War is considered a purely masculine affair. A man is physically and psychologically stronger than a woman, who, in theory, should guard the hearth in the absence of a warrior who has gone to battle. However, more and more women of any age are striving to show themselves strong and independent. Oddly enough, but many of them find themselves in military service. These are special forces, which are fully staffed by women. Each of them has been in hostilities and proved to be a strong and courageous fighting unit.
The Kurdish YPJ militia units were formed in 2012 as part of the resistance to the advancing ISIS forces. They have already passed many cruel tests, which the warriors of other armies cannot even imagine. In addition, these units have great psychological pressure on the ISIS fighters - they believe that the entrance to paradise is closed to a soldier killed by a woman.
Russian female special forces
Special Forces only in recent years began to actively accept female officers into their ranks. Most of them fight in mixed units, however, there are also units made up entirely of girls.
Chinese special forces
The Great Dragon has only one Special Forces unit that does not have any male fighters. Its base is in Hong Kong, and the entire unit has two hundred soldiers.
Swedish Corps Lott
The Lott Corps is part of the Swedish Volunteer Armed Forces. The employees of these units are involved in repelling aggressors who have invaded the country.
Libyan revolutionary nuns
After the Libyan civil war, Muammar Gaddafi's elite bodyguard corps was completely disbanded. These women subsequently formed their own combat battalion of highly trained and deadly specialists.
The girls in the self-defense units of Kurdistan are brave and strong-willed women who defend their land and families. The militants of the "Islamic State" are afraid to die at the hands of these women, since in this case they will not go to heaven, but to hell. Their strength attracts volunteers from other countries. However, not all volunteers are men, which is good news.
Israeli Gil (Jil) Rosenberg
Former Tel Aviv resident, Canadian and Israeli citizen Gil Rosenberg joined the Kurdish militias in November 2014. Speaking on the air of "Reshet Bet", the young woman explained the motives of her act by saying that she decided to make a feasible contribution to the fight against terror, and also to help the Kurds in their fight against the Islamists. Gil noted that she served in the IDF and has combat experience.
Canadian model Tiger Sun left her motorcycle, her friends and family to fight ISIS at 46. Having been on the front lines, she spoke about the horrors she saw in battle. So, for example, a little girl died before her eyes, blown up by a mine, because. Kurds had no medical education and failed to provide medical assistance.
She also told how she felt when she stepped on the charred fingers, but the body of their owner was not found.
Tiger fought as part of the Women's Protection Units for 4 months, but constant malnutrition and the severity of the equipment forced her to return home.
Samantha Johnston - mother, veteran and active member of the Kurdish People's Protection Unit (#YPG) Foreign Volunteer Brigade #FuckISIS
Joanna Palani is a 23-year-old Danish-Iranian-Kurdish girl who dropped out of college to join the YPJ. She fought in Kobani, a Syrian-Kurdish city that was liberated from ISIS in January 2015. Upon her arrival home from Brussels, she was arrested in connection with a new Danish law that came into force in March 2014. It gives police the power to confiscate passports and impose travel bans on Danish citizens suspected of planning to travel to Syria or Iraq as an anti-ISIS volunteer. According to the Danish security and intelligence service, about 125 Danes are fighting in Syria.
Delal Sindy left her job and studies in Sweden and went to Iraqi Kurdistan to help people become free from ISIS. The girl is half Swedish, half Kurdish. She helped mainly former captive militants, worked with women and children who fled after being sold into sexual slavery.
And finally, I will tell you about an unusual girl who defended her homeland - Ceylan Ozalp. YPJ Women's Squad fighter Ceylan Ozalp once surrounded, she preferred to commit suicide than to be raped by ISIS terrorists.
When she ran out of ammo, she took out a pistol from her holster and put it to her temple, then pulled the trigger.
Jaydan Ozalp was only 19 years old, she died with honor and dignity.
In the Peshmerga detachments - "going to death" or "looking into the eyes of death", as this word is translated from Kurdish, not only men, but also women are fighting in northern Iraq. The Kurdish Self-Defense Forces are also active in Syria.
