Peshmerga women’s regiment ready to fight in Kobane

By Bahroz Faraidoon

SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region – The only Peshmerga women’s regiment is fully trained and ready to fight the Islamic State (ISIS) in the Syrian town of Kobane, alongside the women already fighting with Kurdish defenders there, its commander said.

“Our regiment regularly receives training. We are always on alert,” said Colonel Nahida Ahmed, who heads the all-female force.  “We are ready to go and fight ISIS in Kobane whenever Massoud Barzani, president of the Kurdistan Region, gives the order,” she said.

Kobane, the Kurdish town on the border with Turkey, has been resisting an ISIS takeover for nearly two months. Its main defensive force, the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), also contains the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ).  According to some figures at least 10,000 YPJ fighters – or about a third of the guerrilla forces defending the city -- are women.

Last month, the Kurdistan Region’s Peshmergas became the first foreign forces to enter the town to fight alongside the YPG. 

Ahmed hoped her regiment – called the 2^nd Women’s regiment -- could help in Kobane’s defense, fighting shoulder-to-shoulder with the YPJ.

“We have received training on all kinds of weapons, light and heavy,” she said. “Before the war with ISIS, our unit was in training for three months. The trainers were male and they had a positive assessment of the women Peshmergas. The trainers even said that in some respects female Peshmergas were doing much better than their male counterparts.”

Since June, when ISIS routed the Iraqi army and took over about a third of the country, the Peshmergas have remained the main bulwark against ISIS expansion in the north, backed since August by US and coalition airstrikes.

There has been no decision among Kurdistan’s leaders to send women into battle, and the female Peshmerga are largely involved in logistics and other activities behind frontlines.

But Ahmed said her regiment had done its fair share against ISIS, even losing one fighter – Captain Rangin -- who died after an ISIS mortar attack in Kirkuk. “We were the first Kurdish force to enter Kirkuk,” said Ahmed, who was involved in the formation of the female Peshmerga units.

“We wanted to join the military forces to send the message that there is no difference between men and women, and to increase women’s awareness,” she said. “We have Peshmergas from Khanaqin to Qandil. Women from different areas have joined our regiment. We even have Sunni and Shiite members.”

Sakar Kamal, who is in her early 20s and part of Ahmed’s regiment, said her mother worries about her only daughter being a Peshmerga. “Everything is possible in this war, especially if we move to the front lines,” she said. “I have a duty to my family and to my nation.”