elements that are characteristic of the present Iranian Republic proscribes homosexuality as something to be feared and controlled. The penal code of the Islamic Republic of Iran is based on strict Sharia laws that reserve some of the harshest penalties for those convicted of same-sex sexual conduct. Furthermore, sexual minorities in Iran may face arrest as well as physical and sexual assault during detention, summary prosecution, and corporal punishment due to their consensual same-sex acts. Finally, familial and societal pressures to be other than themselves deprive Iranian queers of their dignity, leaving them stranded and invisible amidst their stark vulnerability.

Iranian queers fight for survival, liberty, and dignity begins first and foremost as a struggle for acknowledgement and existence. Iranian queers are often surrounded by friends and family who encourage and enforce heteronormativity; subjected to a socio-symbolic contract that largely supports homophobic Sharia laws, and are victims of judicial proceedings that falsely prosecute and convict them because of their sexual orientation. The true lives of queer Iranians are readily hidden, sheltered, or censored from public appearances. It is almost as if they do not exist.

As Farshad, an Iranian gay man, put it: Since the moment you realize you are gay or that you belong to an LGBT subgroup, you know that you will be discriminated against. One form of discrimination is that your identity as a human being is denied. They deny your right to be a human being, because you know that if you speak of your rights, terrible things might happen to you. Your family, your society, your government, your friends, and your workplaceall of them might do terrible things to you. Discrimination could be everywhere. Certainly, what I witnessed and experienced has always existed [in the society]. The heaviest discrimination is to live under constant suppression. You cannot express who you are, what you want, or what you believe in, and you cannot talk about your sexual orientation.

Even under the reformist government of President Mohammad Khatami, the Islamic judiciary remained one of the bulwarks of religious conservatism in Iran, a judicial and legal status that was strengthened under the hardline rule of Ahmadinejad. In fact, the argument against any recognition of civil rights for sexual minorities is reiterated as an unassailable cultural, religious, and ideological cornerstone of the state itself. In January 2012, in a meeting with the head of the human rights commission of the German parliament, Dr. Mohammad Javad Larijani, the international adviser to the Iranian judiciary, referred to homosexuality as a perversion and a form of sexual disease [that is] not acceptable to Iranians. Consequently, any discussion of the rights of homosexuals in Iran with Western officials has been superficial and fleeting. Admittedly, nation states have always responded to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in varying degrees. Yet, Larijanis staunch position to curtailing sexual-minority rights for cultural reasons is deplorable and clearly contrary to the declaration.

In Iran, the penal code proscribes same-sex sexual expression and imposes harsh sentences. A man found guilty of kissing another man with lascivious intent is punishable by up to 60 lashes of the whip (Article 124). Likewise, tafkhiz or nonpenetrative sex and other sexual behavior between two men are punishable by 100 lashes for each partner. Four convictions of tafkhiz may lead to the death penalty (as does sexual penetration). The penal code further stipulates that if two men, unrelated to one another, lie, without necessity, naked under the same cover, they will each be punished by up to 99 lashes of the whip (Article 123).

It is important to note that there are many negative repercussions of the morality laws in Iran. Moreover, the rigorous enforcement of the laws results in disproportionate harm to GLBT people in Iran in comparison with other laws applying to Iranians generally. Sexual minorities are singled out for such treatment and for the deprivation of their human rights.

This is a brief summary of the discriminatory penal code as it is regularly and rigorously enforced. As recently as May of 2012, an Iranian court sentenced four menSaadat Arefi, Vahid Akbari, Javid Akbari and Houshmand Akbarito death by hanging for sodomy. London-based Iranian human-rights lawyer Mehri Jafari pointed out:

There are two important issues in this case: the location of the alleged occurrence [all from the town of Choram in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province] and the interpretation of the Sharia law that a hodud (strict Sharia punishment) is eminent. Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad is one of the most undeveloped provinces in Iran, and it is obvious that a lack of access to lawyers and fair trial can be considered a serious issue in this case. After this announcement, it is very likely that the execution will be carried out soon, and the remote location makes it difficult to exert any influence on the process.

