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Showing posts with label kurdistan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kurdistan. Show all posts

Sunday, November 29, 2015

Women Warriors

Thirty percent of the Peshmurga (Kurdish Army) are women. They often announce their presence to the Islamic State enemy by shrilly ululating, the traditional middle-eastern cry of female exultation. The jihadist fears them, not only for their prowess as snipers, but because he believes that if he is killed by a woman, he will not be awarded the promised houri of paradise. "So when you shoot ISIS," an interviewer observed, "you're really sending them to hell?" The female peshmurga laughed merrily: "I'm giving them one-way tickets."

These women are hard-core. Although they train separately from men, they go out on missions together. It is not unusual for a woman to be in charge of a group of men. The Kurds are proud of their women and of their fierce reputations.

Christians, Yazidis, and other religious minorities are pouring into Kurdish-occupied Iraq, where a pluralistic state of tolerance is being established.

Turkey, long the oppressor of the Kurds, is not pleased. Because of course the Kurds see this war as not only a crisis, but an opportunity, to realize their dreams of independence. And if any people deserve their own nation, it is the Kurds.