Seeking to protect their children and homeland, Christian mothers and wives have formed an all-female militia to fight the extremist group Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria.
The women known as the "Female Protection Forces of the Land Between the Two Rivers" – in reference to the stretch of traditionally Syriac-inhabited land between the Tigris and Euphrates—comprise of Syrian mothers, wives and professionals who pray in Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus, Fox News reported.
They reportedly graduated from a training camp in Al-Qahtaniyeh in August and are primarily focused on protecting Christian areas. They were patterned after the highly successful female Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), the unit that has already seen battle, most recently in the fight to retake the northeastern town of Al-Hol after two years of ISIS rule.
This month, the all-women volunteer unit started to work on the front lines against ISIS, according to Fox News.
"I'm a practicing Christian, and thinking about my children makes me stronger and more determined in my fight against ISIS," one fighter named Babylonia, who graduated with the first class in December, told Agence France Presse.
She said her husband, also a soldier also engaged in fighting against the ISIS, encouraged her to leave their children behind to fight for their future – and "against the idea that the Syriac woman is good for nothing except housekeeping and make-up."
"I was afraid of the noise of cannons firing, but the fear quickly went away," an 18-year-old member of Female Protection Forces of the Land Between the Two Rivers also told AFP. "I would love to be on the front line in the fight against the terrorists."
Sources from Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, an underground group of activists based inside ISIS' Syrian stronghold, meanwhile told Fox News that the terrorists also recently formed an all-female squad to do difficult tasks, including suicide bombing.
"The females go through proper training at a camp with weapons and learn how to do a proper suicide bombing," a member said.
The underground group also said the women are initially deployed as "Shariah police'' known as the Al-Khansa Brigade before being pressed into the task of recruiting suicide bombers or carrying out suicide attacks themselves.
The brigade comprised exclusively of armed women who patrolled the streets of Raqqa and other towns and villages occupied by ISIS, terrorising and punishing other females for Sharia violations as minor as wearing a niqab that fits too closely, therefore showing the outline of a woman's body, said Fox News.
These women are promised "paradise'' by ISIS jihadists and given a significant sum of money before the mission date to seal the deal. Recruiters also ensure that the families of the suicide bombers will be taken care of after their death.
"Whether based on need or a twisted take on progressivism, ISIS is working hard to emphasise that its cause transcends social status and gender barriers," said Prof. Shaul Gabbay, executive director of the Denver-based Global Research Institute.
"ISIS will recruit from any social strata, and using female terrorists in general and suicide bombers in particular is only going to increase."
