Long pursuing a state of their own, Kurdish women are fighting back ISIS and gaining many fans in the West.
Female Peshmergas on their base at the border between Syria and Iraq. These female fighters are motivated by the words of Abdullah Ocalan, head of the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK), who promotes Marxist thought and empowerment of women. Source: Newsha Tavakolian/TIME
To an ISIS militant, one of the worst things that could transpire in combat is not just being killed, but being killed by a woman. If this happens, ISIS members believe that they will go directly to hell. If hell exists, rest assured that they have been sent there by a number of Kurdish women.
In August 2014, ISIS moved to the Sinjar area of Iraq and began to persecute, capture and kill its minority Yazidi population–an ancient, mainly Kurdish people. Female Kurdish soldiers were instrumental in the Kurdish counteroffensive, rescuing thousands of Yazidis trapped by ISIS on Mount Sinjar. The women have since extended their fight against radical militants to Kobani, Syria. See what life for these soldiers is like in the gallery below:
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1 of 4818 year-old Saria Zilan from Amuda, Syria:
“I fought with ISIS in Serikani. I captured one of them and wanted to kill him, but my comrades did not let me. He kept staring at the ground and would not look at me, because he said it was forbidden by his religion to look at a woman.” Source: Newsha Tavakolian/TIME
2 of 48Female soldiers show signs of peace as trucks carrying refugees from Mount Sinjar enter Til Kocer, Syria, safely. Source: Erin Trieb
3 of 4818-year-old YPJ fighter Torin Khairegi: “We live in a world where women are dominated by men. We are here to take control of our future. I injured an ISIS jihadi in Kobane. When he was wounded, all his friends left him behind and ran away. Later I went there and buried his body. I now feel that I am very powerful and can defend my home, my friends, my country, and myself. Many of us have been matryred and I see no path other than the continuation of their path.”
4 of 4820-year-old Narlene wraps a scarf around her face near Raabia, Syria. Source: Erin Trieb
5 of 48Instructing soldiers. Source: Jacob Russell
6 of 4820-year old YPJ fighter Aijan Denis from Amuda, Syria:
“Where I am now, men and women are equal and we all have the same thought, which is fighting for our ideology and the rights of women. My three sisters and I are all in YPJ.”
7 of 48Women in the Peshmerga undergo drill instruction at the Sulaymaniyah base. Source: Jacob Russell
8 of 48Women at the Sulaymaniyah base. Source: Jacob Russell
9 of 48Female Peshmerga train via mock assaults. Source: Jacob Russell
10 of 48Thousands of Kurdish women have taken up arms to defend their people from the Assad regime, ISIS and the al-Nusra Front, an Al-Qaeda branch operating in Syria and Lebanon. Source: Erin Trieb
11 of 48Female soldiers look to smoke coming from an ISIS car bomb detonation. Source: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters
12 of 48Young recruits take part in near dawn drill in Rojava, a Kurdish area of Syria. Typically, female soldiers rise at 4am after six hours of sleep. Before joining, many of these women had never participated in sports. Source: Erin Trieb
13 of 48Women in dawn drills near Derek City, Syria. Source: Erin Trieb
14 of 48Female soldier waits for a drone to return to the PKK base in Sinjar. The drone had gone to check enemy positions near a site previously hit by ISIS car bombs. Source: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters
15 of 48Female fighter discussing how to gain access to space hit by ISIS car bombs in Sinjar. Source: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters
16 of 48Other soldiers prepare to enter ISIS-hit territory. Source: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters
17 of 48A female soldier takes notes at a checkpoint near the Sinjar base. Source: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters
18 of 48Woman totes a portrait of Kurdish militant leader Abdullah Ocalan at the Sinjar base. Ocalan was one of the founding members of the Kurdish Workers Party, which is listed as a terrorist organization by NATO, the United States and the European Union, among others.
