Quick Facts
Biography
Viyan Peyman was a Kurdish singer and fighter with the YPJ who was killed fighting ISIS in Syria in 2015.
Before the Syrian Civil War, Peyman was a teacher. According to Kurdish news agency Rudaw, Peyman was from the Iranian Kurdish town of Maku. Her birth name was Gülistan Tali Cinganlo. Peyman was a folk singer, and wrote her own music in traditional Kurdish folk style. Peyman was known as a Dengbêj, a folk singer or storyteller, for her songs about the Kurdish resistance to ISIS and her fellow fighters who had died.
Peyman was injured twice, shot in her leg and stomach, but returned to continue fighting. She told NBC News that she was fighting in Kobane for the women of the Middle East: "We stand and fight, especially here in the Middle East where women are treated as inferiors. We stand here as symbols of strength for all the women of the region."
Peyman was killed while fighting ISIS on 6 April 2015. The battle for Kobane ended in January 2015, and Peyman was killed in the Syrian-Turkish border town of Sere Kaniye, where she had gone in mid-February.
Resources
Viyan Peyman singing in Kobane on YouTube