#BBCtrending: Who is the 'Angel of Kobane'? – BBC – FilmyVoice

1000’s all over the world on social media have shared the picture of the “Angel of Kobane” or “Rehana”, a Kurdish fighter who has change into a logo of resistance towards Islamic State. Based on the tales, she’s slain as many as 100 Islamic State fighters. Just one hitch: she’s in all probability not who folks assume she is.

The world continues to be watching the city of Kobane in northern Syria. Kurdish fighters there, backed by air strikes from a world coalition, are battling with Islamic State. However it’s arduous to get pictures from inside Kobane, with entry for journalists restricted. In opposition to this backdrop, tales are being shared on social media networks of fighters who change into web legends. And none extra so than “Rehana” whose picture has come to symbolise the feminine fighters pitted towards the Islamic State, whose respects for girls’s rights are seen as severely restricted. 1000’s have shared this image on Twitter and Fb, with tales of her bravery and the concept that she has killed giant numbers of IS fighters.

However the place does the picture truly come from? In reality the girl now referred to as “Rehana” was photographed at an occasion in Kobane on 22 August – months earlier than her picture started trending. She was at a ceremony for volunteers and was sporting a navy fashion uniform. The Swedish journalist Carl Drott was the one worldwide journalist in Kobane on the time and had a brief alternate along with her earlier than the ceremony. He says she was not a entrance line fighter in any respect, volunteering as a substitute with the house guard or police drive of Kobane. He says its subsequently unlikely she has killed enormous numbers of the enemy. “She got here as much as me and mentioned she used to review regulation in Aleppo however that Islamic State had killed her father so she had determined to hitch these forces herself,” Drott says. “I attempted to talk to her afterwards however by no means managed to search out her or get her title.” (The title “Rehana” appears to have come later and isn’t a typical Kurdish title).

The next day, this picture was posted on the weblog ‘Bijikurdistan’ which helps the Kurdish effort in Kobane. It then appears to have gone largely unnoticed till it was shared on Twitter over a month later by an English-language information outlet based mostly within the Kurdish area, Slemani Instances. That’s when the tales and thriller round her started increase on social media.

On 5 October, rumours of her loss of life started to pattern. An influential Saudi Twitter person referred to as @alfaisal_ragad posted a picture to her 200,000 followers saying {that a} Kurdish girl has been beheaded by an IS fighter. On 10 October Twitter person @Kurdistan_Army was amongst these sharing the picture of the beheading beside the photograph of the girl who would come to be referred to as “Rehana” smiling for the digicam. The affiliation had been made. The rumours and hypothesis continued.

Even if some had been claiming she was useless, it was on 13 October that others began naming “Rehana” (nonetheless alive on this model). That is additionally when her story went really international. It occurred by means of a tweet which was retweeted 5,500 instances. “Rehana has killed greater than 100 #ISIS terrorists in #Kobane,” that tweet mentioned. “RT and make her well-known for her bravery.” And so the Angel of Kobane got here into existence.

The tweet may very well be seen as pro-Kurdish propaganda however remarkably, it did not come from a Kurdish account. As a substitute it was from Indian blogger Pawan Durani, who describes himself as an activist and hyperlinks to a website advocating for the rights of Hindus in Kashmir. He has posted many different pictures of feminine Kurdish fighters on his Twitter web page and he isn’t alone. Her story has surfaced within the information media too, with headline writers dubbing her the “Angel of Kobane”.

“She captivated everybody along with her fairly eyes and blonde hair. She has an enormous fan base,” says the Kurdish blogger Ruwayda Mustafah. “Everybody that I come throughout admires her as a result of she symbolises what everybody needs to see. That ladies and men are standing up towards barbaric drive within the area.”

Reporting by India Rakusen, Mukul Devichand, Guney Yildiz and Anne-Marie Tomchak

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