19 of 48A female soldier adjusts her machine gun as she prepares to join others near a spot hit by ISIS car bombs. Source: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters
20 of 4829-year-old Nuhad Kocer sits at a military base in Til Kocer, Syria. The person in the framed photo is Azadi Ristem, a soldier killed by a sniper from the al-Nusra Front. Source: Erin Trieb
21 of 48Female soldiers sit in an armed vehicle at their base
in eastern Syria. Source: Newsha Tavakolian/TIME
22 of 4816 year-old YPJ fighter Barkhodan Kochar from Darbasi, Syria. “The war influenced me a lot. Before joining YPJ, whenever I asked my family about politics, they’d say ’that’s not your business, you’re just a girl’. But when I saw how the women of YPJ gave their lives for what they believed in, I knew that I wanted to be one of them.” Source: Newsha Tavakolian/TIME 23 of 48A female fighter stands guard at a PKK base on Mount Sinjar, northwest Iraq. 24 of 48Female Peshmerga dons a pink featuring Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, who is Kurdish. Source: Jacob Russell 25 of 48In Kurdish Rovaja, Syria, young people are taught the ideology of the PYD (the Democratic Union Party of Syria), an affiliate of PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party). Many will be drafted to fight ISIS. Source: Newsha Tavakolian/TIME 26 of 48A young recruit wears pink on the first day of her training in Derek City, Syria. Source: Erin Trieb 27 of 48Female fighters pose with visiting fighters from another base. Source: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters 28 of 48Female Peshmerga bond in a pickup truck. Source: Jacob Russell 29 of 48Recruits dance at a base near Derek City, Syria. Source: Erin Trieb 30 of 48Recruits embrace a female soldier who they thought had been sent to the front line. Source: Erin Trieb 31 of 48Recruits in Derek City, Syria do each other’s hair at 4:30am, before training. Source: Erin Trieb 32 of 48Leader Haval Raperin combs her hair at a Sinjar base. Source: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters 33 of 4822-year-old Asadi Kamishloo has her eyebrows plucked at a base in Til Kocer, Syria. Source: Erin Trieb 34 of 48Female fighters eat peppers, tomatoes, cheese and flatbread for breakfast in Til Kocer, Syria. Source: Erin Trieb 35 of 48Female Peshmergas chat around a heater. Source: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters 36 of 48Female Peshmergas pose next to a displaced Yazidi woman (far right) who lives near their base in Sinjar. At least 5,000 Yazidis have been massacred in ISIS’ genocidal campaign against them. Source: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters 37 of 48Female Peshmergas sit with a Yazidi family, one of which is a member of YBS, a Yazidi militant group fighting against ISIS. Source: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters 38 of 48Female fighter Jin bonds with her mother, Amina, at home in Girke Lege, Syria. Source: Erin Trieb 39 of 48Women eat yaprax, a Kurdish favorite. Source: Jacob Russell 40 of 48Female soldier Shavin Bachouck rests at an abandoned Iraqi Army post near Raabia, Syria. Source: Erin Trieb 41 of 48Women gather at the all-women Asayesh Security Base in Derek City, Syria. Source: Newsha Tavakolian/TIME 42 of 4817 year-old Cicek Derek, died in Kobani, Syria. Her body was unable to be retrieved. Source: Newsha Tavakolian/TIME 43 of 48Cicek Derek’s sister, Rojin, had this to say: “When my mother told Cicek, please stay with your mother’, she answered ‘I left to fight for all the mothers of the world. I cannot stay here.”
Source: Newsha Tavakolian/TIME 44 of 48Fallen female soldiers appear on a billboard which reads, “With you we live on and life continues.” Source: Newsha Tavakolian/TIME 45 of 48Female soldiers carry the casket of Evrim in Derek City, Syria. Evrim was killed while combatting ISIS members. 46 of 48Female fighters killed fighting ISIS are buried together. Source: Newsha Tavakolian/TIME 47 of 48 48 of 48Like this gallery?Share it:
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Meet The Kurdish Women Fighting ISIS View Gallery
Many of these Kurdish women compose the female branch of the YPG militia, which, along with PKK (a Kurdish nationalist party) guerrillas and US-backed peshmergas (recognized Kurdish soldiers), have been fighting ISIS back and providing humanitarian aid to local populations for nearly the past year.
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Meet The “Iranian Hulk” Who Wants To Fight ISIS
Fleeing ISIS Fighters Dress As Women To Avoid Capture [PHOTOS]
Meet Lepa Radić, The Badass Teenager That Died Fighting Nazis
1 of 4818 year-old Saria Zilan from Amuda, Syria:
“I fought with ISIS in Serikani. I captured one of them and wanted to kill him, but my comrades did not let me. He kept staring at the ground and would not look at me, because he said it was forbidden by his religion to look at a woman.” Source: Newsha Tavakolian/TIME
2 of 48Female soldiers show signs of peace as trucks carrying refugees from Mount Sinjar enter Til Kocer, Syria, safely. Source: Erin Trieb
3 of 4818-year-old YPJ fighter Torin Khairegi: “We live in a world where women are dominated by men. We are here to take control of our future. I injured an ISIS jihadi in Kobane. When he was wounded, all his friends left him behind and ran away. Later I went there and buried his body. I now feel that I am very powerful and can defend my home, my friends, my country, and myself. Many of us have been matryred and I see no path other than the continuation of their path.”
4 of 4820-year-old Narlene wraps a scarf around her face near Raabia, Syria. Source: Erin Trieb
5 of 48Instructing soldiers. Source: Jacob Russell
6 of 4820-year old YPJ fighter Aijan Denis from Amuda, Syria:
“Where I am now, men and women are equal and we all have the same thought, which is fighting for our ideology and the rights of women. My three sisters and I are all in YPJ.”
