The New York Times ‘Women in the World’ (formerly of The Daily Beast) features pop starHelly Luv, dubbed the ‘Kurdish Shakira’. In her new video ‘Revolution’, Luv rallies men and women in a Kurdish war zone.

“People all around the world, round the world don’t be scared. Come together let ‘em know, let ‘em know, we’re right here,” she sings throughout the video that features real people facing the day-to-day threats of Islamic militants.

Vice writes that the redhead is on ISIS’s radar for ‘Revolution’. Her ‘Revolution’ video was shot about two miles away from the front line separating ISIS militants and the Kurdish Peshmerga troops.

Helly Luv and her Peshmerga mother fled Iran for Turkey, days after she was born. They lived homeless in Turkey for several years before moving to Finland as refugees. At age 18 Helly moved to LA and made contacts in the music business before returning to the Middle East to create music and videos that combat terrorism with messages of pride, unity and peace.

In her own words, Luv reveals her determination to stand up to ISIS.

‘Revolution’ is not only the story of Kurds. It’s the story of us all, because ISIS is not just the enemy of Kurds; they’re the enemy of the whole world. It’s our own responsibility to come together, unite, and fight against them. If we don’t, then tomorrow they will expand; they will get more powerful. I went to Los Angeles and created “Revolution” with the same producer and the same staff who did “Risk It All,” and it was the most difficult song to record; I was basically crying the whole time. Violence and terrorism is everywhere. Yesterday, it was in Germany, before that it was Tunis, and before that it was Charlie Hebdo in Paris.

Update Kurdish Women Fighters

AOC has followed the incredible story of the Kurdish Women Fighters who are taking on ISIS.

RT.com filmed a documentary ‘Her War: Women VS. ISIS’, telling the story of young Kurdish women in Syria who are defending their country while advancing their hopes of self-government. The Kurds are an ethnic group that is culturally and linguistically related to Iran. The Kurdistan region spans adjoining parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey.

A new article at Muftah centers on Western media’s romancing of the Kurdish women fighters, promoting them as seekers of democracy. There is some truth to Alvina Hoffman’s argument, because the Kurdish women are seeking and live with reforms that liberate their feminism with equality, but on much more socialist terms.

To achieve this, the YPG/YPJ has implemented a radical democracy, based on gender equality, ecology, and grassroots politics. The YPG/YPJ has established a 40% quota for women’s representation across the territories it controls. The same applies to the representation of ethnic minorities, which are assigned seats in regional governments according to the size of their populations. For the YPG/YPJ, this structure is a response to the international capitalist system and aims to emancipate citizens by establishing a truly egalitarian political society. For the Kurds of Rojava, capitalism is inextricably tied to the nation-state and industrialism, which create and perpetuate patriarchal structures, feudalism, and other forms of exclusion. In order to upend this system, an alternative form of economy has to be created that has feminism and ecology as its central pillars.

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