Although I fear for them, I can't help being impressed by the courage of the all-female Yazidi fighting unit that is going after ISIS on the battlefield. The battalion was formed by Yazidi singer Xate Shingali, who now reportedly has 123 recruits aged 17 to 30.
The Daily Mail reports:
If her troops are ever caught by the enemy, they will either be killed or, more likely, be held by the extremists as their personal sex slaves.
Even the youngest, just 17, brushes off that terrifying prospect, adding: 'Even if they kill me, I will say I am a Yazidi.'
ISIS kidnapped thousands of Yazidi women and very young girls when it stormed their villages in Sinjar province, northern Iraq, in August 2014.
Those who escaped from their clutches have told of how they endured unimaginable cruelty and sexual abuse at the hands of the ISIS fighters they were forced to marry.
The Yazidis are followers of an ancient Mesopotamian religion with similarities to Zoroastrianism. Like Middle Eastern Christians, the Yazidis are facing extinction at the hands of ISIS.
Fomer congressman Frank Wolf, who stepped down from his seat and is now trying to raise awareness of religious persecution with the 21st Century Wilberforce Initiative, has outlined the cruelty of Islamic terrorists, particularly to women and children, in a report headlined "Edge of Extinction." (Nina Shea has the story.)
I as a rule deplore the idea of women on the front lines of combat, but these women aren't asking for relaxed physical standards, thus endangering other soldiers and hampering overall combat. They do not see their military service as a form of social engineering, and they are fully aware of the horrors that will befall them if caught. It is hard not to tremble for what could (and will) happen to some of them. But it is impossible not to be blown away by their courage.
Shamefully, our government has done very little to help the Yazidiz and Christians who are being persecuted by ISIS.