BAGHDAD — Miad Jubouri, an Iraqi mother of five who joined the ranks of the Iraqi forces battling the Islamic State (IS), has been participating in the battle as part of the Lions of the Tigris faction for the past two years. In a patriotic and conservative Iraqi society, Jubouri’s fight alongside the male-dominated Iraqi security forces has caught the attention of both the community and the media.

While Jubouri's participation on the battlefield is striking due to the conservative nature of Iraqi society, this phenomenon is on the rise. The number of women who have joined the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) have increased, totaling roughly 3,000 women. In this context, Fatima Sultani, a PMU trainee, told Al-Monitor that women in the PMU provide “service, media and medical assistance,” in reference to women’s roles in the security forces being mostly limited to logistical support.

A report issued on June 28, 2014, on Kurdish female peshmerga fighters who battled IS in Taza Khormato town and Bashir village, near the northern city of Kirkuk, highlights the participation of Kurdish and Yazidi women in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) who fought on the front lines and were engaged in direct combat with IS.

In this regard, member of the parliamentary Security and Defense Committee Abdul Aziz Hassan told Al-Monitor, “There is a women’s regiment in the KRG's Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs, and its members have rights and duties, equal to those of peshmerga fighters.”