7 of 48Women in the Peshmerga undergo drill instruction at the Sulaymaniyah base. Source: Jacob Russell
8 of 48Women at the Sulaymaniyah base. Source: Jacob Russell
9 of 48Female Peshmerga train via mock assaults. Source: Jacob Russell
10 of 48Thousands of Kurdish women have taken up arms to defend their people from the Assad regime, ISIS and the al-Nusra Front, an Al-Qaeda branch operating in Syria and Lebanon. Source: Erin Trieb
11 of 48Female soldiers look to smoke coming from an ISIS car bomb detonation. Source: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters
12 of 48Young recruits take part in near dawn drill in Rojava, a Kurdish area of Syria. Typically, female soldiers rise at 4am after six hours of sleep. Before joining, many of these women had never participated in sports. Source: Erin Trieb
13 of 48Women in dawn drills near Derek City, Syria. Source: Erin Trieb
14 of 48Female soldier waits for a drone to return to the PKK base in Sinjar. The drone had gone to check enemy positions near a site previously hit by ISIS car bombs. Source: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters
15 of 48Female fighter discussing how to gain access to space hit by ISIS car bombs in Sinjar. Source: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters
16 of 48Other soldiers prepare to enter ISIS-hit territory. Source: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters
17 of 48A female soldier takes notes at a checkpoint near the Sinjar base. Source: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters
18 of 48Woman totes a portrait of Kurdish militant leader Abdullah Ocalan at the Sinjar base. Ocalan was one of the founding members of the Kurdish Workers Party, which is listed as a terrorist organization by NATO, the United States and the European Union, among others.
19 of 48A female soldier adjusts her machine gun as she prepares to join others near a spot hit by ISIS car bombs. Source: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters
20 of 4829-year-old Nuhad Kocer sits at a military base in Til Kocer, Syria. The person in the framed photo is Azadi Ristem, a soldier killed by a sniper from the al-Nusra Front. Source: Erin Trieb
21 of 48Female soldiers sit in an armed vehicle at their base
in eastern Syria. Source: Newsha Tavakolian/TIME
22 of 4816 year-old YPJ fighter Barkhodan Kochar from Darbasi, Syria. “The war influenced me a lot. Before joining YPJ, whenever I asked my family about politics, they’d say ’that’s not your business, you’re just a girl’. But when I saw how the women of YPJ gave their lives for what they believed in, I knew that I wanted to be one of them.” Source: Newsha Tavakolian/TIME 23 of 48A female fighter stands guard at a PKK base on Mount Sinjar, northwest Iraq. 24 of 48Female Peshmerga dons a pink featuring Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, who is Kurdish. Source: Jacob Russell 25 of 48In Kurdish Rovaja, Syria, young people are taught the ideology of the PYD (the Democratic Union Party of Syria), an affiliate of PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party). Many will be drafted to fight ISIS. Source: Newsha Tavakolian/TIME 26 of 48A young recruit wears pink on the first day of her training in Derek City, Syria. Source: Erin Trieb 27 of 48Female fighters pose with visiting fighters from another base. Source: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters 28 of 48Female Peshmerga bond in a pickup truck. Source: Jacob Russell 29 of 48Recruits dance at a base near Derek City, Syria. Source: Erin Trieb 30 of 48Recruits embrace a female soldier who they thought had been sent to the front line. Source: Erin Trieb 31 of 48Recruits in Derek City, Syria do each other’s hair at 4:30am, before training. Source: Erin Trieb 32 of 48Leader Haval Raperin combs her hair at a Sinjar base. Source: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters 33 of 4822-year-old Asadi Kamishloo has her eyebrows plucked at a base in Til Kocer, Syria. Source: Erin Trieb 34 of 48Female fighters eat peppers, tomatoes, cheese and flatbread for breakfast in Til Kocer, Syria. Source: Erin Trieb 35 of 48Female Peshmergas chat around a heater. Source: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters 36 of 48Female Peshmergas pose next to a displaced Yazidi woman (far right) who lives near their base in Sinjar. At least 5,000 Yazidis have been massacred in ISIS’ genocidal campaign against them. Source: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters 37 of 48Female Peshmergas sit with a Yazidi family, one of which is a member of YBS, a Yazidi militant group fighting against ISIS. Source: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters 38 of 48Female fighter Jin bonds with her mother, Amina, at home in Girke Lege, Syria. Source: Erin Trieb 39 of 48Women eat yaprax, a Kurdish favorite. Source: Jacob Russell 40 of 48Female soldier Shavin Bachouck rests at an abandoned Iraqi Army post near Raabia, Syria. Source: Erin Trieb 41 of 48Women gather at the all-women Asayesh Security Base in Derek City, Syria. Source: Newsha Tavakolian/TIME 42 of 4817 year-old Cicek Derek, died in Kobani, Syria. Her body was unable to be retrieved. Source: Newsha Tavakolian/TIME 43 of 48Cicek Derek’s sister, Rojin, had this to say: “When my mother told Cicek, please stay with your mother’, she answered ‘I left to fight for all the mothers of the world. I cannot stay here.”
