Captures the intricacies and complexities of the war in Syria.
This is a first-hand account of the Kurdish contribution to the defeat of ISIS. The author was a member of the YPJ the female component within the YPG, one of the many Kurdish armed groups.
I found the depiction of the various Kurdish groups and their ideology to be really interesting as I had naively assumed that the Kurdish people were a relatively homogenous group but this book has dispelled this naivety.
What I am not entirely sold on is the author’s record on the frontlines as she moved between various groups and between various specialisations and I found this hard to follow and to fully believe. I fully accept that the author has been damaged by both her childhood and then her subsequent experiences both on and off the frontline but I did find it hard to accept the ease with which she was able to leave Denmark and go to fight. I also found it hard to believe that a court having decided to withdraw her passport did not actually lead to her surrendering her passport.
That said though I do not know how much of her story to believe, I do believe that she did fight and that she saw this as her duty as a Kurd. I did find it disturbing that she was able to access military training at such a young age and then to participate in action on the frontline. I did find it hard to understand her wish to fight for the Kurdish nation and for women’s’ rights but not to choose to do this as a fully-fledged member of the YPJ. This seems to have led to a lot of bad feeling towards her from some groups.
At times it is not an easy read in terms of the content but it is worth preserving with.
I found the depiction of the various Kurdish groups and their ideology to be really interesting as I had naively assumed that the Kurdish people were a relatively homogenous group but this book has dispelled this naivety.
What I am not entirely sold on is the author’s record on the frontlines as she moved between various groups and between various specialisations and I found this hard to follow and to fully believe. I fully accept that the author has been damaged by both her childhood and then her subsequent experiences both on and off the frontline but I did find it hard to accept the ease with which she was able to leave Denmark and go to fight. I also found it hard to believe that a court having decided to withdraw her passport did not actually lead to her surrendering her passport.
That said though I do not know how much of her story to believe, I do believe that she did fight and that she saw this as her duty as a Kurd. I did find it disturbing that she was able to access military training at such a young age and then to participate in action on the frontline. I did find it hard to understand her wish to fight for the Kurdish nation and for women’s’ rights but not to choose to do this as a fully-fledged member of the YPJ. This seems to have led to a lot of bad feeling towards her from some groups.
At times it is not an easy read in terms of the content but it is worth preserving with.