Albanopolos:In the society where I come from women are held in higher standard.
They are considered the symbol of beauty, intelligence and humanism. Many times they have exerted a lot of influence on the society.They are expected to bring to life the next generation after the present one. War causes a lot of traumatic brain diseases. How will they raise their newborn? Did you know that a female is a lot worth compared to a male? A female can bring to life 5 babies, but a male can 100 000. So a women must be protected to keep the humanity going.
I don't question women's intelligence!
But I question their physical ability? War is a physical contest as well. Obviously I am left behind the physiology of modern times but I prefer my women not fight. I prefer the women keep doing the mission that god has given to them, their beauties and their softener and politeness.
Imagine if they catch one alive!
Some of this sounds very lovely, but the realities of life and war make a mockery of much of it. Where is the society that doesn't have some level of sexual assault against women, or violence, both in the family and outside of it? Do you know the rates of sexual abuse and rape? Sometimes it's by a stranger, sometimes by an acquaintance or friend. Have you ever heard the term date rape? Even sadder, it can happen within the family. Are you aware of how many women are the victims of violence by the men in their lives (many times in the context of alcohol abuse), violence which sometimes leads to murder? A whole branch of the law is devoted to it. This is very real.
Are all men, or most men, or even a big percentage of men to be indicted in this way? Of course not, but these things happen, and girls and women have to be encouraged not to passively accept abuse, but to report the incidents and to defend themselves when they can. Sometimes, a woman can be in jeopardy from the men in her own society, in even more horrible situations, from the men in her own family, and a kind, strong, man might not be around to fight her battles for her. Better to know karate, or, if you are going to be in special jeopardy, how to handle firearms, to be able to protect
yourself if needs must.
Which brings me to war, civil war as well as war against aggressors. You're from the Balkans if I remember correctly. Italy saw a lot of refugees from the Balkan Wars. How good a job did men do in terms of protecting their women during the recent fratricidal wars there? Please believe me that I mean no disrespect to the decent men who did their best to protect their families. I'm not saying they didn't try, but just maybe if women had had some part in defending their own communities, a few outcomes might have been different; some men might have been spared slaughter, some women might have been spared mass rape over extended periods. Those women would have been a lot better off, in my opinion, if they had access to weapons and knew how to use them.
I know another situation a lot better. A good number of the partisans in my area who harried the German forces in order to provide support for the allies were women. The partisans as a whole were not a huge percentage of the population. How many people of either sex have that kind of courage? The women partisans made a big difference. Some of them did actual fighting, where others gathered intelligence, carried messages, transported weapons, actions for which they were often better suited than the men particularly because they weren't suspected as much. We have video archives where these women recount how, as young girls, most of them, they hid guns in the bike baskets under laundry, or went into the mountains to bring intelligence and food. Some died, yes, after rape and torture. Of those who survived, some became politicians, important in the post war reconstruction of Italian society. I'm not a Communist, but I have tremendous respect for a woman like Nilde Lotti:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nilde_Iotti
As for the various Kurdish political groups, I am not qualified to comment on what is accepted in their society, or how much of this is for propaganda purposes. I will tell you, however, that if I were a woman in the Middle East, knowing what these ISIS monsters do to people, including women and children, I would beg, borrow or steal to get my hands on the most deadly weapons available, and I'd learn how to use them. If nothing else, as a mother, I would owe it to my children.
