Why We Fight: How Female Combatants Factor Into Kurdish State-Building

Kurdish women have diverse reasons for waging war on ISIS, but are they being used to romanticize the effort?

A fighter of the Kurdish of the Kurdish Women's Defense Units (YPJ) sits on sand bags as she holds a position on the front line in the Kurdish town of Derik (al-Malikiyah in Arabic), in the northeastern Hasakeh governorate on the border with Turkey and Iraq, on Oct. 19, 2013. Kurdish fighters from several villages in oil-rich Hasake province are engaged in combat against al-Qaida affiliated groups the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Nusra Front, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Fabio Bucciarelli/AFP/Getty Images

Women have been a part of the Kurdish military forces in Iraqi Kurdistan and the People’s Protection Unit (YPG) in the Kurdish region of Syria for decades, fighting alongside men to achieve the nationalistic goals of Kurdish rebel movements.  

The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan in Iraq created the first female unit in 1996. In Syria, the Women’s Protection Unit (YPJ) was founded in 2013 as the autonomous armed wing of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and the female equivalent of the YPG.

Often seen wearing their hair loose or in a ponytail, carrying Kalashnikovs, they look young, determined ,and at least as courageous as their male counterparts.