One of the women fighting the monstrous Islamic State. This is an interview with 20 year-old Kurdish fighter, Sozan Çudî, who says “I’ll remain a soldier and fight for my country until all four parts of Kurdistan are freed from the hands of the occupier. We fight for Kurdistan’s future, not just Western Kurdistan (in Syria). I was going to share a video from Lisa Daftaris page about Kurdish female fighters, which has been widely shared, but that one doesnt fully do justice for our women. That video notes that the female unit of the Peshmerge was officially formed in 1996, and although that is true, our women fought alongside men long before then. Kurdistan has many heroines who are idolized, such as Margaret George Shello, a female Peshmerge known as the ‘Kurdish Joan of Arc’ for her brilliance as a fighter. She joined the Kurdish fight in the 1960’s when she was only 20, and even led her own unit for many years. If you go back even further in Kurdish history, you’ll find that Kurdish women fought alongside their husbands in the 1700’s. Kurdish female fighters make up around 40% of the troops in the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party), created in ’84 as a Kurdish resistance movement in Turkey. The women in the PKK are highly revered and often called the best snipers in the forces. The state of Turkey is undoubtedly threatened by these women, and will go to any extent to take them out. An example is Sakine Cansiz, a founding member of the group, and a commander of the women’s guerilla movement. She was imprisoned in the 80’s and was assassinated along with Leyla Seylemez, and Fidan Dogan in January, 2013 in Paris. Kurdish women play a tremendously important role in the Kurdish cause, whether politically or militarily and the world is just seeing that now. There’s a Kurdish saying, “shêr shêre, çi jine çi mere”, which translates to, a lion is a lion, whether male or female.
Posted on: Tue, 19 Aug 2014 09:04:08 +0000