Peshmerga Women's Special Forces
As you know, the attitude towards a woman reflects the character of the people themselves. Therefore, Kurds are probably the most liberal among Muslims. Of course, all the heavy housework is done by women.
Kurdish women do not cover their faces. In the crowd they mix with men and in general conversation they can always have their say. In the absence of her husband, the mistress of the house has the right to receive a guest, communicate without the shyness or shyness of Turkish or Iranian women, and share a meal with him with pleasure. When the husband appears, the woman, as a sign of attention to her guest, does not leave him until the husband ties the horse and enters the house.
There can be, of course, no question of the imprisonment of a woman.
The Kurds have one characteristic feature: the absence of special women's chambers (harems), which makes the Kurdish woman free. Kurd never sought to limit the rights of women. He considers her worthy of equal trust, capable of enjoying the same rights and duties as a man.
From a psychological point of view, a woman in his eyes has the same inclinations, the same virtues and the same vices as a man.
The youth are very familiar with each other. Marriage is preceded by real courtship on the part of the applicant. Romantic feelings reign in the hearts of the Kurds...
All these features of the national character were revealed, the only ones in the East, female military units. In addition to Kurdistan, there are only a few countries in the world in which women are allowed to participate in battles (in the Middle East, only Israel is among them).
Appeared in 1946 in the mountains on the border of Iran and Iraq, the Peshmerga is still fighting, and the women of Kurdistan have been fighting since the first days.
Separate women's detachments have been formed, there is also a brigade.
Most female soldiers are unmarried girls under 30.
Of the 40-50 thousand Kurdish fighters in Syria, 35% are women. Most of them are not married, although, according to the representative of the PKK Redur Khalil, there were cases when even mothers took up arms and joined the ranks of self-defense.
“I came here to protect my land and my people,” says Rozarin, a female self-defense fighter. - Relatives support us. Before joining the squad, I was trained. I was taught to shoot - I had never used a weapon before. from the Islamic State group are there, so if we see any movement, we shoot. They thought women couldn't fight them, but here we are. We are not afraid, because we know what we are fighting for. I am 19 years old, I was in 11th grade at school. But I dropped out to fight."
According to the commander of one of the units, Chichek (her name means "flower"), "men fight with the help of force alone, while women take it with intelligence, thorough preparation. We know when to use weapons, and when to use cunning. And then "Women by nature hate violence, war. But we have to defend ourselves. We were born and raised with this thought in our heads."
These women's groups instill fear in IS militants who believe that by dying at the hands of a woman, they will deprive themselves of paradise.
Radical ISIS imams often use Koranic suras to recruit new fighters, in which jihadists who died in battle are promised a Garden of Eden, where they will be met by 72 virgins.
Fighters IG they believe that if they die in battle, they will go to heaven, but only if they accepted death at the hands of a man.
From the very first days of training, women are warned that it is impossible to surrender, and they do not surrender. Each of them carries a grenade, in the most extreme case.
If the militants manage to capture the prisoner, then she dies a terrible death.
Women's military units that are part of peshmerga, undergo intensive training in special units, where representatives of the “weaker” sex are taught to shoot sniper rifles, wield a Kalashnikov assault rifle and throw hand grenades.
During the defense of the hero city of Kobani, if it were not for the YPG women's brigade, the city would not have survived.
IS fighters broke into the city, fierce street fighting went on for 2 months, women fought beyond praise.
There is data. that they more than once or twice entered into hand-to-hand combat with the militants.
Misaa Abdu, a Kurdish woman fighter known to everyone under the pseudonym Narin Afrin, led women's brigade in the city of Kobani, from the very beginning of hostilities.
The most dangerous soldiers, according to journalists, serve in the Kurdish women's self-defense units. Kurdish warriors are fighting against the main world threat - the terrorists of the "Islamic State" and "Al-Qaeda in Syria" directly in hot spots.
The Kurds are the largest nation that does not have its own state. Living in several countries, they have been fighting for the creation of an independent Kurdistan for almost a century and a half. Active punitive operations of the Turkish and Iraqi armies knocked out a significant part of the Kurdish fighters. Their place was taken by women - now they make up 30-40% of the Kurdish guerrillas.
