Their Blood Got Mixed: Revolutionary Rojava and the War on ISIS

by Janet Biehl

In the summer of 2012 the Kurdish people of northern Syria set out to create a multiethnic society in the Middle East. Persecuted for much of the 20th century, they dared to try to overcome social fragmentation by affirming social solidarity among all the region’s ethnic and religious peoples. As Syria plunged into civil war, the Kurds and their Arab and Assyrian allies established a self-governing polity that was not only multiethnic but democratic. And women were not only permitted but encouraged to participate in all social roles alongside men, including political and military roles. To implement these goals, Rojava wanted to live in peace with its neighbors. Instead, it soon faced invasion by ISIS, a force that was in every way its opposite. ISIS attacked its neighbors in Iraq and Syria, imposing theocratic, tyrannical, femicidal rule on them. Those who might have resisted fled in terror. But when ISIS attacked the mostly Kurdish city of Kobane and overran much of it, the YPG and YPJ, or people's militias, declined to flee. Instead they resisted, and several countries, seeing their valiant resistance, formed an international coalition to assist them militarily. While the YPG and YPJ fought on the ground, the coalition coordinated airstrikes with them. They liberated village after village and in March 2019 captured ISIS’s last territory in Syria. Around that time, two UK-based filmmakers invited the author to spend a month in Rojava making a film. She accepted, and arrived to explore the society and interview people. During that month, she explored how the revolution had progressed and especially the effects of the war on the society. She found that the war had reinforced social solidarity and welded together the multiethnic, gender-liberated society. As one man in Kobane told her, “Our blood got mixed.”

Genres: History, Politics, Graphic Novels, Feminism, Nonfiction, Comics

258 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 21, 2022

About the author

My first graphic memoir, or book-length comic, is Their Blood Got Mixed: Revolutionary Rojava and the War Against ISIS, published by PM Press in 2022.

My translations (German to English) of two volumes of the memoirs of Sakine Cansiz were published in 2018 and 2020 by Pluto Press.

My translation (German to English) of Revolution Rojava: Democratic Autonomy and Women's Liberation, in Northern Syria by Knapp, Flach, and Ayboga, was published by Pluto Press in October 2016.

My book Ecology or Catastrophe: The Life of Murray Bookchin, was published by Oxford University Press in October 2015.

Reviews

[Rod Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

A weird mix of history and hagiography that is simultaneously interesting and off-putting. I like finding out about the daily life of Kurds fighting off ISIS and Turkish incursions in Syria, but it's all in service to the author's agenda of promoting and polishing the political philosophies of some dead dude named Murray Bookchin with whom she had some weird professional and personal relationship that is not fully fleshed out in this book but casts a pall over everything. Every time his name pops up it is a distraction along the lines of Gretchen Wieners trying to make "fetch" happen.

Read it for the profiles of courageous people struggling for freedom in a volatile situation and try to ignore how important the resulting communes and committee structures are to the academic reputations of a couple of white folks from Vermont.

[Immigration Art · Rating 5 out of 5]

Taylor has written an excellent 5 Star review of this marvelous work of art and history. See her thoughts in the Community Review section, below.

What is infuriating about this entire geopolitical situation is America's blithe situational ethics and amoral unreliability in armed conflict in the 21st Century. Get this:

The Kurds are pushed around in Syria by Assad. Then these same Kurds get terrorized by ISIS run amok. With U.S. help, the courageous Kurds stuck it to ISIS. Then, before the beleaguered Kurds could get a breather, they are INVADED from the North  by TURKEY, who brought jihadist sidekicks in tow. And the U.S.? Oh, well, America moved on to other things. We ditched the Kurds. And we can't rock the boat with our trustworthy ally, Turkey. It wouldn't be prudent.

Hello? HELLO? HELLO?!?! People of the civilized world: if you are not outraged, you are not paying attention!

[Laurie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a hard book to review.

First of all, it’s a very insightful look at Rojava. There is some excellent graphic novel journalism here, unpacking the very complicated story of how a new state has emerged, and the ideology that has informed its state structure.

However, the issue is the author. To her credit, Biehl is upfront that she was the long-time partner of Murray Bookchin, and is clearly all-in on the ideology of social ecology. However, this colours her engagement throughout the book. The at-times hagiography of Murray Bookchin makes one wonder at the confirmation bias in the narrative, and the fact that interviewees know she was his partner makes one wonder whether they are telling her what she wants to know. Is this book the case of an unreliable narrator? I don’t know, but it made me take this book with a pinch of salt.

