Deep within the fractured rock of Kurdistan’s Qandil Mountains, where the air is thin and the silence is heavy with the threat of attacks by Iranian missile or Turkish drones, a revolution is being hummed in the dark. It is the sound of bread being kneaded, and Kalashnikovs being cleaned. It is the sound of the Women’s Protection Forces (HPJ), an all-female militia who took up arms against ISIS, and are now fighting for democratisation in Iran.
Their defiant fight has been captured in a set of startling images by photographer Valentina Sinis, published here for the first time. They reveal the labyrinth of damp tunnels within caves where dozens of members live, study and fight together. And they show the sisterhood and strength of women who have left their families – even their wealth, education and careers – for this dangerous, unconventional life.
The "Havals" or “comrades” as they are known, include Haval Silav, in her mid-20s, who was born into a patriotic Kurdish family, but grew up in Italy. She had a university education, a future in Europe and the safety of the West, yet she still felt hollow. "I was unfulfilled," she explains. "I was driven by the freedom of the Kurdish nation.
The Kurds and their existential survival are key to understanding these women’s chosen way of life. They are one of the world’s largest diasporas, with an estimated 30 to 45 million people living in mountainous regions across Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran. While some Kurds seek a unified homeland, others want greater security and recognised self-autonomy.
The HPJ are a division of the PJAK (The Kurdistan Free Life Party), an armed Kurdish military group that wants to overthrow the Islamic regime of Iran and seek autonomy for its people. Founded in 2004 as an offshoot of the PKK (the Kurdistan Workers’ Party) which has fought for Kurdish autonomy in Turkey for decades, it has been designated a terrorist organisation by Iran, Turkey and the US.
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But the women living in the caves do not see themselves as insurgents threatening national sovereignty, rather the only ones standing between their people and total erasure.
And the emotional cost of their decision is staggering. When a woman joins the HPJ, she often becomes a ghost to her family to protect them from state retribution. It is a one-way door.
Source: Daily Express :: World Feed
