Rougine, a 19-year-old female Arab fighter among the Syrian Democratic Forces, made up of US-backed Kurdish and Arab fighters, stands in fatigues embracing another colleague near the village of al-Torshan, 20 km on the outskirts of Raqa on February 6, 2017.
Unlike Syria’s Kurds, who have emphasised gender equality in both their militias and nascent autonomous governing institutions in north and northeast Syria, the Arab tribes in the same region are among the more conservative segments of the country’s population, and most Arab families find the concept of female fighters “hard to accept.” / AFP PHOTO / DELIL SOULEIMAN