There are 30-35 million Kurds in the world. The most significant part of them live in Turkey - up to 15 million, another 7-8 million - in Iran. The authorities of these states avoid censuses in order to avoid increasing ethnic isolation (therefore, the number of Kurds in these countries is an estimate). There are about 2 million of them in Syria, and 800 thousand of them do not have citizenship and are doomed to an illegal existence (these are mostly refugees from the punitive operations of the Turkish troops).
In Iraq, the Kurdistan Regional Government gives official figures of 5.3 million people. There are small communities of Kurds in Armenia, Georgia, Israel and Jordan. Large community of Kurds in Europe. The data of the Council of Europe are as follows: 800 thousand in Germany (mostly from Syria and Turkey), 100 thousand in Sweden (from Iran and Iraq), 90 thousand in England (from Iraq) and 120 thousand in France (mainly from Turkey) .
The active phase of the Kurdish war for the creation of their own state has been going on since the 1960s - mainly in Turkey, when the PKK took over the political wing of the movement. This party, in addition to nationalism, proclaims the struggle for socialism, moreover, a sort of Stalinist plan. In fact, this is the largest Stalinist party in the world (up to 300 thousand people). Up to 50 thousand Turks were killed by her hands, more than 150 thousand Kurds themselves died during thirty years of fighting (including civilians).
Today, a serious ideological formation has taken place among the Syrian Kurds. The Kurdish opposition is now led by the Democratic Union (PYD), a left-wing party formed as an offshoot of the Turkish PKK in 2003. This is also a Stalinist party. In the fall of this year, the PYD controlled most of Syrian Kurdistan (the north and northeast of the country), including large northeastern oil fields. Speaking against both President Bashar al-Assad and the opposition, the Kurds have become a third party in the Syrian conflict.
The Kurds themselves call this region Western Kurdistan. These oil-rich lands. This fact was one of the main motives for the oppression of the Kurds by Damascus. Even before the Baath party came to power in 1962, during the census in the province of Al Jazeera (that very oil-rich northeastern part of Syria. The current name is Hasakeh), about 20% of the Kurds were deprived of citizenship. The Syrian authorities pursued an active policy of Arabization.
However, during the civil war in Syria, the Kurds did not take the side of the Islamists. The reason for this was the support of the Syrian opposition by Turkey - the sworn enemy of the Kurdish national movement. Assad appreciated the loyalty of the Kurds and went to meet them - he fulfilled part of the previous demands of the Kurds, among which the main thing is to grant them autonomy. 48 PYD activists were also released from prisons, and hundreds of thousands of Kurds were given Syrian citizenship back.
On October 7, 2011, a prominent PYD Kurdish politician Mashal Tammo was assassinated. The Kurdish political forces blamed Damascus for this. The official Syrian media blamed the opposition on the Kurdistan Workers' Party and blamed Turkey for the murder. In general, there is no clarity about those who ordered Tammo's murder even today. But his death served as a good pretext for separating Syrian Kurdistan from the central government (and from the Islamists). In fact, today this territory is an independent state. In July 2013, the Syrian army left this territory.
The PYD copied the system of the early USSR - the Soviets - as the basis of government. Only there they are called "People's Houses". For example, in El-Qamishli, the current capital of Western Kurdistan, there are 15 such "People's Houses", i.e. approximately one council per 6,000 people. The "People's Houses", in turn, elected the People's Council of Western Kurdistan. Also, armed Kurdish People's Self-Defense Detachments were formed - in fact, the people's militia.
It is interesting that Damascus continues to pay salaries to state employees in Western Kurdistan, and it also finances medicine and education. This is Assad's payment for an important service for the Kurds - they took control of the Syrian-Turkish border (previously controlled only by Turkish border guards), which cut off the Islamist opposition from material support and militants coming from Turkey.
With the introduction of socialism in Western Kurdistan, important and indicative processes are taking place for the entire Near and Middle East. The PYD has shown well how secular politics and modernization can be carried out in the Islamic world.
