(Picture: Joanna Palani)

Joanna Palani left home in 2014 to join the war on Islamic State, upon her return she was forced into hiding by a law designed to stop the very terrorists she dedicated her life to fighting.

Palani risked her life to fight jihadis, a cause she’s willing to die for. Despite her courageous efforts, the self-styled soldier against Isis has described how she lost everything after she was linked to terrorism.

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Now 23, Palani has revealed her motivation for dropping out of college and leaving Denmark to fight jihadis alongside Kurdhish Peshmera forces in Syria back in 2014.

But she wasn’t the naïve student that many headlines made her out to be. Palani told Metro.co.uk: ‘I left Denmark back in 2014 to fight ISIS but it wasn’t my first time over there.




‘People don’t know this but I have been doing this for many years. The newspapers made out that I was this young girl, running away from high school to fight Isis, but it was not like that at all.’

Palani is currently living in hiding and facing a jail sentence for flouting a travel ban introduced to stop the same Islamic State terrorists she has dedicated her life to fighting.

(Picture: Joanna Palani)

Returning from terror

Living on the frontline during Syria’s complex civil war has been perilous.

Palani was forced to leave the warzone during the liberation on Manbij in October 2016 after her skull was fractured in battle.

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While on a previous return visit to Denmark in 2015, the government confiscated her passport and refused to renew it.

She’s now in hiding after returning to Syria one last time after her passport was taken by the government.

Palani explained: ‘They say I am a threat to the Danish state and others states because of my military background.’

Adding: ‘Since arriving here I have been basically homeless. Every time I got a job and they found out who I was I got fired. I just got a job now in a fast food restaurant and I will start in a few days. I need the money so that I can travel again.’

Despite the severity of her injury, Palani’s appetite for combating terrorism is not yet satisfied.

She told Metro.co.uk: ‘This is my calling and I am proud of it. I will continue doing what I am doing, somebody has to do it.’

(Picture: Joanna Palani)

On the frontline

Palani has seen her friends slaughtered by terrorists while fighting in Kobane, Rojava, Mosul and finally Manbij.

While in Manbij, in the Aleppo Governorate, she posted the a blood-stained picture with the caption: ‘Right now; a friend got shot in his head by a sniper from Daesh.

‘He was strong and could understand my words. My uniform is covered in his blood and pieces of his head. I will fight for your blood as my own, my friend!’

She has been openly sharing pictures and videos on social media that show her fighting in Syria, with hashtags such as #fuckterrorism while posing next to homemade bombs and stating how ‘easy’ Isis fighters are to kill.

(Picture: Joanna Palani)

Fighting Daesh online



The contrast between the young woman and her often brutal posts on social media have generated growing global interest in Palani.

Explaining her decision to be so open online, Palani revealed: ‘I thought, this is more important than me and so I must show it all to the world first hand.

‘Exposing myself and sharing my story on social media has also been negative for me personally.

‘I mean, if I share a picture of me with a beer, people get so mad. But I think it is because I am female.’

(Picture: Joanna Palani)

Women at war

She plans to start an ‘all-female army unit’.

Palani told us: ‘That was what I was interested in, working with female fighters to help bring peace and freedom to the people.

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‘At that time there were not as many volunteers as there are now. I was one of the first in Aleppo. That was around the time that the YPJ was started.’

The YPJ is an all-female Kurdish military organisation, also known as the Woman’s Protection Unit.

‘Having grown up in Denmark studying and following female law in the Middle East and Africa as well as chemistry, I felt that I needed to apply what I had learnt in Syria,’ Joanna said.

‘I felt strongly about this because of my Kurdish background, in Syria, I had the opportunity to help and that was enough of a reason to give my life for.

‘During the battle for Kobane in 2014, ISIS were enslaving Yazidi girls and I thought, “I will never be able to look in a little girls eyes and know that I was safe back home and not helping her”.’

(Picture: Joanna Palani)

(Picture: Joanna Palani)

Family ties


Palani’s family, originally from the Iranian part of Kurdistan, find it difficult to accept her choices and have little to do with her.

She explained: ‘They fled the city of Kermanshah by the time the Iranian Islamic regime was attacking the Kurds.

‘My family is traditionally Kurdish and nationalistic. They have seen what war is like. My father was helping the Peshmergas from the Iranian part while my grandfather was a commander for the Peshmergas.

