LAURA J. VARO November 18, 2013 Fighting for land, fighting for rights Kurdish women fighters speak to NOW about their experiences in the YPJ RAS AL-AIN, Syria – What is war? Is it not to shoot,” asks 20-year-old Zeelan as she sits in a plastic chair at a checkpoint in Yabaa, four kilometers from Ras al-Ain in northeastern Syria. Ive fought in three battles in Qamishli and Serekaniye (Kurdish for Ras al-Ain).” Last year, she decided to join the Committees for the Protection of the Kurdish People (YPJ), the Kurdish female militia that is fighting Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) in the primarily-Kurdish north. She laughs when asked if she is afraid: When you shoot the first bullet, the fear is gone.” Around 35% of the Democratic Union of Kurdistan (PYD)-controlled People’s Defense Units (YPG) fighters in Syria are women. They have proved to be as brave as their male comrades in some of the fiercest battles against jihadis in the eastern province of Hasakah, from Ras al-Ain, where clashes renewed this summer after a FSA-YPG truce in 2012, to al-Yaaroubiyah, the former ISIS base on the Iraqi border where the YPG launched its first attack against the Islamists. https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/reportsfeatures/521259-fighting-for-land-fighting-for-rights
Posted on: Mon, 18 Nov 2013 23:47:01 +0000
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