The women Isis fighters fear the most
Female Kurdish troops say they want to make jihadists pay for their crimes
Headed for the front line near Syria’s Raqqa, 23- year- old Kurdish fighter Kaziwar has just one thought on her mind: to make her jihadist foes pay for their treatment of women.
“Our taking part in the Women’s Protection Units [ YPJ] is revenge for the women who were kidnapped in Sinjar [ in Iraq] and sold [ as sex slaves] in markets,” said the brown- haired woman riding a four- wheel- drive.
The YPJ has been fighting alongside male comrades in an offensive launched last Saturday to recapture the city of Raqqa which Isis ( Islamic State) has made its de facto capital.
Kaziwar, who was clad in trainers and a tracksuit over military fatigues because of the cold, took up arms five years ago and has since fought in several battles against Sunni Muslim extremists.
She lost her “sister- in- arms” in one such confrontation and has since kept Bahareen Jia’s picture attached to the vehicle’s rear- view mirror wherever she goes.
Hundreds of Kurdish women are taking part in a showdown with the jihadists imposing a reign of terror over territories they seized in Syria and neighbouring Iraq, where Isis has since 2014 enslaved women of the minority Yazidi community.
According to United Nations experts, around 3200 Yazidis are still being held by Isis, the majority of them in Syria.
The young woman who goes by the nom- de- guerre of Kaziwar drove into Mazraat Khaled, a village 1km from the frontline between Isis and the United States- backed Syrian Democratic Forces ( SDF), an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters.
On the top floor of a building perched on a hill and overlooking a river, she reported to a local commander, Rojda Felat, 38, in the village of Mazraat Khaled, around 30km from Raqqa.
As the t wo women went over battle plans, shells crashed down nearby and warplanes of the United States- led coalition struck jihadist positions from where the firing originated, sending up black plumes of smoke.
Isis fighters “feel shame at the idea of being killed by a woman, something which they regard as haram”, or forbidden under Islam, Kaziwar said with scorn in her voice.
“When they hear our voices, they get very scared, whereas we at the front, we break out into youyous [ ululate] every time we advance,” she said.
Rojda, wearing a black- and- white keffiyeh Arab headscarf and with the yellow badge of the YPJ on the left shoulder of her uniform, used two walkie- talkies to send out orders to the fighters in the field.
Pickups mounted with Dushkas, Russian- made heavy machineguns, were parked outside, as men and women fighters took a respite from the battle on the ground floor of the building used as a command post.
Rojda gave orders for villagers who