The Limits of “Western” Feminist Engagement with Kurdish Female Militancy

Kurdish female fighters are caught between orientalist fantasies of “kickass socialist-feminists” fighting “extremist Muslim men” and Western leftists squeamish about those fighters’ appeals for arms.

by Susan Benson-Sokmen

In a New York Times op-ed  published during the siege of the Syrian city of Kobane in 2014, Meysa Abdo, a Kurdish commander of the all-female YPJ (Women’s Protection Units), appealed to “women around the world” to help the Syrian-Kurdish resistance in their battle against Da‘ish (ISIS). Abdo demanded feminist solidarity, particular…