Al Arabiya, like many other media outlets, wrote about women in Kurdish struggle in Syria, describing woman fighters in the Protection of the Kurdish People (YPG) forces as the hidden face of Syria’s armed rebellion against the regime of Bashar al-Assad, now in its third year.

Referring to the role of women in the Kurdish struggle, Al Arabiya said that “Unlike their Arab counterparts, Kurdish women have a long tradition of combat roles. The PKK’s fierce women fighters grabbed worldwide attention in the mid-1990s with their frightening zeal in launching suicide bombing”.

Quoting Engizek, 28 year-old woman fighter in YPG, Al Arabiya said “Women can shoot machineguns, Kalashnikovs and even tanks -- just as well as men”. According to Engizek, YPG’s women fighters undergo the same rigorous training as men and fight alongside each other as well as eat together and share cooking and cleaning duties, it noted.

The news agency remarked that the presence of women fighters in conservative Syrian society inspires both awe and shock.“They are not women -- they are men. A real woman is more feminine", it wrote quoting one Free Syrian Army soldier who said he was particularly opposed to women on the front line because their presence can “seriously distract male fighters”.

The news agency quoted Lokman Abusalam, a 41-year-old fighter, saying that, “This country will not be free until women are free,” adding that his male comrades have no problem in reporting to a female commander.

Engizek said “We are not willing to collaborate with those who don’t accept women’s rights. As a group we cannot accept that. As a woman, I cannot accept that.”