The Ladies Of Badass-istan
Love this story -- by Norma Costello, in the Independent, about a bunch of Kurdish women fighting ISIS and scaring the crap out of them, because the jihadis believe they won't get into heaven if they get killed by a woman:
"They are so scared of us! If we kill them they can't go to heaven. It makes us laugh.... We make loud calls of happiness when we see them to let them know we are coming. That's when they become cowards," she says. Under the strict interpretation of Islam by Isis, if a fighter is killed by a women he cannot go to heaven, a fact the women clearly relish...."I like that when we kill them they lose their heaven. I don't know how many of them I've killed," Haveen says as she takes a drag of her cigarette. "It's not enough. I won't be happy until they're all dead".
...The YBS has attracted young fighters from neighbouring Syria.
"I came to kick Isis out of these lands," an 18-year-old fighter named Rozaline explains. "I came for the Yazidi women. I saw them cutting women's heads off in Rojava [what Kurds call the three Kurdish enclaves just south of the Turkish border in Syria]. I saw so many awful things. I don't want to see any more cutting and killing".
The former medical student left her studies to spend three months training with the YPG in the mountains in Syria. A recent recruit to the frontline - she arrived four days ago after Isis launched an attack to retake the village - Rozaline says she is there to avenge the Yazidi women.
"I must protect the Yazid women from those animals.... I hate them so much but I'm not afraid. Kurdish women sing when we go into battle. We know they are cowards," she says, while the other 'jin' fighters let out the shrill celebratory uluation call they use in battle.
via ifeminists
"Kurdish women sing when we go into battle."
While American college children cry at a name written in chalk on the sidewalk...
Radwaste at April 12, 2016 4:55 AM
Such an apt comparison.
Amy Alkon at April 12, 2016 5:32 AM
Gotta show them Lord of the Rings. These ISIS fighters already dress in black robes. They can quote this passage: "But no living man am I! You look upon a woman. Éowyn I am, Éomund’s daughter. You stand between me and my lord and kin. Begone, if you be not deathless! For living or dark undead, I will smite you, if you touch him."
spqr2008 at April 12, 2016 6:52 AM
Like what Rosie the Riveter did to post-war US society, these women will fundamentally change their society. After taking a leading role in the fight to preserve their society, I don't think they'll be satisfied to return to life under a burkha. And I don't think their men will be willing (or able) to push them into it, after fighting alongside them.
Conan the Grammarian at April 12, 2016 7:05 AM
"I must protect the Yazid women from those animals..."
The other hopeful note in this is that these are Sunni Kurdish women making common cause and coming to the aid of Yazidi women.
Jim at April 12, 2016 9:26 AM
Kurdish women don't wear burqas to begin with
Nicolek at April 12, 2016 10:43 AM
Good to know.
I still see fundamental shifts in Middle East social mores coming from having women on the front lines defending hearth and home.
Conan the Grammarian at April 12, 2016 2:20 PM
Good to know.
I still see fundamental shifts in Middle East social mores coming from having women on the front lines defending hearth and home.
Conan the Grammarian at April 12, 2016 2:20 PM
Women fighters are ... A JOKE! And rape-fodder to boot.
Jay R at April 12, 2016 4:04 PM
"When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains, and the women come out to cut up what remains, jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains and go to your gawd like a soldier."
Rudyard Kipling
Bob in Texas at April 12, 2016 5:25 PM
I'm not commenting about their fighting abilities, merely about the fact that they're assuming traditionally male roles in a society with an up-to-now rigid gender hierarchy.
Not all the women who participate in this role reversal are going to be satisfied going home to a society that relegates them to second-class status.
Being killed by women in combat means no virgins, so the men fear being killed by them and run away. With a confidence born of the fact that they inspire fear in the hearts of their male enemies, these women are going to assert themselves once the fighting ends.
Conan the Grammarian at April 12, 2016 5:40 PM
"Women fighters are........blah blah".
1) they aren't exactly up against the US Marines. They've probably got about as much training as those they fight.
2) because men are never raped, right? Sexual domination and humiliation is the untold war story. It happens. To men. Frequently. No different than prison.
3) a good weapon is a powerful field-leveler, and women are naturally good at some tasks. Rock climbing and marksmanship are 2 of them.
momof4 at April 12, 2016 9:45 PM
Type "deadliest woman sniper" into Google:
"In early 1941, Lyudmila Pavlichenko was studying history at Kiev University, but within a year, she had become one of the best snipers of all time, credited with 309 confirmed kills, 36 of which were German snipers."
Humans are deadly predators.
Bob in Texas at April 13, 2016 5:41 AM
From the article: "Kurdish women sing when we go into battle."
Radwaste: While American college children cry at a name written in chalk on the sidewalk...
Amy: Such an apt comparison.
I agree.
Patrick at April 13, 2016 8:50 AM
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