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Kurdish women's struggle

Book review written by willemienwsanders@gmail.com
Commander Arian
Regissør: Alba Sotorra
(Tyskland/Spania)

Alba Sotorra spent five months on the Kurdish front line in Syria, following the life of one of the women's fighters in the Women's Protection Unit.

The Women's Protection Unit (YPJ) is the lesser-known Kurdish female army – allied with the People's Protection Units (YPG) – which fights in northern and Kurdish Syria. YPJ stands for Yekineyen Parastina Jin. The army started as a defense army when IS attacked Kurdish areas. Troops in both YPJ and YPG choose their own command. As Arian explains in the movie, the goal of the YPJ army is to defend women's freedom. Although women fight side by side and in collaboration with male soldiers, it is absolutely forbidden to confide in them secret or personal matters.

Alba Sotorra's new movie Commander Arian focuses on one of YPJ's commanding officers, Arian Afrin, who the director follows both behind. . .

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willemienwsanders@gmail.com
Sanders is a critic, living in Rotterdam.

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Full 100-page MODERN TIMES including the appendix Orientering and Modern Times Review comes out quarterly (March 1, June 1, September 1 and December 1) with international book reviews, essays and comments – in addition to the physical newspaper and PDF, the articles are eventually published online here (see also the newsletter).

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