Women, body and war: Kurdish female fighters through Commander Arian and Girls’ War

Abstract

The historical relationship between women and war is largely mediated by their body, used as a symbolic expression of the process of occupation, extermination and subjugation of one people by another through the systematic violation of women and girls. Kurdish women live a triple struggle: against the Daesh, against the national oppression of their people by the different states of the Middle East into which Kurdistan is divided, and last – but not least – against patriarchy. In this fight, their body is their weapon: Daesh fighters are put into panic by them, since if they die at the hands of a woman they will not go to paradise. Commander Arian (2018) directed by Alba Sotorra and Girls’ War (2016) directed by Mylène Sauloy portray the struggle of Kurdish women against Daesh in the area of Rojava (Syrian Kurdistan). This article explores the media frame used in those documentaries to explain the relationship that these women establish with violence, a relationship allegedly denatured but sustained throughout history.