Source: Newsha Tavakolian/TIME 44 of 48Fallen female soldiers appear on a billboard which reads, “With you we live on and life continues.” Source: Newsha Tavakolian/TIME 45 of 48Female soldiers carry the casket of Evrim in Derek City, Syria. Evrim was killed while combatting ISIS members. 46 of 48Female fighters killed fighting ISIS are buried together. Source: Newsha Tavakolian/TIME 47 of 48 48 of 48Like this gallery?Share it:
Share
Like this gallery?Share it:
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And if you liked this post, be sure to check out these popular posts:
Meet The “Iranian Hulk” Who Wants To Fight ISIS
Fleeing ISIS Fighters Dress As Women To Avoid Capture [PHOTOS]
Meet Lepa Radić, The Badass Teenager That Died Fighting Nazis
1 of 4818 year-old Saria Zilan from Amuda, Syria:
“I fought with ISIS in Serikani. I captured one of them and wanted to kill him, but my comrades did not let me. He kept staring at the ground and would not look at me, because he said it was forbidden by his religion to look at a woman.” Source: Newsha Tavakolian/TIME
2 of 48Female soldiers show signs of peace as trucks carrying refugees from Mount Sinjar enter Til Kocer, Syria, safely. Source: Erin Trieb
3 of 4818-year-old YPJ fighter Torin Khairegi: “We live in a world where women are dominated by men. We are here to take control of our future. I injured an ISIS jihadi in Kobane. When he was wounded, all his friends left him behind and ran away. Later I went there and buried his body. I now feel that I am very powerful and can defend my home, my friends, my country, and myself. Many of us have been matryred and I see no path other than the continuation of their path.”
4 of 4820-year-old Narlene wraps a scarf around her face near Raabia, Syria. Source: Erin Trieb
5 of 48Instructing soldiers. Source: Jacob Russell
6 of 4820-year old YPJ fighter Aijan Denis from Amuda, Syria:
“Where I am now, men and women are equal and we all have the same thought, which is fighting for our ideology and the rights of women. My three sisters and I are all in YPJ.”
7 of 48Women in the Peshmerga undergo drill instruction at the Sulaymaniyah base. Source: Jacob Russell
8 of 48Women at the Sulaymaniyah base. Source: Jacob Russell
9 of 48Female Peshmerga train via mock assaults. Source: Jacob Russell
10 of 48Thousands of Kurdish women have taken up arms to defend their people from the Assad regime, ISIS and the al-Nusra Front, an Al-Qaeda branch operating in Syria and Lebanon. Source: Erin Trieb
11 of 48Female soldiers look to smoke coming from an ISIS car bomb detonation. Source: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters
12 of 48Young recruits take part in near dawn drill in Rojava, a Kurdish area of Syria. Typically, female soldiers rise at 4am after six hours of sleep. Before joining, many of these women had never participated in sports. Source: Erin Trieb
13 of 48Women in dawn drills near Derek City, Syria. Source: Erin Trieb
14 of 48Female soldier waits for a drone to return to the PKK base in Sinjar. The drone had gone to check enemy positions near a site previously hit by ISIS car bombs. Source: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters
15 of 48Female fighter discussing how to gain access to space hit by ISIS car bombs in Sinjar. Source: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters
16 of 48Other soldiers prepare to enter ISIS-hit territory. Source: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters
17 of 48A female soldier takes notes at a checkpoint near the Sinjar base. Source: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters
18 of 48Woman totes a portrait of Kurdish militant leader Abdullah Ocalan at the Sinjar base. Ocalan was one of the founding members of the Kurdish Workers Party, which is listed as a terrorist organization by NATO, the United States and the European Union, among others.
