Gayle Tzemach Lemmon on 'The Daughters of Kobani'
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 9 March 2021
⏱️ 40 minutes
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Summary
Since 2014, the civil war in Syria has involved an incredibly diverse and complex array of actors representing all manner of ideology and sectarian identity. But one group has captured the public imagination more than perhaps any other: the all-female Women's Protective Units, or YPJ, that have played a central role in the fight against the Islamic State and are continuing to fight for political communities, premised, in part, on gender equality. In her new book, "The Daughters of Kobani," journalist Gayle Tzemach Lemmon details the journey of several of the young Kurdish women involved in the YPJ and the role they have played thus far in the broader Syrian civil war. Scott R. Anderson sat down with her to talk about the origins of the YPJ, how they have weathered the end of the counter Islamic State campaign and what role they may play in a future Syria.
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| 0:00.0 | The following podcast contains advertising to access an ad-free version of the LawFair |
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| 0:25.6 | no bull and the aftermath. |
| 0:34.0 | These are not women who are waiting around for other people to say it's okay for you to |
| 0:37.5 | take your rights. |
| 0:38.7 | They were very clear about that. |
| 0:40.6 | There's a moment in the daughter's of Kobani where I was asking Fauzi Yusuf, who's a |
| 0:44.6 | political leader. |
| 0:45.6 | I didn't anyone tell you this is too much too fast, right? |
| 0:49.8 | You're a founding document, say, women are mentioned 13 times, yes to girls' education. |
| 0:55.3 | No to child marriage, no to dowry, yes to women having full economic participation rights, |
| 1:01.8 | yes to women having courts in which women judges would try them. |
| 1:05.4 | I mean, it goes much farther than what we've attempted in the United States. |
| 1:09.6 | And she looked at me and she said, well, of course they did. |
| 1:12.3 | She said, you know, we're building a lake in the desert. |
| 1:15.0 | It doesn't happen quickly, but you have to start somewhere. |
| 1:19.0 | And I think that is what I wanted readers to have this notion of the connectivity between |
| 1:22.7 | the battlefield gains and political governance structures that had women right at the heart |
| 1:29.4 | and the center of leadership. |
| 1:32.8 | I'm Scott Ar Anderson and this is the Law Fair Podcast for March 9, 2021. |
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