WOMEN FIGHTERS IN SYRIA
UKRAINE: A YOUTH BETWEEN WAR AND PEACE
The Kurdish people, known for their independence demands, have particularly distinguished themselves in the fight against Daesh. The capture of Raqqa in 2017, the capital of Daesh, was a symbol of this. At the heart of this struggle, women have always occupied a place. In support of combatants or arms in hand, they have decided to establish themselves as a recourse against the obscurantism of Daesh in order to rebuild, on the ashes of the Caliphate, a peaceful and equal society.
In the midst of chaos, the women of peace are on all fronts and are looking to the future. By arms or not, Kurdish women have always taken part in combat. Participating in the care of the wounded or supplying the forces engaged, some have chosen to take up arms.
In the 1960s, Margaret George Shello, a Christian peshmerga nicknamed the "mother of Kurdistan," distinguished herself in the fight against the Iraqi government.
Gülnaz Karatas became an icon of the Kurdish feminist struggle by throwing herself off a cliff to avoid being captured … In their wake, female combatants from Rojava, a Syrian autonomous region, took part in the fight alongside the men. Initially integrated into the male units (YPG), female units were later established, such as the "women’s defense units" (YPJ).
"The fighting that is taking place is of the order of guerrilla warfare; it does not require any particular physical force," says Sandrine Alexie of the Kurdish Institute in Paris.
Beyond their ability to fight, Kurdish women have a powerful mental impact on Daesh fighters. They fear the death received at the hands of a woman, the ultimate torture. Against Daesh,
