‘A revolution within a revolution’

Her War: Women vs. ISIS

The YPJ (Women's Protection Units) is an all-female Kurdish force fighting the ‘Islamic State’ in Syria. Previously unheard of until 2013, the YPJ grew with waves of volunteers defending their lands from ISIS expansion in Syria’s poor northern farmlands. While fighting the world’s largest terror group, the YPJ seeks to build ‘a new society’, based on gender equality, democracy, socialism and environmentalism, despite opposition from conservative forces in the region.

Her War follows recruits Golan, Amara, Chichek and Binefsh, along with their commander, Tolheldan.

We were the first foreign film crew permitted to live on a YPJ base during training, 3 km from the frontline with ISIS. This film became the first in a series documenting the YPJ/YPG, as they expanded from three besieged enclaves in northern Syria to control roughly a third of the country. In July 2017 – a feat that was almost unimaginable during the filming of Her War – we met some of the same women again, as they advanced on the capital of ISIS, Raqqa (The Road to Raqqa).