Thus, the Kurdish Stalinists organize youth centers, women's organizations, trade unions, schools. Of particular interest and importance for the Middle East is the policy of women's emancipation. All authorities (including the Soviets - "People's Houses") recruit 40% of women and 40% of men. The remaining 20% are recruited without regard to the floor. Women are admitted to the People's Self-Defense Units (militia) on an equal basis with men. But from the point of view of a Westerner, there were also repressions: about 10% of the Kurds were expelled from Syrian Kurdistan to Iraq (many left for Europe), as they were adherents of the local liberal party (close to the Kurdish National Council). They were blamed not only for liberalism, but also for the orientation of their leaders towards the United States.
A relatively secular (and super-secular for the Muslim world) regime was also introduced in Iraqi Kurdistan, which also actually gained independence from the central government (in this case, from Baghdad). The ruling Democratic Party of Kurdistan (KDP) there is no longer Stalinist, but also leftist, albeit moderately - they see the social democratic parties of Europe as their ideal.
The democracy of Iraqi Kurdistan can be judged at least by the system of elections to its parliament. 111 seats in the parliament were distributed as follows: 11 - quotas for national minorities allocated to Turkmens (5 mandates), Assyrians (5) and Armenians (1). Also, 34 women were elected to parliament under the quota regime. The ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), led by the autonomous region's president Massoud Barzani, received almost 38%. By 2020, as Barzani promised, the quota for women in parliament will already be 40% (that's 44 seats).
These examples are good because they break the myth that Islamic countries are organically incapable of either secularism or democracy (although Muslims among Kurds make up only 75%, the rest are Christians, Alawites, Zoroastrians, etc.). Despite the leftism, the Kurdish authorities in Iraq and Syria are not satisfied with the persecution of believers.
Kurdish women received equality in the army. In Syria and Iraq, there are about 20% of them in the armed forces (people's militia), and up to 30% in partisan detachments in Turkish Kurdistan. The latter fact is explained by the fact that over the long years of fighting the Turkish government, a significant part of the male militants was killed, and women had to take their place. In addition, in Turkish Kurdistan, where there is not only no socialism, like their counterparts in Iraq and Syria, but also the beginnings of democracy, joining a partisan detachment automatically equalizes a woman's rights with a man.
It is symptomatic that one of the main holidays in Turkish Kurdistan (along with, for example, May 1) is Zilan Day. Zilan (Zeynab Kinaci) became famous among the Kurds for being able to organize a terrorist attack herself, disguising herself as a pregnant woman and gaining access to the location of the participants in the Turkish military ceremony. As a result, the suicide bomber was able to kill 8 Turkish soldiers in addition to herself and injure 29 more people. “The dedication of a simple working suicide bomber is an example of the highest national prowess for the Kurds. Zilan has become a symbol of freedom for the Kurdish people and Kurdish women,” reads the justification for the holiday.
English photographer Anastasia Taylor photographed the lives of women in the Kurdish armed groups located in Turkey, and photographer Colin Delphos - in Iran and Iraq:
More in the Interpreter's Blog about partisan movements.
In the Middle East, blazing in the fire of civil wars, only one player can emerge as a clear winner - the Kurds. The people who have never had their own state are half a step away from finding their own country, which occupies both part of the territory of Syria and the oil-bearing part of Iraq. To accomplish this, the Kurds need to withstand the onslaught of ISIS and other Islamic radical groups (in Syria), and possibly the forces of Bashar al-Assad. In the future, an escalation of the conflict is also possible in Turkey, in areas populated predominantly by Kurds.
At the moment, the “Iraqi” Kurds are doing somewhat better than the “Syrian” Kurds. Kurdish units in Iraq - Peshmerga ("going to death") are holding back ISIS, the battles are going on with varying degrees of success. In Syria, a catastrophe almost happened - only NATO air strikes helped to avoid the complete loss of the strategically important city of Kobani, but the battles with the Islamists are still ongoing. In order to assess the prospects of the Kurds in the ongoing war, one must at least roughly estimate their strength. Recall that ISIS forces (http://www.regnum.ru/news/polit/1854462.html) and Iraqi government forces were assessed in previous articles (http://www.regnum.ru/news/polit/1856425.html) .
