Jo Freeman Reviews The Daughters of Kobani: A Story of Rebellion, Courage and Justice
The Daughters of Kobani: A Story of Rebellion, Courage and Justice
By Gayle Tzemach Lemmon
New York: Penguin Press, 2021, xviii + 254 pages
Hardcover $27.00
To purchase Directly: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/591561/the-daughters-of-kobani-by-gayle-tzemach-lemmon/
Reviewed by Jo Freeman
Every feminist should read this book. So should those in the military, particularly those who think, or used to think, that women don’t belong on the front lines of war. The protagonists in this book are women fighters and commanders in a Kurdish militia.
To understand it you do have to know something about Kurds and Kurdistan, of which most of us are only vaguely aware. Spread out over four countries in western Asia, the Kurds, at different times, have tried to become a separate state, or to just be allowed to govern their own people, speak their own language and practice their own culture within existing states.
Written as narrative non-fiction, this book reads like a novel, but is based on factual reportage. The author is an American descendant of a Kurdish immigrant who has written about this region for years. Her main subjects are four women in the YPJ – a Kurdish acronym for Women’s Protection Units. They are organized separately from the male YPG, though they carry the same weapons, get the same training and do the same jobs.
Their ideological leader is Abdullah Ocalan, one of the founders of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party), whose writings blend ideas from Marxism-Leninism, Kurdish nationalism and women’s liberation. He insists that a society can’t be free unless women are free.
These ideas are totally opposed by the enemy in this book, which is the Islamic State, aka ISIS, ISIL and Daesh. A fundamentalist Islamic group trying to form a worldwide caliphate and return to the golden age of the Seventh Century, it’s been designated a terrorist organization by the UN and many others.
One theme throughout is ISIS’ treatment of women as slaves. There are multiple stories of women inside ISIS lines being bought and sold, kept in cages and harshly punished for showing the slightest bit of skin. Some join the YPJ once they are liberated.
The US wants to extinguish ISIS, but can’t put troops on the ground to do so. It provides air support – supplies, ammunition and bombs – to the Kurds because it has the necessary troops and commitment. Several Americans are figures in this book, acting as advisors and calling in planes.
Lurking in the background is Turkish hostility toward the Kurds, especially the PKK, which it sees as a terrorist group threatening Turkey’s territorial integrity. The YPG insists that it is not part of the PKK, but Turkey doesn’t believe it. Ocalan was a founder of both and both pay homage to his ideas.
The action takes place roughly between 2011 and 2019, though there are plenty of detours into history. It’s sparked by the Syrian civil war, which grew out of the Arab spring. This is not a two-sided conflict like ours was but one of multiple and shifting sides. The Kurdish campaign added a heavy dose of pepper to a political and military stew. Indeed, the Kurds don’t care who rules Syria, as long as they can rule themselves.
Kobani was a city of 45,000 in the Kurdish region of Syria right on the Turkish border. It is the scene of a major battle, but not the hometown of any of the protagonists. There are other major battles, the last of which is the taking of Raqqa – the capitol of ISIS.
The book ends with victory on the battlefield. The Kurdish militias, supported by American bombing raids, drive ISIS troops out of northern Syria. Victory quickly turns sour. Turkey invades. It captures a long ribbon of Syria right over the border, and systematically cleanses the territory of Kurds.
©2021 Jo Freeman for SeniorWomen.com
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