Video game lets you fight Islamic State as Kurdish Yazidi female fighter

Video game lets you fight Islamic State as Kurdish Yazidi female fighter. Photo: newworldinteractive.com

SULAIMANI, Iraq’s Kurdistan region,— A new video game soon to hit the market that allows you to fight Islamic State group (IS) as Kurdish Yazidi female fighter.

Gamers playing Insurgency: Sandstorm will follow the story of a Yazidi Kurd who escapes captivity by IS after a sandstorm ravages through the Iraqi village she is being held captive in. She then decides to fight against the jihadi militant group by joining a Kurdish militia, according to game developers New World.

“The narrative shifts the typical shooter inspiration away from blockbuster military power fantasy movies more towards a dark and understated indie film rooted in reality,” New World explained.

“Thematically, the game is inspired by real events and people, however this is a fictional story and characters,” the developer company said. The game is set to be released on game stations PlayStation 4, Xbox One and computers next year with alpha testing of the game available this year for a select few.

The game is believed to be influenced by the hundreds of Yazidi and Kurdish women who have taken up arms against the extremist group.

The game, along with the many images that have circulated on the internet showing Yazidi women brandishing weapons as they fight Islamic State, is likely to be criticised by those that feel that the Western media’s “fetishism” of the female fighters is sexist and damaging.

Islamic State group has captured most parts of the Yazidi Sinjar district in northwest Iraq on August 3, 2014 which led thousands of Kurdish families to flee to Mount Sinjar, where they were trapped in it and suffered from significant lack of water and food, killing and abduction of thousands of Yazidis as well as rape and captivity of thousands of women.

Those who stay behind are subjected to brutal, genocidal acts: thousands killed, hundreds buried alive, and countless acts of rape, kidnapping and enslavement are perpetuated against Yazidi women. To add insult to injury, IS fighters ransack and destroy ancient Yazidi holy sites.

According to Human Rights organizations, thousands of Yazidi women and girls have been forced to marry or been sold into sexual slavery by the IS jihadists.

A Yazidi member of Iraqi parliament Vian Dakhil says some 3,770 Kurdish Yazidi women and children still in Islamic State captivity. The EU, US, UN and UK parliament recognize Islamic State killing of Yazidi Kurds as genocide.

The website of New World.