Kurdish Women Soldiers Inspire New Rights For Kurdish Women

Once again, the incredibly skilled and brave Kurdish Women Fighters are making headlines on two fronts.

Kurdish Women Fighters On Front Line In Kobani

JUST IN from NBC’s Richard Engel on MSNBC Andrea Mitchell November 10, talking about ISIS in Kobani. Richard got into the country — a very difficult feat — and to paraphrase his report, “Most of the FRONT LINE positions in Kobani are held by WOMEN!!! They are holding slightly more than half of the city.

This was the first time I’ve heard a TV reporter fully acknowledge the truth of the Kurdish women fighters and the decisive role they are playing against ISIS. We’ve been following the story for two months now with major exposure of the Kurdish women and their fierce refusal to turn over their land and towns, their parents and children to ISIS (ISIL).  Read our largest story about the Kurdish women fighters: Kurdish Women Fighters In Syria Say ISIS Fears Women Soldiers So Much They Shake.

ISIS is besides themselves in Kobani and MUST take the women out. Reports today say that rather than beheading the Kurdish women, they will make wives of them — a far more repressive punishment.

“I believe in a greater cause, which is protecting our families and our cities from the extremists’ brutality and dark ideas,” she says. “I read Nietzsche and Marx, which they don’t accept. They don’t accept having women in leadership positions. They want us to cover ourselves and become housewives to attend to their needs only. They think we have no right to talk and control our lives.”

The Kurdish women aren’t shy about their competency.

“Women can fight better than men,” says Britain Derek, 33, a commander in the YPG’s unit in Hasakeh. “We remain calm and steadfast. We are usually snipers, or on the fighting fronts. Women don’t have much to lose in battle. Men dream of starting a family, or returning to their families. Whereas women who have chosen this path do so willingly. They have no other purpose.”

New Rights for Kurdish Women

Not being an independent nation, the legal implementation of new decrees passed in Kurdish territory to advance women’s rights remains unclear.Kurdish women have long lived by more liberal standards around women’s rights.

By contrast, The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has issued rules on how women should dress and has curbed their movement outside the home — basing this on a radical interpretation of sharia (Islamic law) — according to residents living in territory it holds.

In response, joint leaders of the “self-ruling democracy of Jazira province” have issued a 30-point decree.

The decree called for “equality between men and women in all spheres of public and private life,” and said women had the right to run for office and an equal right to work, pay and inheritance, writes vs.com. (Note that Yahoo has also picked up the story.)

The new rules also called for women not marrying below the age of 18, an end of polygamy, an equal right of women to divorce, and an end to honor killings. The decree abolished the legal right ro perpetuate violence against women, while giving women an equal status before the law.