First, let's pay attention to the people's self-defense units of the Kurds of Syria (Yekîneyên Parastina Gel, YPG). The number of detachments is estimated differently: from 15 to 45 thousand people. They are armed mainly with light weapons - for the most part Soviet rifle and anti-tank. There are also American samples, as the US provides military aid by air. Of the heavy equipment, the YPG probably has about 5 T-55 tanks captured in battles with the Islamists. The combat effectiveness of the detachments was not so high - as mentioned above, without NATO air support, the YPG was in for a very painful defeat in the city of Kobani.
Now let's take a closer look at the Peshmerga, who are the backbone of the Kurdish forces in the world.
1. Total strength
The number of Peshmerga is approximately 190-200 thousand people. Which means that the Kurds have a personnel comparable to government troops and at least 2-3 times the strength of ISIS.
2. Small arms and portable anti-tank weapons
Both Soviet and Western weapons are used. Available American M16, M4 assault rifles, German G36 and G3, M40 and Barrett M82A1 sniper rifles. But still, of course, Kalashnikov assault rifles are the main small arms of the Peshmerga. Of the anti-tank weapons, it is worth noting the American TOW anti-tank missiles and the Franco-German MILAN. A fairly wide range of anti-tank grenade launchers is used: Soviet RPG-7, American AT-4, Swedish-German Carl Gustav, German Panzerfaust 3.
3. Light armored vehicles and trucks
Military Humvees, hundreds of which were handed over to the Peshmerga by Americans leaving Iraq. Purchased 60 German LKW Wolf jeeps and UNIMOG trucks. Soviet trucks "Ural" and GAZ are used, as well as infantry fighting vehicles BMP-1, in an unknown number. In addition, the Peshmerga managed to capture some of the equipment from the abandoned military bases of the Iraqi government forces - American MRAP armored vehicles and M1117 armored personnel carriers.
4. Heavy armored vehicles
There are at least 215 T-55 tanks in stock, with 100-120 rumored to be in need of repair. 150-170 T-62, but the ammunition for these vehicles is limited. There are a number of more modern T-72 tanks, but no more than 30 units.
5. Artillery
The Peshmerga army is supposedly armed with: MLRS "Grad", a certain number of American 155-mm howitzers M198, Soviet howitzers D-30, D-20 and M30.
6. Air defense means
In clashes with IS militants, air defense means do not find their use, since jihadists do not yet use aircraft. Air defense is represented by anti-aircraft artillery - ZU-23 and obsolete Soviet guns KS-30. All this good is probably used for fire on ground targets. In addition, the Peshmerga has a number of obsolete Strela-2 MANPADS. If at some point the newly created Kurdish state has to clash with the Turkish Armed Forces, then it is in the air defense that the main weak point of the Peshmerga and the YPG will lie.
7. Aviation
There is no combat aviation as such. There are a number of civilian and police helicopters that can be used for reconnaissance and transport purposes. With the money provided by Saudi Arabia, American Sikorsky S-333 helicopters and French Eurocopter EC120 Colibri were purchased.
As we can see, the total forces of the Kurds are not much inferior to the Iraqi government forces and are noticeably superior to ISIS. However, the big problem of the Peshmerga is that the armed groups were financed rather poorly, which is why there were almost no exercises, respectively, there is no need to talk about any professionalism yet, although, naturally, it will gradually come along with combat experience. It is also worth noting a serious lack of ammunition for the Peshmerga and the YPG - perhaps the problem will be partially solved by supplies from the United States.
From all of the above, we can conclude that the Kurds have enough forces to defend all the territories that they now control. It remains only a matter of motivation and morale, which, for example, seriously let down the Iraqi government troops. However, it should be noted that in the event of a military conflict with Turkey, the Kurds will face serious problems: they will have to fight against an enemy with complete air supremacy, well trained and well equipped. Therefore, the possibility of advancing the Kurdistan project into Turkish territory will depend more on the local population than on the Peshmerga and the YPG, who, at best, will be able to hold the current territories.
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