Viyan Peyman (originally Gülistan Tali Cinganlo) was an Iranian Kurdish singer and fighter with the

Women's Protection Units The Women's Protection Units (YPJ) or Women's Defense Units is an all-female militia involved in the Syrian civil war. The YPJ is part of the Syrian Democratic Forces, the armed forces of the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and Ea ...

(YPJ) who was killed fighting the

Islamic State The Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Daesh, is a transnational Salafi jihadism, Salafi jihadist organization and unrecognized quasi-state. IS ...

(IS) in Syria in 2015. Cinganlo was from the town of

Kobani Kobani, also Kobane, officially Ayn al-Arab, is a Kurdish-majority city in the Ayn al-Arab District in northern Syria, lying immediately south of the Syria–Turkey border. As a consequence of the Syrian civil war, the city came under the con ...

, in

Syrian Kurdistan Syrian Kurdistan or Rojava () is a region in northern Syria where Kurds form the majority. It is surrounding three noncontiguous enclaves along the Turkish and Iraqi borders: Afrin in the northwest, Kobani in the north, and Jazira in the nor ...

. Before the Syrian Civil War, she was a teacher. Cinganlo was a folk singer, and wrote her own music in traditional Kurdish folk style. She was known as a ''

dengbêj Dengbêj () is a Kurdish music genre sung by Dengbêj. Dengbêjs are singing storytellers. There have been many terms to describe Dengbêjs throughout history, but today Dengbêj is the best known, and also several singing storytellers use Dengb ...

'', a folk singer or storyteller, for her songs about the Kurdish resistance to the Islamic State in the Rojava-Islamist conflict, and her fellow fighters who had died. Cinganlo was injured twice, shot in her leg and stomach, but returned to continue fighting. She told NBC News that she was fighting in the Siege of Kobane for the women of the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

: "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." Cinganlo was killed while fighting the Islamic State on 6 April 2015. The battle for Kobane ended in January 2015, and Cinganlo was killed in the town of Sere Kaniye on the Syria-Turkey border, where she had gone in mid-February. She was buried in the Şehit Rüstem Cudi Martyrs' Cemetery in Dirbêsiyê. Many artists around the world highlighted Cinganlo's life in their works after her death. The Kurdish musician Shahriyar Jamshidi has devoted his composition "Viyan" from his 2020 released My Sunset-Land ROJAVA album to Cinganlo, celebrating her life as a Kurdish singer from Iran where there are legal restrictions on women's public singing.

References

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External links

Viyan Peyman singing in Kobane
on YouTube 2015 deaths Iranian Kurdish women Military personnel killed in the Syrian civil war Kurdish women singers Kurdish female military and paramilitary personnel Kurdish military personnel People from Kobanî Members of the Women's Protection Units 21st-century Kurdish women 21st-century Kurdish people 21st-century Iranian military personnel 21st-century Iranian women