It is hard to know what is truth and what is propaganda coming from online posts out of the Mideast.  The most disturbing picture I have seen concerning the ISIS horrors comes from The Shia Post.   A friend did a great deal of prodding to get me to look at it.

It shows a smiling, gleeful ISIS fighter holding the severed head of a Syrian Kurdish woman. The Shia Post says she was fighting for her family and was, “Beheaded by takfiri terrorist of ISIS in Kobani. According to reports, takfiri killer who shared his photo with head of a YPG’s fighter has been sent to hell by YPG.” [YPG is the Yekîneyên Parastina Ge or “People’s Protection Units” armed wing of the Kurdish Supreme Committee of Syrian Kurdistan.]

Adding to the horror of this photograph is the fact that her face is so peaceful.  Her long brown hair is braded in the back and falling down behind her severed head as the disgusting human animal in fatigues with all the trappings of war attached to his belt smiles holding her head up with one hand and with the other hand holds up his index finger in a gesture that seems to indicate, “Good one!”

Kurdish women historically fight alongside the men. They are actively defending the Kurdish regions of Iraq and of Kobani, Syria borders Turkey.  Turkish military is watching across the border with tanks poised but not helping.  US and coalition airstrikes seem to miss all the ISIS tanks moving around as is clear in many online videos.  

Below is a picture of a female Kurdish fighter who appeared on BBC News in September. The photo is similar to a picture of my mother peering out of a transport truck in her WWII khakis.  She had joined the Red Cross and was in New Guinea and the Philippines. So the below picture has personal significance to me. In 2001 my mother passed away peacefully, unlike the beautiful woman below.

Al Arabiya News 

The Photo above comes from the Al Arabiya News online, which states that on October 5, 2014,

Ceylan Ozalp, 19, was reportedly surrounded by ISIS fighters near the Syrian Kurdish city of Kobane also known as Ain al-Arab. After she run [sic] out of ammunition Ozalp said “goodbye” over the radio and spent her last bullet on killing herself.

According to the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights another female Kurdish fighter blew herself up at a gathering of Islamic State near the Kurdish city of Kobane. She was a leading figure in the Kurdish militants YPG and stormed a gathering of IS fighters hurling grenades at them before blowing herself.

These Kurdish women fighters are heroines in my eyes.  Rather than succumb to the radical, totalitarian, soul robbing, rapist, misogynist ISIS,  they fight.  God protect them all.  And shame on Turkey and the US for not helping these brave Kurdish women.