This was an eye-opening story about one of the many lesser-known facts of the horrific war against ISIS in Syria and Iraq, which was that a group of young Iraqi Kurdish women decided to go to war as fighters against ISIS during the Syrian war, despite the strong opposition in their own communities to women serving as soldiers.
In doing so, they proved in combat what everyone in their Kurdish Islamic families and societies had doubted, which was that women could not only be fearless, tough and effective combatants, but that they could also be strong military leaders, who men would follow into battle and obey.
One interesting side-note in this history, which was important, was the fact that an earlier charismatic Kurdish military and political leader was a follower of Murray Bookchin, an American anarchist writer from the 1960s and 1970s, who had stressed the need for women to gain equality in all aspects of life in order to create a just and egalitarian society. The influence of this Kurdish “Bookchinist” ideology apparently played a significant role in giving these brave young women the opportunity to join Kurdish fighting units, and play the important role they did in vanquishing ISIS.
An inspiring story of young women at war, which also provides an in-depth look at the horrors of the ISIS regime, the coalition war against it, and the larger Syrian war in which the Kurdish and Iraqi campaign against ISIS played out. Highly recommended.
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