Rojda Felat

Rojda Felat
Born	1980[1] Al-Hasakah, Al-Hasakah Governorate, Syria[1]
Allegiance	Rojava
Service/branch	Syrian Democratic Forces Women's Protection Units
Years of service	2013–present
Rank	Top commander
Commands held	Northern Raqqa frontline
Battles/wars	Syrian Civil War Eastern al-Hasakah offensive[2] Tell Abyad offensive[2] Al-Shaddadi offensive (2016)[3] Northern Raqqa offensive (May 2016)[3] Manbij offensive[4] Raqqa campaign (2016–present)[3] Battle of Tabqa (2017)[5]

Rojda Felat (born 1980) is a Syrian Kurdish top commander of the Women's Protection Units (YPJ) and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), who has served since 2013 in the war against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. A revolutionary feminist, Felat's stated goal is to achieve social transformation in the Middle East through the YPJ, "liberating the Kurdish woman and the Syrian woman in general from the ties and control of traditional society, as well as liberating the entirety of Syria from terrorism and tyranny".^[3][1][6]

Biography

As Rojda Felat has disclosed very little about her life, her biography before taking up arms is almost completely unknown;^[1] even her age is disputed. Because of that, T-Online went so far as to describe her as "mysterious".^[7] She is generally believed to be in her thirties,^[3] with the Turkish news agency Jihan News^[7] putting her birthdate at 1980 and her birthplace at Al-Hasakah.^[1] Later reports by other media agencies have repeated this information.^[8][9] Nevertheless, various other claims have circulated on the Internet, according to which Felat was born in 1962, 1966 or 1968, with one media agency even saying that she is from Batman, Turkey; this was however denied by a close associate of her, who told T-Online that she was definitely a Syrian Kurd.^[7]

Felat joined the YPJ in 2013, and has since then risen to one of the militia's most important commanders.^[3][1] Despite that, her activities before 2016 are mostly unknown, as she appears to have operated covertly.^[7] Felat considers herself a radical feminist,^[3][1] fighting for social reforms in Syria that would improve the rights and lives of women of all ethnicities.^[10] She is also critical of capitalism, saying that "the capitalist system views us [women in general] as objects".^[8] As a military leader, she is inspired by Otto von Bismarck, Napoleon, Saladin, as well as Arin Markin, a female Kurdish fighter who killed herself during the Siege of Kobanî rather than be captured by ISIL.^[3][1][6] In regard to the military capabilities of the female fighters under her command, Felat has commented that "Often, in military matters, people look down on women with condescension, claiming we're too delicate, that we wouldn't dare carry a knife or a gun. But you can see for yourself that in the YPJ we can operate a dushka, we know how to use mortars and we can conduct demining operations."^[9]

Felat took part in the capture of Tell Hamis during the eastern al-Hasakah offensive, the Tell Abyad offensive,^[2] and the Al-Shaddadi offensive.^[3] In May 2016 she led a first offensive against the de facto capital of ISIL, Raqqa, while commanding 15,000 fighters.^[3][1] Her forces captured 23 villages,^[11] though in the end the offensive stalled, as the SDF redeployed its fighters for the more successful Manbij offensive, in which Felat also took part.^[4] Sometime in mid 2016, an ISIL bombing at a wedding in Al-Hasakah killed 22 of her family members and relatives.^[4]

In November 2016, the SDF launched another campaign to capture Raqqa, with Felat in charge of the operations in the northern Raqqa countryside. This time, the troops under Felat's command succeeded in capturing their objectives, whereupon the attention of the SDF shifted to the Tabqa Dam and surrounding areas.^[12] These were targeted in the course of the offensive's second phase, which commenced on 10 December and during which Felat served as leading commander for the YPJ units involved.^[4][13] In the subsequent phases during the campaign to capture Raqqa, Felat continued to serve as one of the most important YPJ commanders,^[2] and took part in the operations to capture the Tabqa Dam, Tabqa Airbase, and al-Thawrah city from ISIL.^[5]

Felat (right) with YPG and US officials at the site of the April 2017 Turkish airstrikes in al-Hasakah Governorate.

On 25 April 2017, Felat visited the site of a major Turkish airstrike against the YPG near al-Malikiyah along with YPG and US officials.^[14]

References