Êzîdxan_Women's_Units
Êzîdxan Women's Units
Yazidi all-women militia
The Êzîdxan Women's Units (Kurdish: Yekinêyen Jinên Êzîdxan or YJÊ) is a Yazidi all-women militia formed in Iraq in 2015 to protect the Yazidi community in the wake of attacks by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and other Islamist groups that view Yazidis as pagan infidels.[5]
An offshoot of the mixed-gender Yazidi militia Sinjar Resistance Units (YBŞ), the YJÊ was founded on 5 January 2015 under the original name of Yekîneyên Parastina Jin ê Şengalê (Kurdish: Sinjar Women’s Protection Units, YJŞ[6]), or YPJ-Sinjar.[3] The militia adopted its current name on 26 October 2015.[7]
The organization follows imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan's feminist Jineology,[3] and with the broader concept of democratic confederalism as advocated by the Group of Communities in Kurdistan (KCK).[8][9]