The Raqqa Women’s Military Council was created in 2019, and is already going from strength to strength. Training and development is focusing on ideology as well as military skills, and the council also organises within society, bridging the gap between families and the military. Here the women of Raqqa, who lived under the tyranny of IS, explain some of their work. The principle of women’s defence forces redefining strength and not just replicating a patriarchal force is lived every day by the women of the SDF and YPJ.
