Samantha Bee interviews some of the formidable female Kurdish soldiers taking down ISIS

Samantha Bee talks to the female Peshmerga

(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/Full Frontal With Samantha Bee)

published 10 August 2017

"Coverage of the war on ISIS has been something of a sausage-fest — all tanks, soldiers, and the front line," Samantha Bee said on Wednesday's Full Frontal, and women, when you see them, are mostly nameless victims. "That can't be right — I saw Wonder Woman," she deadpanned, and so she traveled to Iraqi Kurdistan to interview the "professional ISIS killers" of the female Peshmerga. These Kurdish women have been fighting ISIS and other enemies for generations, their goal defending the homeland, just like the Kurdish men. They've stepped up the fight since being targeted by the Islamic State.

Bee spoke with a female Peshmerga colonel and two field commanders, and alongside the serious questions she threw in self-deprecating ones about "work-life balance" and this one: "I am the only woman with a late-night comedy show in America, and people tell me I'm brave. Are you impressed by me?" But Bee also talked to women working in refugee camps and training centers, looking at softer ways Iraqi women are trying to fight ISIS and Islamic extremism. "Learning that women are people has profound effects on a society," she said. "Data shows that the more involved women are in conflict zones, the more likely it is for that area to have long-lasting peace after war." Watch her profile of the women taking on ISIS below. Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.