Wednesday, 23 April
Beth Pyles, Chi Chun Yuan, and Michele Naar-Obed visited the women Peshmerga at their base in Fermandi. This Peshmerga Women’s Unit formed twelve years ago, with the support of Jalal Talabani, the Kurdish President of Iraq, and the PUK (Patriotic Union of Kurdistan). Women who want to join the Peshmerga must belong to the PUK, (Patriotic Union of Kurdistan), the political party to which Talabani belongs. As the team left, the female general said, in an expression of solidarity, “We are women first, Peshmerga second.”