Khawla Bent Azour: The Armed, Anti-Regime Brigade of Women

According to a Youtube video-that at the time of this posting has unfortunately been removed- an all-female armed brigade of Syrian protesters has formed together under the name "Khawla Bent Azour." Khawla Bent Azour was a poetess, warrior leader who "[fought] for what [she] believe[d] in, and never accept[ed] defeat" (siddiqi.org). According to the article I found on France24's website, the translation of what the spokeswoman for the brigade says that, "[we] will patrol the south of the country to defend citizens against the state's army and to make up for "the Arab League's inability to defend us and the world's cowardice in the face of the Syria's fascist regime." The article then goes on to say, "The young woman goes on to say that the brigade supports anti-regime protesters and promises to avenge all martyrs" (France24.com)

What's interesting is that I initially found this posted on tumblr, a social networking site. Given the fact that I had just picked the Syrian conflict as my topic, it perked my interest more than it would have otherwise. As a Women's and Gender Studies major and a Political Science minor, I find it interesting that an all-female brigade of women would form to "support anti-regime protesters and [promise] to avenge all the martyrs." It is definitely a change of pace from the typical male-only military and armed-militias that is mostly reported on.

However, there is an odd aspect to it. Upon google searching for the brigade's name, I only found one news-related website (excluding tumblr blogs) that mentioned it. And the one that did cover it was a French website. I would have expected to see at least MSNBC, CNN, or the BBC to mention this at least for a second; but those articles are nowhere to be found. According to one of the two comments on the article posted to the French news website, one comment writes that the video is a fake while the other comment refutes that allegation.

As there is only one website covering the story, it does lend itself to be taken as a fake; but even then wouldn't another news organization make a story on it at least for a filler? I must say, it's quite troubling to see and hear the lack of coverage on the Syrian conflict in the news. However, it definitely is a bit similar to the coverage of the Libyan crisis.