Hadar believes that more and more Yazidi women are volunteering to work with the PKK but she would not give any numbers as the issue is a sensitive one.
The Yazidi women who want to join the Sinjar Resistance Units get between six and eight weeks training, both theoretical and physical. Women are taught about Yazidi history, the status of women throughout history and female roles in society. They are taught about equality and the principles of the PKK philosophy. Women who cannot are also taught to read and write.
The women also get training on a variety of different weapons, from Kalashnikovs to sniper rifles.
After the women have completed their training they are assigned to a variety of different duties, everything from the intelligence services to frontline combat. Others are also required to proselytize on behalf of the group, spreading the PKK's feminist and socialist philosophy and encouraging new volunteers.
“I joined for personal reasons,” says Kolan, a 17-year-old who is now a member of the Sinjar militias. “I decided to do this after I saw the injustice that Yazidis suffered – and that Yazidi women in particular were suffering.”
The teenager was in school before the IS group attacked and her life completely changed after this. She refuses to go back to school because she now believes what she is learning here is far more important than what she would be learning there.
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