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Iranian-Kurdish women take up arms in northern Iraq

High up in the dusty mountains of northern Iraq, rebel Kurdish women from northwestern Iran train in a remote hideout, dreaming of regime change in their homeland. They are members of the female unit of the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK), one of a handful of exiled Kurdish groups camped out in the border region.

I visited PAK’s female unit in 2022, against a backdrop of protests that had erupted across Iran after the death in police custody of Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini, jailed for allowing hair to protrude from her headscarf. Fed up with economic hardship, morality police and security crackdowns, protesters were calling for an end to the 43-year-old regime.

The authorities reacted with a harsh crackdown, security forces killing at least 530 people and jailing nearly 20,000 - some sentenced to death. Reprisals were especially strong in Iran’s Kurdish region, where people have long been targeted by brutally applied laws restricting cultural expression. The violence sent a fresh wave of exiles fleeing over the border to northern Iraq, some of whom have taken up arms with rebel groups like PAK.

As new recruit Rezan says: "For me to be safe from the IRGC, I had to come here. I didn’t take the risk. I decided to leave.”

All pics © Lorraine Mallinder

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Rezan

Rezan (19), one of PAK’s newest recruits, recently led her home town of Sanandaj in Iran, trekking three days over muddy border terrain to Iraq, with nothing more than juice and some biscuits for sustenance. Having narrowly missed arrest in the 2022 uprising, her parents feared she would be identified by regime cameras, so hired a smuggler to get her out.

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'I feel safe'

“My dream was to become a primary teacher. Now I’m holding a gun,” says Rezan. At first, she strikes an amateurish pose with her Kalashnikov, holding it far apart from her body. One of the more experienced hands firmly takes her arm, raises the rifle to eye level, shows her how to take aim, finger poised on the trigger. “I feel very safe holding this gun. I know I can protect myself  ...” she says.

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Freedom fighters

Early members of PAK, classified as ‘terrorists’ by the Islamic Republic, first fled over the border during the 1980-1989 Iran-Iraq war. Over the decades that followed, particularly since the 2009 Green Movement protests, which saw voters take to the street after rigged elections, successive waves of exiles have joined the fight for freedom.

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Drills

PAK fighters perform drills in their remote mountain hideout under the baking sun. Days before, Iran's IRGC launched cross-border drone attacks on Kurdish groups in northern Iraq - PAK lost eight male fighters.

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Abandoned

While Tehran frequently accuses exiled Kurdish groups like PAK of receiving US and Israeli support to wage a cross-border insurgency, PAK says that it receives no aid. Indeed, having helped the US rout Islamic State from Iraq, the group feels abandoned by the outside world. Meanwhile, Tehran is applying pressure on Baghdad to disarm the groups, calling them a "dark stain" on relations between the two countries.

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Betrayal

Under the terms of the 1920 Treaty of Sèvres, which dismantled the Ottoman Empire, the Kurds were supposed to be given their own country. Instead, separated by the mountainous borders of their host nations, they have often ended up working at cross purposes to ensure their survival. Today, PAK believes that Kurds need to unite across borders to continue their fight for a free Greater Kurdistan.

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Avesta

Avesta hails from Sanandaj in Iranian Kurdistan. She joined PAK's female unit five years ago. Like all recruits in the camp, has has followed intensive studies in Iranian-Kurdish history and culture.

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Inner strength

PAK's women say they find a spirit of camaraderie among women of all ages, with similar experiences of fleeing Iran. While members mix with men at joint events, they say that being in a female camp helps women find their inner strength, developing more confidence in their fighting skills. 

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