The Daughters of Kobani: A Story of Rebellion, Courage, and Justice

I think what makes this book so powerful is the fact that it tells the story of triumph for women in their fight against oppression in Kurdish Northern Syria, but ends with a serious betrayal of that movement. I remember the day when the Trump administration announced they were abandoning their Kurdish allies to Turkey. Reading this book gave some disturbing context for that decision. Reading about the fight against ISIS is terrifying and inspiring. This is really compelling journalism.

I loved Lemmon’s book “The Dressmaker of Khair Khana” so was really looking forward to reading her newest book. Unfortunately, it was not what I expected.

I was expecting much more about the women themselves and their interaction, both in battle and privately. Instead, the book is mostly about the history of the Kurdish people and their determination to keep ISIS from taking over portions of Syria. The portions that did address the all-female militia (the YPJ) that defended Kobani were interesting and portrayed these brave women nobly. Azeema, Rojda, Znarin, Nowruz, and Miriam are representative of all the women fighting not only to stop ISIS but also to prove that women could lead in war. They fought alongside their male show more counterparts (YPG), often directing and leading the attacks, and won the respect of the US Special Forces by fearlessly fighting against the men who bought and sold women. Their goal, beyond the defeat of ISIS, was to build a democratic and egalitarian society and to defend women from around the region wherever they faced discrimination or persecution, not just in Kurdish areas.

A couple of favorite quotes: Miriam comments on ISIL - “Now they can talk to each other about getting killed by women instead of just beheading and enslaving them.” Nowruz says “One day we will be finished with this war. And then people will know that women showed their power on the front lines.”

If you know nothing of the history of the Kurds, this is a good synopsis and would be worth reading just for that. Lemmon did an extensive amount of research and interviews for this book.

I was provided an advance copy of the book by the publisher. The opinions expressed here are my own. show less

This book tells the stories of four young, brave women who fought against ISIS in northern Syria as part of the Kurdish "Women’s Protection Units" or YPJ. These women, all commanders of forces that included both men and women, were motivated by ISIS's penchant for female subjugation, including forced marriages, rape and torture. The female warriors’ goal “was to build a democratic and egalitarian society and defend women from around the region whenever they faced discrimination or persecution, not just in Kurdish areas” (25).

Journalist Gayle Tzemach Lemmon has done her research and clearly admires these female warriors, but she fails to differentiate sufficiently among them. Moreover, the writing style is dry and dull. All in show more all, I was disappointed. show less

A difficult book to read and keep track of the acronyms. It was also difficult to read emotionally. The women portrayed are genuine heroes and should be celebrated world wide. The situation in Syria is terrible and has been made even more terrible by the USA's Trump dealings with Turkey. All the efforts were set back to zero by these deals. A very sad situation and the women are still very inspirational. I learned a lot more about Syria than I ever knew. This was helpful.