Kurdish women battle the Islamic State

A female Kurdistan fighter adjusts her scarf while another carries a picture of jailed Kurdish militant leader Abdullah Ocalan at their base.

A female Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighter sleeps at a base on Mount Sinjar in northwest Iraq. All photos by Asmaa Waguih / Reuters

Fighters looks towards a position which has been hit by Islamic State car bombs.

Kurdistan fighters prepare to attend a military funeral for a Yazidi fighter from the YBS who was killed during clashes with Islamic State militants.

Fighters prepare to join others near a position which has been hit by Islamic State car bombs.

Haval Raperin, a member and leader of a group of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighters combs her hair at a base in Sinjar, Iraq.

Members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighters adjust a machine gun as they prepare to join others near a position which had been hit by the Islamic State.

A female fighter holds a turkey which had escaped at a base in the Sinjar mountains.

Kurdistan fighters sit with a Yazidi family, including a member of YBS pictured on the right, near their base in Sinjar.

A female fighter stands outside the base.

A Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighters hugs her comrades as she leaves to go to another base.

Female fighters leave to join others at a position which had been hit by Islamic State car bombs in Sinjar.

Fighters discuss tactics to reach a position which had been hit by Islamic State.

Female Kurdistan fighters help in an area they use for cooking at their base.

A female Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighter works on her laptop while watching a Kurdish TV station at a base in the Sinjar mountains.

Kurdish forces have been fighting the Islamic State since the al Qaeda offshoot captured large tracts of land in Iraq and Syria. Among the groups fighting the Islamic militants is the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which took up arms to carve out an independent Kurdish homeland within Turkey in 1984.

The battle against the Islamic State has drawn many women to the frontline. Women fighters at a PKK militia base on Mount Sinjar in northwest Iraq, just like their male counterparts, have to be ready for action at any time.

Many of the women have cut links with their families back home and the fighters come from all corners of the Kurdish region that spans Syria, Turkey, Iran and Iraq.

Reuters photographer Asmaa Waguih travelled to Mount Sinjar, Iraq, last month to document the life of women fighters at a PKK militia base. The Sinjar area was the scene of a fierce Islamic State offensive last year in which hundreds of people from Iraq’s Yazidi minority sect were killed and thousands, captured and raped by Islamic State fighters.

Story and photography by Asmaa Waguih for Reuters