Band of Sisters | Explorer

less than 1m read

·Nov 11, 2024

The Peshmerga number roughly 150,000, and they're 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 that's 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 Sulaymaniyah, this female-only battalion 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. Before they even fired a shot, weapons started to break. Within ten minutes, we had seven AKs lying on the ground that had broken, jammed, or become unusable in one way or another.

How is standing there next to me, and he just looks at it and sighs, and says, "How can we fight ISIS with this?" But they don't have a choice. When I ask each of these soldiers, she says she is ready to die for Kurdistan.

Factoring using polynomial division | Algebra 2 | Khan Academy

Boost writing skills with Khan Academy's new essay feedback feature

View All

15 Signs You are the New Poor

The World Economic Forum said, and this is a direct quote: “By 2030, you will own nothing and you’ll be happy.” There’s a new breed of poor people out there, some by societal design, some by choice. They don’t look poor on the surface, but they are cursed…

How Sharks Devoured My Career | Podcast | Overheard at National Geographic

Foreign I gotta say the first experience I had with a great white, or I should say the lead up to the first experience, was filled with terror. That’s National Geographic Explorer, Gibbs Kaguru. Gibbs is a Kenyan scientist who studies sharks, and he’s tal…

Don’t Feel Harmed, And You Haven’t Been | The Philosophy of Marcus Aurelius

Marcus Aurelius pointed out that regardless of the severity of circumstances, there’s always a choice in how we judge them. “Choose not to be harmed—and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed—and you haven’t been,” he stated. Marcus’ instruction sounds…

Luring in the Coconut Crab | Primal Survivor

In the South Pacific, locals have a basic but effective method to catch their prey: the baited stick. First, we have to collect U coconuts—dry ones. Yeah, let’s make a sharp steak, huh? The coconut aroma will waft across the island, and with any luck, we’…

Comparing fractions word problems

We’re told that Katie made a table to show how much time she spent on homework last week. So, we can see the different subjects and then how much she spent in terms of hours. So, on math, she spent three-fourths of an hour, reading seven-eighths of an ho…

How I Became Rich l #shorts

And what I remember about that experience, I wasn’t thinking about the money at all. We were competing with many companies around the world, and we were winning, and we were crushing it. So I woke up one day when the deal had closed, and I realized I’m ri…

Band of Sisters | Explorer

More Articles