‘My family didn’t like what I was doing and the choices I have made in my life. I can’t remember when I last saw my family but maybe we will meet again.’

While she has limited contact with her biological relatives, Palani has surrounded herself people who’ve chosen a similar path.

‘Most of those I know are from Syria or Kurdistan,’ she says.

‘They are more close to me than the air I breathe. I love them all with every piece of me.

‘But there are things that I miss about Denmark.

‘I miss the milk, cheese and beer. I miss my freedom and my right to go where I please. I miss the opportunity to find love.

‘It is funny, when I am out of Denmark I feel very Danish. But when I am in Denmark I feel that I am not where I belong.’

(Picture: Joanna Palani)

Training

After leaving Denmark, Palani kept a low profile while training for combat in Ukraine, Finland and Russia ahead of her journey to Syria, but she eventually changed her mind, feeling that people needed to see her motivation.


‘Many people fighting in Syria keep a low profile for safety and security. I did for the same reasons. I did not want to attract attention from enemies.

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‘In the end I chose to share with the public what I was doing in Syria because I knew I was going to give my life for this cause.’

Palani studied military history and chemistry and she also learned how to become a sniper.

Her skillset has led her to work with Russian special forces in Syria.

‘They needed a sniper who spoke Kurdish so they asked for my help.

‘It’s crazy, the Russians are asking for my help and my own government think I am a threat.

(Picture: Joanna Palani)

‘I remember one moment in particular in battle. I was in a tower block and behind it was a road and further back a crossroads.

‘I had a Russian sniper rifle and I was trying to get a good target on ISIS. There was a group of injured comrades at the crossroads who had called on the radio for help.

‘We could not get a car to them because of the mines.

‘A small group said they would go to the injured group but I said do not go because I could not get a clear target on ISIS to cover them.

‘They went anyway and that was when my comrade was shot in the head. Straight through the head.

‘I left the tower block to help. I tried very hard stop the bleeding and I kept talking to him. He was alive and listening to me for 20 minutes.

‘I saw yellow and white liquid coming from his head. I told the others to bring coffee. I remember from my training that coffee and spiders web help clot bleeding. He died.’

(Picture: Joanna Palani)

Impact

The amount of suffering and death Palani has seen has had a huge impact on her.

‘I don’t count how many I have lost anymore. It hurts too much.

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‘Death can be frightening if you have not seen a lot but I have been through so much violence.

‘It is difficult to describe but I have never seen death as a negative side of life.

‘I could have a thousand reasons to die for but I only need one to live for.’

‘When I have been close to dying or being captured I don’t regret what I have done, only what I have not.

‘This life can be so great. Nobody should ever live a life like these young Yazidi girls, so it is worth my risking my own to stop that.’

(Picture: Joanna Palani)

‘I want to change these girls’ lives. But we need to change the way that they are living, change society and make a world that they can live in.

And Joanna relies on a quote from feminist author Susan Faludi for reference.

‘You come to a point in life where you have to decide between private happiness and public justice,’ Joanna quotes.

‘I choose public justice because I want to see a development in our society for women. Not just in Syria but also in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

‘Women should be living with ultimate freedom. Freedom to study and to see the world.’

And the way she sees this ultimate freedom, as one of the key reasons, why she’s out there, is tied to her gender.

‘I’m a feminist because I’m a humanist,’ she says.

(Picture: Joanna Palani)

(Picture: Joanna Palani)

The future of females

Drawing on her unique experiences, Palani has high hopes for the future.

‘I think there will be a female revolution across the Middle East.

‘Even when I train my girls in female law and history, I warn them that the media can peddle propaganda.

‘I remember in school I used to get so angry when they told us stories, like Cinderella where a female is always rescued by a man through marriage.

‘I never agreed, a woman’s honour is not between her legs.’

(Picture: Joanna Palani)

(Picture: Joanna Palani)

‘The plan is to have a worldwide training program for females to survive in war zones and combat.

‘It’s a very big deal. I am writing up the training plans from my couch.’

And her message to the western world?

‘Do not to forget our freedom and what it stands for,’ she says.

And, before she heads back to the fight, she leaves us with a final, chilling thought.

‘While I am away your readers will read this and wonder if I am still alive,’ she says.

‘Did her government catch her yet? Did she hide right under their noses?’