Bethnahrin Women’s Protection Forces mark seventh anniversary of founding

NORTH AND EAST SYRIA — The Beth Nahrin Women’s Protection Force (Ḥaylawotho d’Sutoro d’Neshe d’Beth Nahrin, HSNB) — the first military formation in Syria to include Syriac women — marked the seventh anniversary of its founding on Tuesday.

Two years after the formation of the Syriac Military Council (Mawtbo Fulḥoyo Suryoyo, MFS), the HSNB was established on 30 August 2015 to empower women and enhance their abilities to defend themselves and their people.

The HSNB showed the whole world that Syriac (Aramean–Assyrian–Chaldean) women are able to take up arms and defend themselves, their communities, and their homeland and break the restrictions imposed on them by patriarchal society.

Women from across Gozarto (Jazira) Region joined HSNB, defying personal and societal challenges illustrating women’s determination to ensure their rights.

The HSNB participated in a number of military campaigns alongside the MFS and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), fighting against the Islamic State (ISIS) and invading Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA).

From time to time, the HSNB holds military and awareness training courses for women fighters, with the aim of raising their readiness and enabling them to increase and improve their weapons knowledge.

On the seventh anniversary of founding the HSNB, the women of the organization pledged to defend the Syriac (Aramean–Assyrian–Chaldean) and other peoples of the region and to follow in the path laid out by its martyrs.