HASAKAH, Syria (North Press) – The American author Gayle Tzemach Lemmon’s book on The Daughters of Kobani: A Story of Rebellion, Courage and Justice has been met with positive responses by the female fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), whom she wrote about in her recently published book.
On February 16, Lemmon issued her book The Daughters of Kobani: A Story of Rebellion, Courage and Justice about the role of the Women Protection Units (YPJ) in facing off against the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria.
After issuing the book, the author sent several copies to the YPJ female fighters in northeast Syria.
Imitates reality
YPJ female Commander-in-Chief, Newroz Ahmad, described the book as “qualitative since it imitates the reality of the female fighters’ resistance and the societal fight in north and east Syria.”
The YPJ is a female military force includes women from several ethnic groups in north and east Syria affiliated with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
The book “is a mean to strongly shed light on the ongoing resistance there,” Ahmad, who rarely makes press statements, told North Press.
Ahmad is one of the main characters in the book that tells most of the events starting from Kobani battle to the battle of eliminating the last stronghold of ISIS in the town of al-Baghouz.
The book was published by Penguin Random House, a publishing company in New York which is known for publishing valuable books.
The book consists of ten parts of total 254 sheets including details about what the female fighters have experienced alongside with photos of main personalities.
“It is important to the world, specially the Americans to know these tales about those female fighters who abandoned everything to fight the most brutal terrorist group,” Lemmon told North Press.
“We should know those women, who fought ISIS in every street and village in order to save the whole world, not only themselves,” she added.
Embodies reality
“The book sheds light on heroic tales of the female fighters and martyrs; may their souls rest in peace,” YPJ official spokeswoman, Nisrin Abdullah said.
“We fought for the sake of peace, and we are still involving in all kinds of wars for peace, which is the supreme goal of the YPJ’s fighting,” she added.
The President of the Executive Committee of the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC), Ilham Ahmad, said that the author managed to embody the reality of the female fighter’s struggle through this book.
“The whole world and especially the American community should know and appreciate the resistance that was shown in northeast Syria,” Ahmad told North Press.
Lemmon stated that the idea of the book was inspired when, “My phone rang and a soldier who was in my previous book, Ashley’s War — about an-all-women, special-operations team in northeast Syria, called me.”
She told me, “They are not just fighting for the military side. They are also fighting for women’s equality.”
“‘Gayle, you have to come to Syria. You have to see what is happening here. There are women who are leading the fight against ISIS. They are leading men in battle. They have enormous respect from US forces and they are leading the fight to stop the men who bought and sold women’.”
Project for translations
Since it was issues, the book has received a considerable attention from the American media and cultural circles, and CNN ranked it among the best 12 books for the first half of 2021.
The family of former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s Hidden Light Production Company declared that it granted the right to turn the book into a television series.
Clinton added that she chose the book, “because it imitates the reality of women, who fought next to men in battlefields defending their lands against extremist groups,” according to BBC.
“They have fought for spreading their own political vision and establishing gender equality in their corner of the Middle East and beyond,” she noted.
Within the coming two weeks, Naqish Publishing House, which is a private cultural institution in Qamishli, will translate the book into both Kurdish and Arabic languages, after granting rights of translating and publishing the versions.
“It is important to realize others’ standpoints towards us; the importance of translation is shown in its prominent role in the cultural and human convergence,” director of Naqish, Abdullah Sheikho said.
Naqish Publishing House looks forward to release the book in the annual book fair of Harakol that will be held in Qamishli in July.
Regarding the reason for choosing the book, Sheikho pointed out, “The Daughters of Kobani is based on a field follow-up to the war against ISIS, and the author has experienced the YPJ’s female fighters.”