In a welcome challenge to the barbaric gender apartheid practiced by ISIS, Hamas, Hezbollah, and all the Al-Qaeda offshoots, a group of Kurds in northeastern Syria have issued a women’s right decree which calls for “equality between men and women in all spheres of public and private life.”

The 30-point decree, issued by the leaders of the “self-ruling democracy of Jazira province,” calls for women to have the right to hold public office, as well as an equal right to wages and inheritance. This demand for equality in inheritance is in direct opposition to ISIS and Sharia law. (According to the Koran, two women are equal to one man in matters of contract law and inheritance. See Surah 2:282 and Surah 4:11).

Despite—or perhaps because of– the increase in forced child marriage and polygamy, which is so rampant among Jihadists and tribal Muslims, this decree clearly states that women “should not be married before the age of eighteen,” and is on the record as opposing polygamy, honor killings, and all honor-based violence against women. The Kurds are opting for equality before the law in a region that is notoriously lawless and now in profound chaos.

How the Kurds plan to implement this enlightened doctrine is, as yet, unknown. However, given the mass kidnapping, rape, and sex trafficking of girls and women in the region as well as the hastily arranged child marriages among female refugees in Jordan, Iraq, and Syria—often the best or only option for their survival—this decree opts for a distinctly “Western” or infidel or secular concept of women’s rights and human rights.

It is signaling a desire to be part of the modern world, not part of any 7th century “Caliphate” ruled by Sharia law. I hope that Western leaders note this and act accordingly. The battle for women’s freedom is an essential part of the battle for Western civilization against a new kind of totalitarianism, Islamist style.