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*Note: this story is meant for students grades 9-12. The video shows a short clip of a shooting from 3:20 to 3:26; please screen it yourself before playing it in class and show students with caution.
Women in Kurdistan, an independent region in Iraq, have joined the ranks of fighters battling the Islamic State (ISIL).
The Kurdish people have their own culture and language and also live in parts of Syria, Iran and Turkey. The all-female fighting units of the Kurdish PKK militia formed after ISIL attacked Kurdistan last summer. ISIL committed violence against many citizens and sold some Kurdish women into slavery.
Women in Kurdistan live with fewer restrictions than they do in other parts of the country and some other regions of the Arab world, said Dr. Shaho Burahn Abdalla of Sulaymaniyah University in Kurdistan.
The women fighters, who say they will not marry or have children while they combat the threat of ISIL, see themselves as defending all females against a dangerous ideology that denigrates girls and women.
“As a woman when you take your rifle, go out, and get ready to fight against them, even if you don’t kill them, you are fighting against their mentality,” said Berytan, a female sniper.
The female forces reflect the founding principles of the PKK, which emphasizes both Kurdish and female independence. This past year, the group fought against ISIL for control of Kobani, a strategically placed Syrian city just south of the Turkish border. During that fight, women made up 40 percent of the Kurdish fighting population.
If the U.S. hopes to curb the spread of extremist ideology in the Middle East, they should offer assistance to PKK troops, argues Kurdish affairs expert and author David Phillips. However, the PKK has fought for control of Turkish territory in the past, leading the U.S. to label it a terrorist organization. Some policy makers are hesitant to alienate Turkey by offering support.
Warm up questions
- Where is Iraq?
- Where is Kurdistan?
- What do you know about ISIL?
Critical thinking questions
- How do the Kurdish women in the report describe their culture’s attitude toward women?
- How do you think the actions of the female fighters could influence the way their society views women?
- The PKK has fought ISIL in Iraq, but has also launched attacks in Turkey that led the U.S. to place it on the list of terrorist organizations. How does the U.S. decide whether to support the PKK? What factors influence that decision?