19 of 48A female soldier adjusts her machine gun as she prepares to join others near a spot hit by ISIS car bombs. Source: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters
20 of 4829-year-old Nuhad Kocer sits at a military base in Til Kocer, Syria. The person in the framed photo is Azadi Ristem, a soldier killed by a sniper from the al-Nusra Front. Source: Erin Trieb
21 of 48Female soldiers sit in an armed vehicle at their base
in eastern Syria. Source: Newsha Tavakolian/TIME
22 of 4816 year-old YPJ fighter Barkhodan Kochar from Darbasi, Syria. “The war influenced me a lot. Before joining YPJ, whenever I asked my family about politics, they’d say ’that’s not your business, you’re just a girl’. But when I saw how the women of YPJ gave their lives for what they believed in, I knew that I wanted to be one of them.” Source: Newsha Tavakolian/TIME 23 of 48A female fighter stands guard at a PKK base on Mount Sinjar, northwest Iraq. 24 of 48Female Peshmerga dons a pink featuring Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, who is Kurdish. Source: Jacob Russell 25 of 48In Kurdish Rovaja, Syria, young people are taught the ideology of the PYD (the Democratic Union Party of Syria), an affiliate of PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party). Many will be drafted to fight ISIS. Source: Newsha Tavakolian/TIME 26 of 48A young recruit wears pink on the first day of her training in Derek City, Syria. Source: Erin Trieb 27 of 48Female fighters pose with visiting fighters from another base. Source: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters 28 of 48Female Peshmerga bond in a pickup truck. Source: Jacob Russell 29 of 48Recruits dance at a base near Derek City, Syria. Source: Erin Trieb 30 of 48Recruits embrace a female soldier who they thought had been sent to the front line. Source: Erin Trieb 31 of 48Recruits in Derek City, Syria do each other’s hair at 4:30am, before training. Source: Erin Trieb 32 of 48Leader Haval Raperin combs her hair at a Sinjar base. Source: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters 33 of 4822-year-old Asadi Kamishloo has her eyebrows plucked at a base in Til Kocer, Syria. Source: Erin Trieb 34 of 48Female fighters eat peppers, tomatoes, cheese and flatbread for breakfast in Til Kocer, Syria. Source: Erin Trieb 35 of 48Female Peshmergas chat around a heater. Source: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters 36 of 48Female Peshmergas pose next to a displaced Yazidi woman (far right) who lives near their base in Sinjar. At least 5,000 Yazidis have been massacred in ISIS’ genocidal campaign against them. Source: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters 37 of 48Female Peshmergas sit with a Yazidi family, one of which is a member of YBS, a Yazidi militant group fighting against ISIS. Source: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters 38 of 48Female fighter Jin bonds with her mother, Amina, at home in Girke Lege, Syria. Source: Erin Trieb 39 of 48Women eat yaprax, a Kurdish favorite. Source: Jacob Russell 40 of 48Female soldier Shavin Bachouck rests at an abandoned Iraqi Army post near Raabia, Syria. Source: Erin Trieb 41 of 48Women gather at the all-women Asayesh Security Base in Derek City, Syria. Source: Newsha Tavakolian/TIME 42 of 4817 year-old Cicek Derek, died in Kobani, Syria. Her body was unable to be retrieved. Source: Newsha Tavakolian/TIME 43 of 48Cicek Derek’s sister, Rojin, had this to say: “When my mother told Cicek, please stay with your mother’, she answered ‘I left to fight for all the mothers of the world. I cannot stay here.”
Source: Newsha Tavakolian/TIME 44 of 48Fallen female soldiers appear on a billboard which reads, “With you we live on and life continues.” Source: Newsha Tavakolian/TIME 45 of 48Female soldiers carry the casket of Evrim in Derek City, Syria. Evrim was killed while combatting ISIS members. 46 of 48Female fighters killed fighting ISIS are buried together. Source: Newsha Tavakolian/TIME 47 of 48 48 of 48Like this gallery?Share it:
Share
Like this gallery?Share it:
Share
And if you liked this post, be sure to check out these popular posts:
Meet The “Iranian Hulk” Who Wants To Fight ISIS
Fleeing ISIS Fighters Dress As Women To Avoid Capture [PHOTOS]
Meet Lepa Radić, The Badass Teenager That Died Fighting Nazis
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1 of 4818 year-old Saria Zilan from Amuda, Syria:
“I fought with ISIS in Serikani. I captured one of them and wanted to kill him, but my comrades did not let me. He kept staring at the ground and would not look at me, because he said it was forbidden by his religion to look at a woman.” Source: Newsha Tavakolian/TIME
2 of 48Female soldiers show signs of peace as trucks carrying refugees from Mount Sinjar enter Til Kocer, Syria, safely. Source: Erin Trieb
3 of 4818-year-old YPJ fighter Torin Khairegi: “We live in a world where women are dominated by men. We are here to take control of our future. I injured an ISIS jihadi in Kobane. When he was wounded, all his friends left him behind and ran away. Later I went there and buried his body. I now feel that I am very powerful and can defend my home, my friends, my country, and myself. Many of us have been matryred and I see no path other than the continuation of their path.”
4 of 4820-year-old Narlene wraps a scarf around her face near Raabia, Syria. Source: Erin Trieb
5 of 48Instructing soldiers. Source: Jacob Russell
6 of 4820-year old YPJ fighter Aijan Denis from Amuda, Syria:
“Where I am now, men and women are equal and we all have the same thought, which is fighting for our ideology and the rights of women. My three sisters and I are all in YPJ.”
