Band of Sisters | Explorer

the pesh MERGA number roughly 150,000
and their revered in Kurdish society
when Isis first attacked they were taken
by surprise and driven back in some
places since those early days they’ve
transformed themselves into a powerful
fighting force one of the few in the
region has been able to stop the
militants as I follow this story deeper
into Kurdistan it’s what I find next
that leaves the strongest impression a
band of sisters who’ve taken up arms to
defend their people this is also their
fight and as women they’ve got the most
to lose on the outskirts of Suleiman iya
this female only metalia has its
headquarters I meet them at a firing
range where raw recruits practice target
shooting i watch as the soldiers dig
through crates of loose ammunition load
their magazines and gather at the firing
line their fingers twitch on the
triggers as they wait for the order to
fire most of these women never expected
to be fighters but if ever there was a
time to take up arms it’s now do it this
out
now come and picked on by my moonshine
but yeah yes
so get him get it
before they even fired a shot weapons
started to break within 10 minutes we
had seven aks lying on the ground that
had broken or jammed or become unusable
in one way or another how raise standing
there next to me and he just looks at it
in size and says how can we fight Isis
with this but they don’t have a choice
and when I asked each of these soldiers
says she is ready to die for Kurdistan