On the observation about access to lawyers, it is worth recalling that judges are enabled to bear in mind their own view of facts, regardless of any defense. They may also consider confessions extracted through coercion that would be excluded in court proceedings in most jurisdictions. Presence of informed legal counsel, a right in such jurisdictions, is therefore not always supportive of human rights as a result.

The law is equally punishing for Iranian lesbians. According to Articles 129 and 131, the punishment for mosaheqehsexual relations between two femalesis 100 lashes for each of the first three offenses, and the death penalty for the fourth. According to a report by Amnesty International, the Iranian Supreme Court issued a quick verdict of execution for Atefeh Rajabi Sahaaleh, the 16-year-old female who had confessed to her crime for the fourth conviction of mosaheqeh. Based on eyewitness accounts, as Atefeh was taken to the crane for execution, she repeatedly asked Allah for forgiveness. When asked later why [the] case was rushed, [the judge] was reported to have said that, in his opinion, there was too much immorality in Neka, Atefehs hometown. The case of Atefeh illustrates the complete discretion conferred to judges in Iranian courts to disregard rules of evidence and render decisions based on personal attitudes toward homosexuality.

People charged with sexual crimes often endure summary trials that do not adhere to principles of fairness. In so-called morals cases, such as those aforementioned, the stringent standards of evidence are likely to be flouted by the judiciary in the name of protecting cultural and religious standards. For example, according to Article 117 of the penal code, the witness of four just men who have observed the act proves the crime of sodomy. Given that judges may draw from their own views of circumstances, this provision opens the way to slander and rumor from others.

LGBT Iranians have also reported accounts of physical and psychological abuse during detentionincluding the threat and use of torturein order to extract confessions as evidence of homosexual conduct to be adduced in Iranian criminal trials. In 2002, Irans Guardian Council of the Constitutiona committee of 12 senior clerics who oversee all judicial, governmental, and parliamentary legislationvetoed a bill passed by the Iranian parliament that would put limits on practicing torture and presenting confessions obtained from it in judicial proceedings. Yet the proposed bill also stated that political dissidents and homosexuals were exempt from the proposed limits on torture. With that bill, the Iranian government clearly acknowledged that protection against torture should be provided, but that sexual minorities are undeserving of such fundamental legal protection.

A Human Rights Watch report documents instances in which police and the militia have allegedly physically and sexually assaulted individuals before obtaining an arrest warrant. Several of those interviewed spoke of how they had been sexually assaulted or raped during detention. (It might be added that gay Iranians are also abused by police and morality authorities in public, not just while in detention.) According to a July 2012 email from Ahmad, a queer Iranian who lives in Canada, to IRQR,

I was arrested in a gay birthday party in Iran by basij [the militia]. I was taken to police station and I got raped there while I was in the detention center. The guy told me that I could enjoy my life from now on as a faggot. I find out that I became HIV-positive three months later when I wanted to donate blood.

Farshid, another gay Iranian interviewed by Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, also vividly recalls his rape by two members of the militia. He was initially arrested under the pretext that he was wearing what to the militia was inappropriate clothing. He was eventually taken to an unknown residential apartment where he was severely beaten and raped by two senior officers:

There was a full bathroom on that floor. The bathroom was large and its floor was covered by ceramic tiles. First the younger one raped me. Then the older one did the same. All that time I was very afraid that they would kill me after raping me out of the fear that they could get caught. Nobody had their number or any other information leading to them.

***

Endemic homophobia in Iran also stems from the teachings of Islam as provided in Sunnah and Sharia. When serving as the head of the supreme council of the judiciary, Ayatollah Musavi-Ardebili noted the most severe punishments as befitting the Islamic prohibition against homosexuality. While delivering a sermon at Tehran University in 1990, he remarked:

For homosexuals, men or women, Islam has proscribed the most severe punishments. Do you know how homosexuals are treated in Islam? After homosexuality has been proved on the basis of Sharia, the authorities should seize him [or her] they should keep him standing, and should then split him in two with a sword, cut off his head at the neck or split the head. He will fall down. They get what they deserve.

