Scenes of Kurdish Women who Have Taken Up Arms Against ISIS; Kurdish Iraq and Syria, 2014-2015

Featured in this photo report are scenes of women who have taken up arms against ISIS in Iraq and Syria. The majority of these female fighters come from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a militant organization with Marxist-Leninst roots based in Turkey and Iraq that seeks greater political rights and cultural autonomy for Kurds; and the Syria based Women's Protection Unit (YPJ), which is strongly associated with the PKK.

The PKK is listed as a terrorist organisation by several states and organisations including Turkey, the USA and NATO. Despite being listed as a terrorist organisation several sources have stated that informal cooperation between the USA and PKK exist in the context of the ongoing battle against ISIS.

It is said among the Kurds that their female fighters inspire great fear in the ISIS militants, who believe that if they are killed by a woman they will not go to heaven.

Taken during 2014-07-01 - 2015-08-01 *
Source BBC Urdu/PBS/FolkKurd
License Attribution - NonCommercial - ShareAlike Creative Commons

Original source

Photo 1,4,6,7: BBC Urdu/ Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXm-GkuMHeg

Photo 2,3: PBS Newshour/ Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvrHEpoedcU

Photo 5,8: FolkKurd/Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAzRWSwAuGI
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