Meet the all-woman Yazidi battalion that's ready for battle with the Islamic State

The Islamic State reached a new low when they started targeting the Yazidi community in August 2014. But now, there’s a gutsy group of all-woman Yazidi battalion that is now fighting back against the Islamic State that have been abducting, raping and murdering thousands of their people. [caption id=“attachment_2386584” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption]

According to a Daily Mail report , the battalion was founded by Xate Shingali, who is a singer and has performed traditional Yazidi folk music all over northern Iraq. She was granted special permission to form the unit by the Kurdish President Massoud Barzani.

She formed the brigade on 2 July and has since recruited 123 fighters aged between 17 — the minimum age required to join — and 30.

The Islamic State in August last year kidnapped thousands of Yazidi women and very young girls, after storming their villages in Sinjar province, northern Iraq. The soldiers have not yet faced the Islamic State, but they are apparently ready to fight the organisation any time.

One young recruit said her family is proud of her for joining the brigade, “My father was so happy when I had told him I had joined this union.” “All families accept us to join this union… We are happy to fight along side the peshmerga.” Another hopes to join her father who is fighting on the front lines with Kurdish forces. She added, “My sister wants to fight, but she is too young, 15 years old, but my father is a peshmerga and he is fighting the IS in Shingal.” According to a rumour doing the rounds in the Yazidi community, Islamic State fighters are scared of being killed by a woman because they worry they will not be rewarded with ’72 virgins in heaven’. Unsurprisingly then, the all-woman group is keen to do its part to stop that from happening.