It is evident, therefore, that the authoritative and flawed practice of justice in the cases of Makwan and Atefeh above is the connected to the prevailing attitudes defining the core of the Islamic Republics religiosity, and to its opposition to what it continuously strives to mount as its irreconcilable exterior: homosexuality.

Discrimination against sexual minorities is arguably one of the main tenets of the legal and ideological discourses of the Islamic Republics regime. These discourses squeeze out minority expression and make the GLBT community virtually invisible, if for no other reason than the absolute prohibition from the communitys very identity. As one essayist has observed, the personal is political:

The logic behind the Iranian governments denial of the existence of homosexuals is simple: if something does not exist it is not eligible for basic human rights. The Iranian government denies LGBT Iranians a voice and does its utmost to prevent them from interacting with each other or speaking out in public.

Implicit in this observation is that certain basic rights, such as freedoms of association, assembly, and speech, are conditional upon conforming to the religious and legal beliefs and codes of the republic, or at the very least upon abstaining from expressing sexual identity and gender.

However, there is a wider current to the homophobic tide in Iran that reflects more than the ideological and legalistic rhetoric of the Islamic Republic regime. This current of public opinion that acts to restrict, conceal, and prohibit Iranian queers flows through the main body of Iranian society and enables homophobic state policies, actions and ideologies. At times, homophobia takes the form of plain-clothed religious volunteers, but most often it surges in places the LGBT Iranians call home, or spaces where they seek understanding and counsel, such as doctors offices or school classrooms.

***

Read more from Tablets special Iran Week.

Arsham Parsi is an Iranian LGBT human rights activist living in exile in Canada. He is the founder and head of the Iranian Railroad for Queer Refugees.

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Arsham Parsi - Tablet Magazine

A federal judge in Detroit on Monday put a temporary hold on the deportation of scores of Iraqi nationals swept up in immigration enforcement raids around the country in recent months.

U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith had already issued a 14-day stay of removal Thursday for at least 114 Iraqis most of them Chaldean Christians detained in the Detroit area, saying he needed time to weigh whether he has jurisdiction over the case.

On Monday, he granted a request from lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union and other immigrant rights advocates to extend the order nationwide to prevent Immigration and Customs Enforcement from deporting people they said could face persecution, torture or death in Iraq.

Such harm far outweighs any interest the government may have in proceeding with the removals immediately, Goldsmith said in a written decision.

The order applies to more than 1,400 Iraqi immigrants who have been issued final orders of removal, either for overstaying a visa or because of a criminal conviction.

In many cases, those orders were issued years ago, the ACLU said in its petition. But Iraq refused to accept them, so the government eventually released them, often under supervision orders. Some have now lived in the U.S. for decades and have spouses or children who are citizens.

The roundups began after an agreement was reached with Iraq in March to take back its nationals, said Khaalid Walls, a spokesman for the ICE field office in Detroit. In addition to those immigrants detained in Detroit, at least 85 others have been taken into custody around the country since May, he said.

They include Ghassan Kassab, who was picked up at his Detroit home in late May.

Kassab was 5 years old when his family fled Saddam Husseins brutal government in Iraq. He has lived most of his life 47 years in the U.S. But he now faces the threat of being sent back to a country where he has no ties and where his family fears his Christian faith could get him killed.

He does not know how to read Arabic, and he does not remember anything from that country, said Kassabs niece, Marvit Bahoura, 38. Its like they are throwing him to his death sentence.

Because Kassabs parents didnt speak English, she said, the family never applied for U.S. citizenship. They found the process too confusing. So when Kassab was convicted on a marijuana possession charge more than a decade ago, he was issued a deportation order.

Bahoura said her uncle served three years in prison and had been reporting regularly to ICE ever since.

Hes worked at the same landscape company for 23 years, she said. Hes a hardworking man.

