Christian women fighters on the ground versus ISIS in Syria appealed to Western feminists to come fight with them.
The Bethnahrin Protection Forces are a unit of Christian Assyrian women within the Syrian Democratic Forces, the coalition of Kurds, Arabs, Assyrians and other minority ethnic groups that have been fighting ISIS in Syria and liberated Raqqa. Women’s equality is a cornerstone of the SDF, with SDF General Commander Rojda Felat, a Kurdish leader of the YPJ Women’s Protections Units, leading the successful Raqqa offensive; Felat vowed that “wherever a woman is being suppressed, wherever a man is threatening a woman, our forces will struggle against this.”
Bethnahrin spokeswoman Nisha Gewriye told the European Post that other women who say they fight for equality should come fight alongside them.
“We want to invite all the feminists from Europe and Western countries to join us in the fight against Daesh and to help us defeat Daesh permanently,” she said.
Christian women commander who invited Western feminists to join them in the fight.#HSNB #Syriac #Syria #womansrevolution #womanrights #RiseUp4women #xwebûnxweparastin #twitterkurds #SDF #YPG #Rojava #YPJ #JinJiyanAzadi @HSNB_ pic.twitter.com/7YNF75yi5U
— The Women’s Revolution in Rojava (@the_rojava) June 11, 2018
Gewriye stressed to reporter Marco Gombacci, on a frontline tour of a Middle Euphrates River Valley area where battles continue with about 2,000 ISIS fighters, that jihadists are terrified of being wounded or killed by a woman soldier because they think they’ll be damned in the afterlife.
The SDF said that a committee in ISIS’ onetime declared capital is “fully engaged in helping women to play a major role in building society, contributing to all areas of society without exception.”
Fayrouz Khalil, head of the Women’s Committee of the Raqqa Civil Council, said that after the ISIS occupation the rate of widows and divorcees in the city is “close to 80 percent.”
In addition to constructing workshops to help provide women with jobs, the committee will be opening a women’s center in Raqqa and “will also organize seminars for women in Raqqa city so women know their role, rights and duties in society,” said Khalil.
She noted that some aid organizations “are promoting themselves as providing enormous assistance but the truth is very little help.”
“We appeal to organizations to stand firm in their obligations to civilians in need, to give us greater support in order to do our best, and to help as many women as possible in need of assistance,” Khalil said.
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