ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (North Press) – Women in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) and across the region have taken to the streets and social media to braid their hair in a symbolic show of solidarity with Kurds in Syria, following the circulation of a controversial video involving a Syrian soldier in Raqqa.
The video, which went viral in recent days, showed a Syrian soldier claiming he had cut off the braid of a Kurdish woman fighter after government forces retook the northern Syrian city of Raqqa from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
The footage sparked widespread anger among Kurds, particularly women, amid ongoing military advances by Syrian government troops into areas previously held by the Kurdish-led autonomous administration.
Although it remains unclear whether the claims in the video were true or whether any woman was harmed, the soldier later released a second video saying the braid was fake and that he had found it on a table at a restaurant, following a strong online backlash.
In response, dozens of Kurdish women gathered on Friday in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, where they braided each other’s hair during a public protest. Similar actions quickly spread online, with women sharing photos and videos of themselves braiding their hair in solidarity.
“The video was a threat to us as Kurds, but also as Kurdish women,” said Vienna Salam, a 31-year-old university lecturer who took part in the Erbil protest. She said the gesture was meant to show “the world our way of resilience and our power.”
Participants described braiding as a peaceful form of resistance and a representation of Kurdish women’s identity. In one widely shared clip, women are seen standing in line, braiding each other’s hair while chanting “Women, Life, Freedom,” a slogan associated with the 2022 protests in Iran following the death of Kurdish-Iranian woman Mahsa Amini.
In Kurdish culture, braids are widely seen as a symbol of beauty, strength, and resistance, and they have long been associated with Kurdish women fighters, whose images gained international attention during battles against the Islamic State group in Syria. Braids can also carry deep emotional meaning, with some women cutting them as a sign of mourning.
Darin Masoum, a 30-year-old protester whose family lives in northeastern Syria, said braids symbolize “courage, beauty, strength, and dignity,” reflecting the broader significance of the gesture amid renewed tensions in Kurdish-held areas.