7 of 48Women in the Peshmerga undergo drill instruction at the Sulaymaniyah base. Source: Jacob Russell
8 of 48Women at the Sulaymaniyah base. Source: Jacob Russell
9 of 48Female Peshmerga train via mock assaults. Source: Jacob Russell
10 of 48Thousands of Kurdish women have taken up arms to defend their people from the Assad regime, ISIS and the al-Nusra Front, an Al-Qaeda branch operating in Syria and Lebanon. Source: Erin Trieb
11 of 48Female soldiers look to smoke coming from an ISIS car bomb detonation. Source: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters
12 of 48Young recruits take part in near dawn drill in Rojava, a Kurdish area of Syria. Typically, female soldiers rise at 4am after six hours of sleep. Before joining, many of these women had never participated in sports. Source: Erin Trieb
13 of 48Women in dawn drills near Derek City, Syria. Source: Erin Trieb
14 of 48Female soldier waits for a drone to return to the PKK base in Sinjar. The drone had gone to check enemy positions near a site previously hit by ISIS car bombs. Source: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters
15 of 48Female fighter discussing how to gain access to space hit by ISIS car bombs in Sinjar. Source: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters
16 of 48Other soldiers prepare to enter ISIS-hit territory. Source: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters
17 of 48A female soldier takes notes at a checkpoint near the Sinjar base. Source: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters
18 of 48Woman totes a portrait of Kurdish militant leader Abdullah Ocalan at the Sinjar base. Ocalan was one of the founding members of the Kurdish Workers Party, which is listed as a terrorist organization by NATO, the United States and the European Union, among others.
19 of 48A female soldier adjusts her machine gun as she prepares to join others near a spot hit by ISIS car bombs. Source: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters
20 of 4829-year-old Nuhad Kocer sits at a military base in Til Kocer, Syria. The person in the framed photo is Azadi Ristem, a soldier killed by a sniper from the al-Nusra Front. Source: Erin Trieb
21 of 48Female soldiers sit in an armed vehicle at their base
in eastern Syria. Source: Newsha Tavakolian/TIME
22 of 4816 year-old YPJ fighter Barkhodan Kochar from Darbasi, Syria. “The war influenced me a lot. Before joining YPJ, whenever I asked my family about politics, they’d say ’that’s not your business, you’re just a girl’. But when I saw how the women of YPJ gave their lives for what they believed in, I knew that I wanted to be one of them.” Source: Newsha Tavakolian/TIME 23 of 48A female fighter stands guard at a PKK base on Mount Sinjar, northwest Iraq. 24 of 48Female Peshmerga dons a pink featuring Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, who is Kurdish. Source: Jacob Russell 25 of 48In Kurdish Rovaja, Syria, young people are taught the ideology of the PYD (the Democratic Union Party of Syria), an affiliate of PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party). Many will be drafted to fight ISIS. Source: Newsha Tavakolian/TIME 26 of 48A young recruit wears pink on the first day of her training in Derek City, Syria. Source: Erin Trieb 27 of 48Female fighters pose with visiting fighters from another base. Source: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters 28 of 48Female Peshmerga bond in a pickup truck. Source: Jacob Russell 29 of 48Recruits dance at a base near Derek City, Syria. Source: Erin Trieb 30 of 48Recruits embrace a female soldier who they thought had been sent to the front line. Source: Erin Trieb 31 of 48Recruits in Derek City, Syria do each other’s hair at 4:30am, before training. Source: Erin Trieb 32 of 48Leader Haval Raperin combs her hair at a Sinjar base. Source: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters 33 of 4822-year-old Asadi Kamishloo has her eyebrows plucked at a base in Til Kocer, Syria. Source: Erin Trieb 34 of 48Female fighters eat peppers, tomatoes, cheese and flatbread for breakfast in Til Kocer, Syria. Source: Erin Trieb 35 of 48Female Peshmergas chat around a heater. Source: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters 36 of 48Female Peshmergas pose next to a displaced Yazidi woman (far right) who lives near their base in Sinjar. At least 5,000 Yazidis have been massacred in ISIS’ genocidal campaign against them. Source: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters 37 of 48Female Peshmergas sit with a Yazidi family, one of which is a member of YBS, a Yazidi militant group fighting against ISIS. Source: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters 38 of 48Female fighter Jin bonds with her mother, Amina, at home in Girke Lege, Syria. Source: Erin Trieb 39 of 48Women eat yaprax, a Kurdish favorite. Source: Jacob Russell 40 of 48Female soldier Shavin Bachouck rests at an abandoned Iraqi Army post near Raabia, Syria. Source: Erin Trieb 41 of 48Women gather at the all-women Asayesh Security Base in Derek City, Syria. Source: Newsha Tavakolian/TIME 42 of 4817 year-old Cicek Derek, died in Kobani, Syria. Her body was unable to be retrieved. Source: Newsha Tavakolian/TIME 43 of 48Cicek Derek’s sister, Rojin, had this to say: “When my mother told Cicek, please stay with your mother’, she answered ‘I left to fight for all the mothers of the world. I cannot stay here.”
