Female Kurdish fighters ignite fear into Islamic State militants, who believe that they’ll go straight to hell if they are killed by a woman. RT travelled to Iraqi-Syrian border to meet the YPG, the female battalion fighting IS.
The border area between Iraq and Syria is currently controlled by
Kurdish volunteers after both Iraqi and Syrian military forces
abandoned the border crossings.
The women fighters occupy the lookout post on the border, which
allows them to monitor all IS activities in Iraq and Syria.
Women fighters make up one third of all #Kurdish resistance.
— PaulaSlier_RT (@PaulaSlier_RT) October 7, 2014
Rosarine, one of the women, confessed that she had never fired a gun in her life before the war against Islamic State (IS, formerly known as ISIS) began.
“The first time I fired I was scared, but my love for my country
was bigger than my fear,” she told RT’s Paula Slier.
“Islamic State thought women can't fight them, but here we
are. We are not afraid because we know what we are fighting
for.”
The 19-year-old, who dropped out of school to join the YPG,
Kurdish People’s Protection Units, says that now she opens fire
“whenever something moves [on the IS side].”
Interviewing #YPJ female fighters - their ages range from 18-40 pic.twitter.com/sxVggszcxR
— PaulaSlier_RT (@PaulaSlier_RT) October 7, 2014
All the women fighters in the battalion are volunteers, who go
into battle under the “Hava” (friendship) motto.
Rosarine added that she and her ‘sisters in arms’ get full
support and encouragement from their families as they’re fighting
to protect the Kurdish land and its people.
The commander of the Kurdish women fighters, Dalil Derki, said
that his unit strikes terror into Islamic state militants, who
have “twisted Islam.”
“In their philosophy women don't have their own role in
society. Their philosophy and culture is that they believe that
if they are killed by a woman they won’t go to heaven. Instead
they will go to hell,” he explained to RT.
According to the YPG commander, half of the jihadists on the
border were killed by women fighters and “if they want to go
to hell, they should keep fighting us.”
Derki said that he’s proud of his troops and their achievement on
the battlefield as they “set an example to women all around
the world.”
#Peshmerger Brigadier-General says one of the 4 #YPJ fighters who helped his men escape, was killed by #ISIS the next day
— PaulaSlier_RT (@PaulaSlier_RT) October 7, 2014
Another female soldier, Beritan, said that she has already been
in many “dangerous fights,” with one battle even lasting
“for an entire night and day.”
“I wasn't really scared, I was more focused on killing the
terrorists than dying myself,” she explained.
Many of the girls told RT that they’ll remain soldiers after the
war with IS is over as the battle for an independent Kurdish
state, Kurdistan, is underway.
The Kurds do not have their own state, with the Kurdistan region
spanning adjacent parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey.
The Kurdish conflict with various jihadist groups taking part in
the Syrian civil war, including IS, started in July 2013 in the
Syrian town of Ras al-Ayn.
While Kurdish forces recently managed moderate military gains
against IS in northern Iraq.
However, the jihadists seem to be taking the upper hand in the
battle for the strategic town of Kobani on the Turkish-Syrian
border.