Female fighters from the Free Women’s Units (YJA STAR) celebrated this year’s Newroz (21 March).
The YJA Star are the female guerrilla units of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The women from YJA-STAR lit the Newroz fires together and danced traditional Kurdish ‘halays’ as part of their celebrations.
Kurdish women, alongside women from other communities and countries, have been engaged in the armed struggle as part of the YJA-STAR, mainly demanding an autonomous self-governance political model. Approximately 40% of the PKK’s troops are reportedly women.