I'm Tim Hewall, and on today's assignment, the new breed of Kurdish women politicians

who now run communities across East and Turkey.

While many Kurds in neighbouring Iraq now want a new state, in Turkey, they want a new

society.

Hello and welcome to assignment on the BBC World Service.

I'm Tim Hewall.

Up here on this rocky hillside, I'm enveloped in a cloud of dust.

The sun's beating down and there's a stiff wind blowing.

I'm in a barren landscape on the very southern edge of Turkey.

Just a few hundred yards ahead of me is the old railway line and the barbed wire fence

that mark the beginning of Syria.

The beginning of territory that's now controlled by the Islamic State, the extreme islamist force

that's made huge advances in this region in recent weeks.

But luckily, I'm not alone.

Behind me, on this remote hillside, is an encampment of protesters, hundreds of people

young and old, men and women flying flags, drinking glasses of tea, dosing on mattresses.

They're all Kurds and they want the border here torn down so that they can help their

fellow Kurds on the other side of the border in Syria.

There's a whole truckload of men just can pass waving their arms along this border

road.

What were they chanting?

They were singing a song, a famous song in which it says, who are we, we are Kurds,

...