Girl with a Gun by Diana Nammi

Author:Diana Nammi [Attwood, Diana Nammi and Karen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781783528738
Publisher: Unbound
Published: 2020-01-16T00:00:00+00:00

18

Girl With a Gun

In autumn 1982, I became the first woman to join the Baneh Company. As we left the base for one of the villages, I struggled at first to carry my heavy rifle along with my ammunition belt, which was weighted down with six extra rounds of ammunition and a grenade. I was of slim build and I was now having to carry an extra fifteen kilos.

We arrived at a beautiful village called Spidareh, which was on the top of a mountain, close to Najneh and Manijalan, and overlooking the Kokhan Valley. Around thirty or forty families lived there. It was late afternoon and I could see the other villages down in the valley under the shadow that the mountains cast during sunset. Spidareh still had some sunlight. Two Peshmerga remained on guard on the mountain while the rest of us were divided into groups of two and three to visit different villagers’ homes for dinner.

I wondered what they would make of me, as the first armed female Peshmerga in the region. By now, they were used to seeing women from the bases dressed in the masculine-style khaki clothing of the Peshmerga, but not armed and travelling with a company. The villagers were excited and curious. I spent time with some of the women in one of their homes explaining that we needed to have more female Peshmerga. They asked so many questions. Was I scared? Could I walk beside the men? Could I sleep comfortably? I tried to answer them all as best as I could.

After we had eaten, we went to the mosque where all of the Peshmerga would sleep. One of the team leaders came to me and asked me to disassemble my rifle and reassemble it, which I did quickly.

The rest of the Peshmerga surrounded me to watch. When I finished, they all yelled, ‘Hooray!’

The team leader asked me whether I could use the rifle.

‘Yes, I can,’ I replied.

When it was time for most of us to sleep, I asked to be put on night guard. The others were a bit reluctant at first but after a bit of persuasion, they agreed to give me the first night shift, which began at 10 p.m.

I went outside and got into position. The full moon was giving off a bright light. I could see clearly into the oak trees all over the mountains.

A group of Peshmerga reported to me that they were off on a mission and I watched them leave.

Sometime later I heard footsteps. I got my rifle out ready to shoot.

‘Who are you?’ I shouted loudly.

‘Don’t shoot, don’t shoot!’ I heard.

‘Give me the night password,’ I said, still holding my gun ready.

One of them gave the password. As they moved closer, I saw that it was the same group who had gone out on a mission a short while earlier.

One came running over to me, laughing.

‘Our mission was to test you to see if you were capable of being a guard,’ he said. ‘None of the men can sleep tonight in the mosque.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.