When the Kurdish women took up arms to protect their own kind

It was difficult leave the safe proximity of home and take up arms, but there was no other way out when their villages were rampages by the ISIS insurgents. Raped, violated and battered in war, the condition of the women in the ISIS-occupied villages was getting from bad to worse. But, there long wait had come to an end and little did they know in what form. Women empowerment and feminist rights are easier to discuss under conducive environment, but this clan of Kurdish female soldiers proved that fighting for women's rights does not and should not depend on the environment it is being nurtured in. It is something that is ingrained in the social psyche. 

The ISIS kidnapped women and turned them into sex slaves, despite their unwillingness. They were sold in the market and used as prize 'booty' for the most-efficient soldiers. If that was not enough, they were also used as stakes to win wars. "Enough" was the word that drove young women into enrolling themselves into a larger armed unit of 600 fighters aligned with the Kurdistan Freedom Party or the PAK. 

Determined to simply go against the ISIS dictum, these women have a unique way of combating the Islamic insurgents. Threat calls are responded by singing (something that is strictly prohibited by the ISIS) and then starts bombardment. They have now inspired women of other communities in Syria to take up arms. For instance, the female residents of al-Bab in northern Syria have formed a protection force of their own in the lines of  Kurdish Women’s Protection Units (YPJ) and have taken up arms against the insurgents. 

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