The women who helped defeat ISIS are fighting for their place in the new Syria

Kurdish forces that elevated women are wary of the Islamist values of Syria's new governors

- Sudarsan Raghavan [e-mail]

An accord struck six months ago between Syria's two most powerful political and military entities is already fraying.

(AP)

Inside a sprawling facility in northern Syria this summer, a group of U.S .- backed Kurdish special forces trained a cadre of their next generation of fighters. All of them were women.

They are part of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, who with U.S. support helped defeat Islamic State six years ago and now control Syria's northeast, about a third of the country. The women wore flak jackets and night-vision goggles, carried M4 rifles, and jumped out of American armored vehicles. A female commander issued orders to her male subordinates.

Their stature in the SDF is a sticking point in unifying the country under Syria's new Islamist government.

"It's very difficult for jihadists to accept a role for women as equals to men," said Rohlat Afrin, who commands the female fighters of northeastern Syria's Kurdish-led administration.

Afrin attended a meeting with Syria's new governors early this year where the SDF signed an agreement to combine their administrations and armies. She was the senior woman, but President Ahmed al-Sharaa failed to shake her hand. It left her questioning whether the two sides could ever truly align.

"We have a completely different mentality," she said.

Bridging the divide between their administration and the new government in Damascus is seen by the U.S. and European allies as vital to stabilizing the country as it emerges from a half-century of dictatorship under the Assad family's regime. But the accord struck six months ago between Syria's two most powerful political and military entities is already fraying amid clashes and mistrust.

Turkey is threatening to intervene if the SDF doesn't dissolve itself into Syria's new government and army. The U.S. is also applying pressure on both the SDF and Sharaa to mend fences.