A wave of solidarity has emerged among Kurdish women in Iraq and across social media, who have begun braiding their hair in protest after a video surfaced showing a Syrian soldier bragging about cutting the braid of a female Kurdish fighter in Raqqa.
The incident occurs as Syrian government forces continue to enter areas previously held by the Kurdish de facto autonomous administration, which has long been noted for the significant role of women within its armed units.
The video “was a threat to us as Kurds, but also as Kurdish women,” stated Vienna Salam, a 31-year-old university lecturer. She was among dozens of women who gathered in Erbil, the capital of the Iraqi Kurdistan region, on Friday to braid each other’s hair as a form of protest.
Salam explained that the act was intended to show “the world our way of resilience and… power.” She added, “Braiding is our way of fighting back and of representing our identity as Kurdish women.”
In the viral video, a Syrian soldier is seen displaying a braid he claimed to have cut from a Kurdish female fighter in the northern Syrian city of Raqqa, which the army recently entered. Following a backlash online, the soldier released a second video claiming the braid was synthetic and that he found it on a table. The authenticity of the initial claim and whether any woman was harmed remains unconfirmed.
In response, many Kurdish women have shared images and videos of themselves braiding their hair. One widely circulated clip shows women braiding each other’s hair while chanting “Women, Life, Freedom”—the main slogan from the 2022 protests in Iran that were sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish-Iranian woman, in custody.
In Kurdish culture, braids are a powerful symbol, representing beauty, resistance, and strength, and are often featured in traditional ballads. They have become a distinct emblem of female Kurdish fighters, who gained international recognition for their role in the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria. Braids can also signify mourning, with widows sometimes cutting them to mark the death of a husband.
Darin Masoum, a 30-year-old protester with family in northeastern Syria, described braids as a symbol of “courage, beauty, strength and dignity.”
