Blood and heart: armed women against the Islamic State

Maria Belén Marinone Soriano

08/17/2021 16:01

• Clarín.com

• Culture

Updated 08/17/2021 16:30

Nané thought about the beheadings that the jihadists posted on the networks.

"I am a Yazidi woman," she lied, because she knew that the Islamic State was afraid of dying at the hands of them, "the avengers."

She was sweating with cold

but felt that she had to deliver justice for the torrent of blood spilled, the violence exerted on them and other minorities, for the heads that rolled on the ground.

Nané

raised the semiautomatic pistol

that she carried and each bullet that sounded executed the savagery.

The room became a trail of wildfire,

human remains, and blood

.

This is one of the scenes from

Rojava

,

Magda Tagtachian's

new book

, in which the journalist and writer focuses on the

Female Protection Units

(YPJ), armed women's militias

that propose revolution in every sense

.

Magda Tagtachian, a writer in search of her roots.

Photo Courtesy Plaza y Janés

While the Taliban who have just seized power in Afghanistan promise to respect women's rights this time,

Tagtachian

builds a current story in the

Middle East

, the struggle against the mandates and the war. The writer replaces the characters from her previous novel,

Alma Armenia

, and investigates resistance, freedom and resilience, memory and pain.

The author of

Forget

-

me

-

not Armenuhi

- whose reissue will be released in September - tells the story of

Nané Parsehyan

, a young Armenian who sets out on a journey with her cousin, Alma, to find her real father in northern Syria. After a life of

humiliation and subjugation

of all kinds, the protagonist can't take it anymore.

Thus, she undertakes the search, not only for her origins, but for herself, until she reaches

Rojava

.

Both will learn about the

Female Protection Units,

an army of women that defends at gunpoint and bravery the construction of a new society, based on freedom, gender equality and

ecological

sustenance

, in an area that the Kurdish people are fighting for. with Syria and Turkey.

I wanted to tell a story of women who wear make-up to war, carry the Kalashnicov rifle and loosen their hair to detonate among the beasts of the Islamic State

Magda TagtachianWriter

And there

a new Nané is

born

.

"This is a

feminist

novel

, a story of empowered women who resist," says Tagtachian.

Rojava

, he continues, "is a reflection on issues that are discussed throughout the world, such as the women's revolution and

what is patriarchy in the East and the West

."

Set at the end of 2019 and on the threshold of the pandemic, the novel describes the geopolitical, social and cultural situation.

For example, he mentions

Abdullah Öcalan

, a Kurdish leader

imprisoned for more than twenty years

, sentenced to life imprisonment by the Turks and confined.

He provides the main guidelines of the project in Rojava.

Raped and rejected

“The

captives of the Islamic State

have been raped,

virgins are the most demanded

in the sex market. And when they manage to escape -the ones they can because many die in the minefields-, after torture and suffering and come to meet their families, they

reject them because their honor has been sullied,

"says

Tagtachian

.

But he also makes a kind of alchemy in fiction.

War, pain and oppression mix with the seasonings, aromas of the kitchen and the music of the region, giving way to memory.

And to the scenes of

eroticism and love

, charged with sensuality and desire, by the hand of Hrant Torosyan and Vartan Sirekanyan, a fighter and a violinist, both Armenians, who

would give their lives for Alma and Nané

.

My grandmother Armenuhi never told me about what had been done to her, but she taught me how to cook

Magda TagtachianWriter

In the almost 400 pages of

Rojava

, the author pays

tribute to her grandmothers

who could not ask questions or raise questions.

Thus,

Tagtachian

fights from words and gives voice to a reality that has resonated with her since 2014, when she read for the first time in a paper newspaper about “

the avengers of the Islamic State

”.

"My rifle is my keyboard," he says.

And writes.

-Alma, one of the protagonists, asks the Commander with what terms she would define the fight.

What words would you use?

-Resistance.

This term is one more step than the fight because we are talking about armed women.

I wanted to tell a story of

women who wear their makeup to war

, with profiled eyebrows and enameled nails, carrying the Kalashnicov (AK47) rifle, and who let go of their hair to detonate themselves

among the beasts of the Islamic State

.

-Why do they loosen their hair?

-Jihadists manipulate the

Koran

and believe that

a woman with loose hair is a symbol of sensuality

, they forbid showing it because they believe that if they die at the hands of these women they will go to hell.

They also ban music.

They are the same ones who keep Yazidi women

as sex slaves

.

With the armed struggle, in addition, they are fighting to deconstruct the patriarchy with which they have been raised.

In battle

Members of the Female Protection Units.

AFP photo

-In these days, the United States began its withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Taliban took control of the country in a short time.

How does this dialogue with the novel?

- The entrance of the Taliban to Kabul

was seen coming

.

The Taliban

are the cradle of Al Qaeda

and the latter that of the Islamic State.

