Kurdish peshmerga fighters in Iraq are on the frontline of the battle against the Islamic State (IS) organisation. But for a young Iranian Kurdish fighter and her group, it’s a struggle to join her fellow Kurds in the fight against their common enemy.
Kawsar, a pretty, 24-year-old Iranian Kurd, is a peshmerga fighter. She’s also a member of Komala, a Marxist-Leninist group that emerged after the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran, which has since adopted a social democratic ideology.
When IS militants swept through swathes of northern Iraq this summer, Kawsar and her comrades left their native Iran to join their fellow Kurdish fighters in the historic battle against the militant Islamist group.
She now lives in the Iraqi Kurdish city of Sulaymaniyah, ready and willing to join the fight against IS. But that’s easier said than done.
Ordered out of an enemy-free zone
On a clear autumn day, Kawsar and her group leave Sulaymaniyah and head toward the frontline line near the oil-rich Iraqi city of Kirkuk. At least that’s what Kawsar hopes.
"They are extremists,” she explains as their car bumps in the direction of the frontline. “I am against any extremist radical ideology, because they don't believe in humanity and in women's rights."
As the group heads closer to the frontline, the Kurdish officer accompanying the Komala group escorts them to a secure zone which has been under Iraqi Kurdish control for the past few weeks.
There’s no enemy to fight here.
“I would love to have a chance to fight them,” says Kawsar. “But it seems that there's no fighting right now…” she trails off disappointed.
Barely ten minutes later, orders ... Go on reading on our web site.
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