In the town of Ain Issa, in Syria’s northeastern governorate of Raqqa, the general council of the self-administration for northern and eastern Syria approved June 23 the Self-Defense Duty Law in northern Syria. The council also gave the committees for self-defense the authority to determine the age of recruits within their areas of control. 

The youth of al-Jazira and Kobani had different expectations as they expected the old conscription law to change. As a result, protests broke out one day after the decision was issued and are still ongoing in several self-administration areas. Both Kurds and Arabs believe they are being discriminated against as they are forced to join the ranks of the Self-Defense Forces, fighting alongside the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), while the youth from other regions were not.

In those two areas, according to the new law, recruits must be aged between 33 and 38. Meanwhile, in Deir ez-Zor, Raqqa and Tabaqah, the new law states that conscription begins with those born in 1990 and in Manbij with those born in 1988. 

Locals in al-Jazira and Kobani felt a sense of injustice with the law’s failure to unify the conscription age.