Source: Newsha Tavakolian/TIME 44 of 48Fallen female soldiers appear on a billboard which reads, “With you we live on and life continues.” Source: Newsha Tavakolian/TIME 45 of 48Female soldiers carry the casket of Evrim in Derek City, Syria. Evrim was killed while combatting ISIS members. 46 of 48Female fighters killed fighting ISIS are buried together. Source: Newsha Tavakolian/TIME 47 of 48 48 of 48Like this gallery?Share it:
Share
1 of 4818 year-old Saria Zilan from Amuda, Syria: “I fought with ISIS in Serikani. I captured one of them and wanted to kill him, but my comrades did not let me. He kept staring at the ground and would not look at me, because he said it was forbidden by his religion to look at a woman.” Source: Newsha Tavakolian/TIME
2 of 48Female soldiers show signs of peace as trucks carrying refugees from Mount Sinjar enter Til Kocer, Syria, safely. Source: Erin Trieb
3 of 4818-year-old YPJ fighter Torin Khairegi: “We live in a world where women are dominated by men. We are here to take control of our future. I injured an ISIS jihadi in Kobane. When he was wounded, all his friends left him behind and ran away. Later I went there and buried his body. I now feel that I am very powerful and can defend my home, my friends, my country, and myself. Many of us have been matryred and I see no path other than the continuation of their path.”
4 of 4820-year-old Narlene wraps a scarf around her face near Raabia, Syria. Source: Erin Trieb
5 of 48Instructing soldiers. Source: Jacob Russell
6 of 4820-year old YPJ fighter Aijan Denis from Amuda, Syria: “Where I am now, men and women are equal and we all have the same thought, which is fighting for our ideology and the rights of women. My three sisters and I are all in YPJ.”
7 of 48Women in the Peshmerga undergo drill instruction at the Sulaymaniyah base. Source: Jacob Russell
8 of 48Women at the Sulaymaniyah base. Source: Jacob Russell
9 of 48Female Peshmerga train via mock assaults. Source: Jacob Russell
10 of 48Thousands of Kurdish women have taken up arms to defend their people from the Assad regime, ISIS and the al-Nusra Front, an Al-Qaeda branch operating in Syria and Lebanon. Source: Erin Trieb
11 of 48Female soldiers look to smoke coming from an ISIS car bomb detonation. Source: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters
12 of 48Young recruits take part in near dawn drill in Rojava, a Kurdish area of Syria. Typically, female soldiers rise at 4am after six hours of sleep. Before joining, many of these women had never participated in sports. Source: Erin Trieb
13 of 48Women in dawn drills near Derek City, Syria. Source: Erin Trieb
14 of 48Female soldier waits for a drone to return to the PKK base in Sinjar. The drone had gone to check enemy positions near a site previously hit by ISIS car bombs. Source: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters
15 of 48Female fighter discussing how to gain access to space hit by ISIS car bombs in Sinjar. Source: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters
16 of 48Other soldiers prepare to enter ISIS-hit territory. Source: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters
17 of 48A female soldier takes notes at a checkpoint near the Sinjar base. Source: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters
18 of 48Woman totes a portrait of Kurdish militant leader Abdullah Ocalan at the Sinjar base. Ocalan was one of the founding members of the Kurdish Workers Party, which is listed as a terrorist organization by NATO, the United States and the European Union, among others.
19 of 48A female soldier adjusts her machine gun as she prepares to join others near a spot hit by ISIS car bombs. Source: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters
20 of 4829-year-old Nuhad Kocer sits at a military base in Til Kocer, Syria. The person in the framed photo is Azadi Ristem, a soldier killed by a sniper from the al-Nusra Front. Source: Erin Trieb
21 of 48Female soldiers sit in an armed vehicle at their base in eastern Syria. Source: Newsha Tavakolian/TIME
22 of 4816 year-old YPJ fighter Barkhodan Kochar from Darbasi, Syria. “The war influenced me a lot. Before joining YPJ, whenever I asked my family about politics, they’d say ’that’s not your business, you’re just a girl’. But when I saw how the women of YPJ gave their lives for what they believed in, I knew that I wanted to be one of them.” Source: Newsha Tavakolian/TIME
23 of 48A female fighter stands guard at a PKK base on Mount Sinjar, northwest Iraq.