Women and children are always the immediate and vulnerable targets of radicalization and religious fundamentalism.

But so are the displaced, the great bargaining chip between the powers.

-What does it mean to be a woman in the Middle East?

-It means getting married, having children and being at home.

When they go to

Rojava

, the women run

away from their families

, in the sights of snipers, but they want to be free and re-educate themselves.

Grandmothers, mothers and daughters

take notes in a classroom, with a rifle between their legs

, and their motto in Kurdish is

 "jin, jiyan, azadi"

, which means "woman, life and freedom".

With these three pillars they are deconstructed and rebuilt.

The braiding that is made as a hairstyle is not by chance, because it symbolizes these pillars.

-What is the importance of women's networks?

-It's key.

The struggle is collective.

Women weave, we weave, that's why the braid of women combatants.

The fight is not only with the rifle

, although they had no other choice.

We are talking about building.

They comb each other's hair, bathe each other.

They suffered sexist violence, they help each other, they do not compete.

Let's be honest: you

have to deconstruct the competition.

It is between all.

-In the novel you describe a democratic confederation based on gender equality, ecology and respect for ethnic groups and religions in Rojava.

What do we want in the West?

-The same, but I don't know if we organize ourselves so well, that's why we talk about resistance and struggle.

These women are forced to marry very young,

their husbands choose them

.

There is also

a market for sex slaves

operating in the area and they are looking for 3,000 captives.

In this sense, it seems to me that the struggle takes another turn: it

is to die or to live

. 

-In the novel, cuisine, gastronomy and music are very present.

Why?

-Gastronomy, culture, music ... the genes of a people travel through those ingredients.

This applies to all minorities that are threatened.

My grandmother Armenuhi never told me about what had been done to her but

she taught me how to cook.

She said: "luck does not exist, luck is made by your hands."

And I believe that one can knead his destiny.

One can choose how to die.

That is the model of woman that I want, that inspires us.

And the men, too.

This is erasing women https://t.co/gGNSK80A69

- Marina🔻 (@ marinacg4) August 15, 2021

-Nané, the main character, takes a trip to the origins.

Why is it important to know them?

-By the roots.

At the origin is everything, DNA, the nucleus of information, as in cells.

That is the journey that I am taking and I keep traveling towards the center of my cells and it is an infinite journey.

I was able, from my work, to register myself in history, something that I had pending in my life.

We are talking about rooting and from there, expanding, enlightening, building and deconstructing.

-Nané is also the protagonist of the novel's first sexual scene: a masturbation.

Is your own female sexuality another area to fight for?

-Of course.

The

female masturbation

is a sign of empowerment and enjoyment, even in a land of struggle and resistance.

I chose a scene of war and struggle in which women consecrate themselves to this and to the land.

Living a Western-style love story is not possible

.

I wanted to be faithful to what is lived in the area because there is not possible sexual encounter as we know it in the West.

Reuters A Yazidi woman and her daughter flee ISIS violence near the Syrian-Iraqi border.

/ Reuters

-Is there a place for romantic love with feminism?

-Yes.

Because men are also deconstructing themselves and they are very afraid.

Women can help men to deconstruct themselves.

You have to understand romantic love in another way, lay the foundations in another way, not like my grandmothers

who couldn't choose who to marry

.

-Male characters are more sensitive, leading to the expansion of women.

Was it a decision?

-Yes.

It was difficult to find a boyfriend for Nané, because she was raised in Soviet Armenia, suffered subjugation, was singled out and set aside for not having married a virgin.

She is a woman who is going to fight and

I wanted a feminist boyfriend for her

.

I built it to Vartan, an Armenian from Syria, violinist, who loves art, who suffered.

By the way I say "a feminist boyfriend".

Patriarchy is something that is deep inside and can be deconstructed, but it will take a long time.

-What's your fight?

-The origin, which has to do with memory, with justice, with the Armenian genocide, which was not recognized, and that of 2014. As long as there is no justice, there is no equality, there is no society that can be built on love .

The same thing happens in any type of relationship.

Memory, justice and love.

Magda Tagtachian Basic

• Magda Tagtachian was born in Buenos Aires and is a third generation Armenian in Argentina.

  
  

• She is a writer and journalist.

  
  

• He worked for the Clarín newspaper for twenty years and for the magazines Gente and Para Tí, from Editorial Atlántida.

  
  

• In 2018, he received the Hrant Dink distinction, awarded by the Armenian National Council of South America, for his work on Human Rights.

  
  

• He published

  Forget-me-not Armenuhi

  , the story of my Armenian grandmother (Sudamericana, 2016) and

  Alma Armenia

  (VR Editoras, 2020).

  
  

• Currently, he maintains an active participation in the Armenian community of Argentina and the world and collaborates in different journalistic and literary media.

PK

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