Syria excludes Kurdish women fighters from army, considers integration into interior ministry

A senior commander in the Kurdish Women’s Protection Units (YPJ), Nowruz Ahmed, said the unit’s fighters were told during a meeting with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus last week that there was “no place for them in the army”.

Ahmed told Reuters that “talks have shifted towards finding an alternative path within the Interior Ministry”.

She said the YPJ had sought to join the army because its fighters had military experience and capabilities, allowing them to serve within an organised force capable of defending itself.

She added that contacts were under way with the Interior Ministry to agree on a formula that would ensure the force remained within an institutional framework while retaining an organised combat formation suited to its tasks and the capabilities of its members.

Ahmed said the YPJ had proposed joining the Interior Ministry’s special operations forces, as their role was closer to the skills and capabilities of the unit’s fighters.

According to Ahmed, the force has more than 1,500 female fighters. She said the YPJ was awaiting a response from the Interior Ministry on integrating the entire force into the new formation.

The talks are part of ongoing discussions over mechanisms for integrating existing military and security formations into state institutions and determining the appropriate legal and organisational arrangements for incorporating their members.

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