Zaynê Akyol
in Gaspé

The Kurds are the world’s largest stateless nation, with 40 million people spread across four countries: Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria. For more than a century, the Kurds have been confronted with the territorial, economic, cultural, and religious impacts of these great powers, who oppose their recognition and violently persecute them. It wasn’t until the war against the Islamic State (IS) that the Kurds, the jihadists’ main opponents, were finally known and recognized.

In 2014, throughout Syria and Iraq, IS tried to break through the Kurdish border regions, but came up against the PKK combatants in Southern Kurdistan, and then the YPG and YPJ (People’s Protection Units, Women’s Protection Units) in Western Kurdistan, both grouped under the banner of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). These armed groups have the greatest number of women in their ranks in the world, comprising nearly 40% of the soldiers. Guided by revolutionary ideals, these women advocate for direct democracy, feminism, multiculturalism, religious pluralism, and respect for the environment; an unprecedented political endeavor in the Middle East, and a complete ideological opposition to the jihadists they fight.

The exhibition NÛJEN, The Fighters presents a portrait of female soldiers from Western Kurdistan and Syria who defeated the Islamic State. Indeed, it is in March 2019, with the help of the Global Coalition, that the SDF won the battle against IS. Shortly afterwards, Zaynê Akyol traveled to these dangerous areas to create her documentary ROJEK (2022) and to capture on photographic film the women ⎯ Kurds, Arabs, Assyrians, and others ⎯ committed to protecting their land. NÛJEN, The Fighters is a work that presents us with another face of this war, that of the women of the Middle East who organize and resist those who sow terror around the world. A unique collection featuring images of women with extraordinary courage who managed to overthrow the caliphate of the Islamic State.