All-Female Yazidi Unit Led By Singer Vow To Fight ISIS: ‘They Rape Us, We Kill Them’

Xate Shingali, a Yazidi singer, has formed an all-woman female posse called Sun Girls that has vowed to fight back against ISIS in Iraq.

Yazidis have specifically been targeted by the Islamic State, who insist that they are “devil worshippers,” while female Yazidis have been kidnapped and then sold to sex slave markets. The reason for ISIS’ intense hatred of the Yazidi religion is that it combines elements of both Islam and Christianity, and they pray to a being with the name Melek Taus, which means Peacock Angel.

Shingali decided to form this brigade of warriors in retaliation to this decimation. According to Breitbart, on July 2, after receiving permission from the Kurdish president, she announced the formation of the group. And since then they have gathered over 123 women between the ages of 17 and 30.

However, Shingali is very much aware that they still have a long way to go before they can valiantly fight back against the ISIS regime.

“We have had only basic training and we need more,” Shingali explained, noting that the male Kurdish fighters have helped to train the batallion with how to use AK-47s. “But we are ready to fight ISIS anytime.”

When ISIS forces stormed into northern Iraq in August 2014, thousands of Yazidi women and their daughters were kidnapped. Some who managed to escape have since spoken of the abuse and physical and sexual attacks that they were made to suffer under the hands of the ISIS fighters.

According to the Daily Mail, over 5,000 Yazidi people have been murdered and around 500 women and children have been kidnapped as ISIS have made their way across the region.

The youngest recruit to have joined the Sun Girls is 17-year-old Jane Fares, who originally hailed from the Sinjar mountain, but left when ISIS attacked the region. She admitted that her father was overjoyed to have heard that she had joined this army, explaining, “My father was so happy when I told him I had joined this unions. All families accept us to join this union… We are happy to fight alongside the peshmerga.”

30-year-old Shingali originally rose to fame thanks to her performances as a musician. Previously, she played traditional Yazidi folk music across the length and breadth of northern Iraq.

Shingali plans on finding a more permanent base for the Sun Girls in the next few months, while she has also asked for European countries to send them “weapons and airplanes” in their attempt to fight ISIS.

[Image via Steve Allen/Shutterstock]