Starvin Larry

Paris (AFP) – Meet Nassrin Abdallah. With her diminutive height and broad smile, it doesn’t seem like she should strike fear into the hearts of hardened Islamic State jihadists.

But this 36-year-old Syrian Kurd woman has been at the tip of the spear of the Kurdish forces that last month liberated the symbolic city of Kobane from IS militants.

“In Kobane, women were fighting on all fronts, in all the trenches against a brutal enemy,” she told cheering crowds during a visit to Paris this week.

As the head of the armed wing of the Kurdish PYD, “commander” Nassrin has led both men and women into battle against Islamic State fighters who have overrun large areas of Iraq and Syria.

“We kept the promise we made to the people and we won the day,” she said to thunderous applause.

According to Nassrin, around 40 percent of the Kurdish fighters battling over the town on the Syrian-Turkish border were women.

Some, like her, are hardened warriors but also joining their ranks were mothers who sent their children over the border to the safety of Turkey, then rushed off to join their sisters in arms.

Fighting alongside Nassrin are other powerful female commanders who have achieved legendary status on the battlefield.

Women like Narine Afrin, who played a key role in the defence of Kobane. Or Arin Mirkan, who blew herself up on October 5, killing dozens of IS fighters encircling the town, according to Kurdish sources.

In total, there are 4,000 women fighting in the armed wing of the PYD, say Kurdish officials, who refuse for strategic reasons to disclose the total number of people who have taken up arms.

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