Detroit is home to more than 100,000 Chaldean Christians, one of the largest populations outside of Iraq. Many fled their war-torn homeland decades ago and fear persecution by extremist groups such as Islamic State if they return.

They thought they had found a haven in the U.S., but with the threat of deportation looming over hundreds of families, many are questioning their place in a country which no longer seems so welcoming.

The Iraqi Chaldean community is shocked and dont understand why this is happening, said Wisam Naoum, an attorney and Chaldean community leader in Detroit. We feel a bit betrayed. Its a direct assault on our community.

Many of the citys Iraqi Christians were staunch supporters of President Trump, who in January tweeted, Christians in the Middle East have been executed in large numbers. We cannot allow this horror to continue! The did not expect to get swept up in Trumps crackdown on immigration.

My entire family voted for him because he said he would help protect Christians, Bahoura said.

The possibility that her uncle will be deported now has her fearful not only for his safety, but for her health. She suffers from a debilitating autoimmune disorder and received a bone marrow transplant from her uncle this year.

Theres a 70% chance that if my body rejects the bone marrow, Ill need another one, Bahoura said. But if they deport Kassab, theres a slim chance Ill be able to find another match.

Many of those detained in Detroit were picked up on June 11 near churches and restaurants favored by the Iraqi Chaldean community, according to immigrant rights advocates. Others were detained at their homes or at one of their regular appointments with ICE.

It was early in the morning when six ICE agents showed up at the door of Brittany Hamama, 20. They were there for her 47-year-old father, Usama Hamama, who she said left Iraq as a child.

They said hell be back tomorrow, she recalled, but I didnt believe them.

The threat of deportation has loomed over the family since he was convicted of aggravated assault in a road-rage incident. But that that was 30 years ago, his daughter said.

My dads roots are in the U.S., he knows nothing else, she said. This doesnt seem real.

Rebecca Adducci, the Detroit field office director for ICEs Enforcement and Removal Operations, said the agency targeted those with criminal convictions for removal.

The operation in this region was specifically conducted to address the very real public safety threat represented by the criminal aliens arrested, she said in a statement. The vast majority of those arrested in the Detroit metropolitan area have very serious felony convictions, multiple felony convictions in many cases.

The Department of Justice argued that the detainees should make their request to remain in the U.S. in immigration court, not U.S. district court. But the ACLU said they might be deported before an immigration judge could consider their requests.

At least eight detainees have already been sent back to Iraq, and the ACLU said others could be deported as soon as Tuesday.

Its never been U.S. policy to send people back where they could be persecuted, said Nadine Yousif Kalasho, an attorney from Code Legal Aid, a Michigan-based nonprofit that was a party to the petition. The court understands whats at stake in terms of applying this nationwide and saw the urgency.

Attorneys for the government said they would exam the judges ruling before deciding their next steps.

I cant say we are surprised, said Daniel Lemisch, acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan. Its an extraordinary opinion, but these are very unusual circumstances in Iraq.

melissa.etehad@latimes.com

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Detroit judge halts deportations of Iraqi immigrants nationwide - Los Angeles Times

Lots of people become entrepreneurs because of an unexpected career shock, such as a corporate acquisition or layoff. Dawn Halfaker's military career was ended by an explosion and a catastrophic injury, in Iraq, in 2004. Yet Halfaker would eventually recover and form Halfaker and Associates, an Arlington, Virginia-based contractor in data analytics, cybersecurity, software engineering, and IT infrastructure for the federal government, including the Navy, the Department of Transportation, and the Department of Defense. --As told to Kimberly Weisul

From an early age, I wanted to get a scholarship to play basketball. I was contacted by West Point about playing basketball there and becoming a cadet. At first I dismissed it. I didn't have a good understanding of what West Point was.

The minute I stepped onto the West Point campus, I knew it was the place for me. I was drawn to the intensity and sense of purpose. There was nothing that set any of the other schools I was considering apart--they were all about where you were going to party and hang out.

