Sun Ladies – the female Yazidi, who joined Peshmerga.
Xatê Shingali, a famous singer among the Yazidi community formed the female unit of Yazidi women – named ‘Sun Ladies’.
Two years before, ISIS took Shingal under their control and killed about 5000 Yazidis and further 6000 were captured and enslaved – they witnessed a genocide and sexual enslavement. For ISIS this society was ‘punished’ even harder than Christians or even Jews, because they define them as nonbeliefers, so called kuffar. ‘I can never forget what they did to us’ says Khate while she explains her motivation to form this unit. Many Yazidis died when hiding from the terror organization in Mount Sinjar. Those women, who have been captured later got raped and sold by members of ISIS.
Some of these women now joined the ‘Sun Ladies’ Battalion and Kurdish Peshmerga train them, so they can defend their territory and bodies. ‘The sun comes back day after day, like us!’ – that’s the reason, why she gave her unit this name. All women joined them by their own choice and are at least 18 years old. For some members this seems to be some kind of therapy: ‘I am not sure if I should go and study, or if I should stay with the girls’ tells Munifa Kret in tears. It means a lot for her, because like others, most of their family-members are dead of still in hostage. Here they feel needed and respected. Most likely they will never be on a battlefield, but if so they gave their oath to the ‘Peshmerga’, which means ‘those who face death’.