24 of 48Female Peshmerga dons a pink featuring Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, who is Kurdish. Source: Jacob Russell
25 of 48In Kurdish Rovaja, Syria, young people are taught the ideology of the PYD (the Democratic Union Party of Syria), an affiliate of PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party). Many will be drafted to fight ISIS. Source: Newsha Tavakolian/TIME
26 of 48A young recruit wears pink on the first day of her training in Derek City, Syria. Source: Erin Trieb
27 of 48Female fighters pose with visiting fighters from another base. Source: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters
28 of 48Female Peshmerga bond in a pickup truck. Source: Jacob Russell
29 of 48Recruits dance at a base near Derek City, Syria. Source: Erin Trieb
30 of 48Recruits embrace a female soldier who they thought had been sent to the front line. Source: Erin Trieb
31 of 48Recruits in Derek City, Syria do each other’s hair at 4:30am, before training. Source: Erin Trieb
32 of 48Leader Haval Raperin combs her hair at a Sinjar base. Source: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters
33 of 4822-year-old Asadi Kamishloo has her eyebrows plucked at a base in Til Kocer, Syria. Source: Erin Trieb
34 of 48Female fighters eat peppers, tomatoes, cheese and flatbread for breakfast in Til Kocer, Syria. Source: Erin Trieb
35 of 48Female Peshmergas chat around a heater. Source: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters
36 of 48Female Peshmergas pose next to a displaced Yazidi woman (far right) who lives near their base in Sinjar. At least 5,000 Yazidis have been massacred in ISIS’ genocidal campaign against them. Source: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters
37 of 48Female Peshmergas sit with a Yazidi family, one of which is a member of YBS, a Yazidi militant group fighting against ISIS. Source: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters
38 of 48Female fighter Jin bonds with her mother, Amina, at home in Girke Lege, Syria. Source: Erin Trieb
39 of 48Women eat yaprax, a Kurdish favorite. Source: Jacob Russell
40 of 48Female soldier Shavin Bachouck rests at an abandoned Iraqi Army post near Raabia, Syria. Source: Erin Trieb
41 of 48Women gather at the all-women Asayesh Security Base in Derek City, Syria. Source: Newsha Tavakolian/TIME
42 of 4817 year-old Cicek Derek, died in Kobani, Syria. Her body was unable to be retrieved. Source: Newsha Tavakolian/TIME
43 of 48Cicek Derek’s sister, Rojin, had this to say: “When my mother told Cicek, please stay with your mother’, she answered ‘I left to fight for all the mothers of the world. I cannot stay here.”
Source: Newsha Tavakolian/TIME
44 of 48Fallen female soldiers appear on a billboard which reads, “With you we live on and life continues.” Source: Newsha Tavakolian/TIME
45 of 48Female soldiers carry the casket of Evrim in Derek City, Syria. Evrim was killed while combatting ISIS members.
46 of 48Female fighters killed fighting ISIS are buried together. Source: Newsha Tavakolian/TIME
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Meet The Kurdish Women Fighting ISIS View Gallery
Meet The Kurdish Women Fighting ISIS View Gallery
Meet The Kurdish Women Fighting ISIS View Gallery
Meet The Kurdish Women Fighting ISIS View Gallery
Meet The Kurdish Women Fighting ISIS
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Anywhere from 7,000 to 10,000 women form the all-female branch of the YPG–the YPJ–and are usually 18 to 25 years old. Influenced by the Marxist-Leninist thought of jailed PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan, the Kurdish nationalist party demands that gender equality be re-instated, making women’s “liberation” a key component of the party’s nationalist project.
Political and territorial gains by ISIS, which seeks to severely curtail the rights of women, thus represent not just an international security threat. To Kurdish nationalists, it sets the dream of an independent Kurdish state that much further in the distance.
A map of Kurdistan. Source: Wikimedia
Why Kurdistan?
Kurdistan encompasses parts of Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran, which makes its people particularly vulnerable to the conflicts engulfing the region–and stand to benefit from a weakening Iraqi state.
Following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century, Allied forces attempted to create several countries within the empire’s former boundaries, Kurdistan being one of them.
This did not end up happening for a number of reasons, and millions of Kurds were left without a state of their own. Since then, members of the PKK–labeled a terrorist organization by the United States, NATO and the European Union, among others–have been engaged in a long-standing fight with Turkey, and are looking for ways to gain international support for their cause.
Beyond providing humanitarian support, one such way seems to be through pumping its female fighters to the West. According to Jacob Russell, a photojournalist who has lived in Kurdistan for nearly two years, both international media and Kurdish politicians see the PR potential of “girls with guns” and have objectified these women, presenting a false, vaguely glamorous reality to Western audiences clamoring to see ISIS’ downfall–and “empowered” women leading the fight.
This photo of a female Kurdish fighter was retweeted thousands of times. The woman is believed to have been killed by ISIS.
Said Russell in an interview with CNN, “A lot of the women’s backstories were quite difficult. It seemed like this unit provided an alternative network for women who maybe would struggle in normal Kurdish society, because despite being relatively progressive (within the Middle East), it is still quite a conservative society.”
Regardless of PKK political objectives, many feminists praise the YPJ for “confronting traditional gender expectations in the region” and “redefining the role of women in conflict [there].” According to photojournalist Erin Trieb, “the YPJ is in itself a feminist movement, even if it is not their main mission…they want ’equality’ between women and men, and a part of why they joined was to develop and advance the perceptions about women in their culture. They can be strong and be leader.”
Perhaps put better by 18-year-old Kurdish fighter Saria Zilan, “In the past, women had various roles in the society, but all those roles were taken from them. We are here now to take back the role of women in society.”
What becomes of ISIS and Kurdistan remains to be seen. Rest assured, though, that women will play a substantial role in determining the fate of both.
To learn more about the Kurdish female fighters, be sure to check out these awesome VICE documentaries:
Want more on ISIS and Iraq? Be sure to check out our posts on life under ISIS, the conflict in Iraq and Syria explained, and Baghdad in the early 20th century!
