The writer, Michael Taussig, goes to Syria for 3 weeks to report and reflect the lives of people there. He particularly writes about a place called Kobane, a No Man’s Land, as he calls it. The essay talks about Xenofeminism. Xenofeminism in simple words according to Laboria Cuboniks – XF is a feminism pissed off about the need for its own existence. It is basically not having to speak about gender.
We have heard about gender equality and feminism, but the Kurdish female combatants in Syria are breaking boundaries and goes beyond both of those terms. I relate the situation to the time period where homo-sapiens existed. I am sure that during that period the role of male and female were not distinct as they are today and in the history, where it was all about biology but later it got caught up in parochial concerns of gender (from this src).
The writer describes seeing Kobane as a time out of time, a post war situation where everything is in ruins but there is a sense of calm and people getting back on their feet.
The bravery of armies in Kobane is indescribable. There are male and female combatants who kill themselves with grenades if they are surrounded by ISIS during the combat. These combatants resolve to celibacy and suicide.
The female combatants in the essay are calm and confident when talking about collective suicide. In the writer’s own words, a new culture blooming in Kobane where the role of women is changing men and changing the war not only to create “gender equality”. The women are not fighting the war just to create gender equality but they are there for a bigger purpose, saving of humanity.
One particular instance in the essay was when a man in Kobane was asked how women-in-combat have affected his morale. He said that women as no longer slaves to men, the tasks are carried out equally. A post human situation existing in the future. I think ISIS being frightened by these female fighters because being killed by women, they will not go to heaven. The writer relates it to, magical power of Indian shamans, despised by non-Indians as like animals yet feared for their magical powers and sought after for healing from sorcery.
As the writer departs from Kobane, I thought of an image where he departs from smiling women carrying M-16 guns waving at him to a place where men controlled the rest of the world.