Part of the great thing about West Point was that I didn't fully understand what I was getting into. I didn't know what the plebe year was all about. It was probably better that way. The basketball coaches paint a rosy picture. Being there was a huge surprise and a culture shock. It was four years of just trying to survive.

After West Point, my first duty station was in Korea. Then I went to Fort Stewart, in Georgia, and deployed from there to Iraq in February 2004.

Our focus was on rebuilding the Iraqi police force. We were working hand in hand with Iraqis, training them, equipping them, going on missions with them. We were responsible for the security of the police station, and for protecting our area of operations from insurgents.

That's where things got a little messy. We were going on missions to flush out insurgents who were planting IEDs, shooting rockets at the embassy, or blowing up the police stations. On one of our patrols, near Baqubah, our Humvee drove into an ambush and was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. I remember being loaded into a medevac helicopter. When I woke up from the coma, my parents and doctors had to explain what had happened--and that I'd lost an arm.

I spent my 25th birthday in the hospital thinking that my life was over. It wasn't just that I'd lost an arm. It was that I no longer had a career. I had been physically fit, mentally fit, at the top of my game, and I went from that to a state of feeling basically useless. I was terrified about being just cast aside while everybody else moved on. That's what fueled me to go into business and to want so desperately to stay connected to the military and the mission.

I was constantly in pain, and I always had to think of a different way to do things. I worried about having to get in line at Starbucks and buy a coffee and get change and carry it back and open the door. Those were the things that plagued my mind, more than the bigger picture of what was going on with my life.

When you think of a wounded warrior, you think of a young male in a wheelchair. I had a hard time identifying as a veteran and fitting in as a female who was wounded in combat. People weren't laughing to my face--it was mostly probably in my head. But I look different. Whenever you're different, you're kind of vulnerable. I did an internship on Capitol Hill. It was really discouraging. There were very important issues that Congress had to deal with. Do the soldiers have the right helmets? Do we have the right equipment? Are vets getting the right care? I was amazed at how many times the debate became partisan, and people were willing to ignore the common-sense solution.

Then I thought I'd maybe work as a contractor focused on supporting the military. That's when I realized there was a big disconnect between what was going on in Washington and what was happening downrange. There were so many people who didn't have combat experience trying to make decisions and influence policy. I thought, you know what? I can do this better. I could start a company. I could hire people who have the right expertise, and provide the support myself.

When I was at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, there was a colonel who wanted me to help him better understand how technology innovations could be used in the field. I was able to leverage that experience and other relationships to learn the industry and start positioning myself for a career, and to begin building the infrastructure of my company in the background.

There's no question that my military training helped me become a better entrepreneur. You go through so much training in the military, but from that first year as a plebe, what the military is teaching you is how to be resilient. You plan your mission, and you execute, but nothing ever goes according to plan. Your job as an officer is to continue to lead in not-ideal circumstances, and you're probably underresourced. Being an entrepreneur and getting something started, you never have everything you need, and things never go according to plan.

You also learn that the people who can make things happen are the ones who are challenging the status quo. There are people who figure out how to make the whole system work for them, as opposed to being a follower. From the start of my company, I recognized there were other people in my situation. As my company grew, I knew I could bring in other wounded warriors.

Hiring other veterans affects my company in a positive way. There's a similar value system, a similar understanding of the mission. Then there's the skill set to do data analytics and IT infrastructure. For the type of work we're doing, we need people who understand the military, so that's critical. But as the company grows, we value diversity. We need to make sure that employees who are not veterans can still do well here. It's something I'm aware of. I don't want to create this in-group.

Certifications help tremendously, especially in my industry, where there are hardly any medium-size companies. You're not going to compete with Lockheed Martin. But you can leverage the set-asides to have an opportunity to show what your company can do. Once you're able to do that, then eventually you can compete with Lockheed Martin. I'm not in any rush to do it. We're still finding our sweet spot and trying to refine that before we say we're the best at what we do and we can beat anybody. That's the goal.

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This Iraq Veteran Lost Her Arm--but Found New Purpose as an Entrepreneur - Inc.com