Having worked in humanitarian response in Syria and the Middle East for a long time, there were omissions in this book I thought were glaring, and some just plain factual errors (there is a lot of international humanitarian assistance in rojava).

I would have appreciated dissenting views, but it seemed that all respondents loved Murray and loved the ideology of the new state structure. While this indeed may be true, there are tensions. These weren’t explored or were brushed off. It would have been interesting to hear from representatives of other parties within the state structure, but this issue isn’t explored.

Nevertheless, there is an awful lot to like here. The stories of womens emancipation and involvement in the anti-Daesh wars are fascinating, and there is a lot to learn. Just read this with a pinch of salt to counter confirmation bias.

[Eugenio Negro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential for those looking for some good news and fresh perspective on the world. Painstakingly documented. The art is technically and stylistically left basic, like a very long New Yorker doodle, but whatever. Modestly but passionately remembers Murray Bookchin. A truly ballsy undertaking documented in a truly useful work of art.

[Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I might just start this book at the beginning again. It covers a lot of information in broad strokes, and is therefore an excellent springboard for deeper inquiry into Rojava/the Democratic Self-Administration. It’s well organized, beginning with a brief overview of the initial departure from/ousting of the Assad regime from Northern Syria, and then sequential battles with ISIS, then flowing into the theory of the revolution and the concrete details of how self-administration flows from the bottom up in the region. Peppered throughout are personal, harrowing and sometimes heartbreaking anecdotes that illustrate why martyrs are so revered in the Self-Administration. A must read for anyone interested in Rojava, and in my opinion, for anyone on the left who takes their political development seriously.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

I knew next to nothing about Rojava before except that the United States shamefully abandoned the Kurds several years ago.

I had no idea that the people of Rojava were able to accomplish so much with so little, against absolutely impossible odds in a literal war-zone. A better world is possible. Absolutely amazing.

A very approachable format for those with little to no knowledge about the topic.

[Nicolas Lontel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Une très intéressante BD plus historique, politique et sociale qu'un reportage BD ou une forme d'autofiction (en ce sens très différent de Kobane Calling que j'ai fini la veille) sur le combat des kurdes en Syrie de Nord pour une démocratie unique très inspirée de la pensée politique de Murray Bookchin. L'autrice de la BD ayant été la partenaire pendant 19 ans de Bookchin (jusqu'à sa mort) teinte définitivement le récit qui est raconté, des témoignages de gens qui parlent de Bookchin ou d'Abdullah Öcalan à Biehl à l'élaboration de la philosophie politique de l'écologie sociale et du municipalisme libertaire de Bookchin, mais aussi de la société plurielle des kurdes.

Cette BD est vraiment excellente pour vulgariser, en profondeur, les bases sociologiques et historiques des kurdes en plus d'élaborer sur les programmes politiques et culturelles en action dans la société. On souligne de manière très intéressante la construction de cette utopie multiculturelle, les difficultés rencontrées, mais aussi les réussites sociales. On s'éloigne toutefois des questions de conflits et de guerres pour vraiment se concentrer sur l'aspect politique bien que ces questions restent omniprésentes et que, oui, on va quand même très longuement parler de l'état islamique et de la Turquie (bien qu'on semble surtout se concentrer sur la période 2012-2016/18 mettons, mais sur la situation géopolitique d'aujourd'hui)

Je dois avouer toutefois que le dessin est très pauvre, la BD est assez volumineuse, 256 pages, mais on voit qu'il s'agit d'une première BD et un peu plus de pratique ou de temps mis sur le dessin aurait vraiment augmenté la qualité de l'ouvrage (il n'y a pas de décor/d'arrière plan, le dessin est minimal avec une ou deux personnes montrées par case et peut-être un élément comme une chaise ou un sofa ; des fois c'est un peu plus complexe, mais c'est un peu la composition moyenne des cases). Il faut aussi s'attendre à de longs développements sur la pensée de Bookchin, ce n'est pas un essayiste que j'ai encore eu l'occasion de lire (Biehl nous donne toutefois très envie de le faire), mais on vulgarise très bien son propos donc on n'est pas perdu quand on parle de lui (constamment).

Dans l'ensemble, c'est très intéressant, je le recommanderais bien pour les personnes qui ne savent absolument rien sur le sujet.

[Samudra · Rating 3 out of 5]

hmm… as a visual learner, I really appreciated thjs piece of graphic novel journalism to digest the Rojava liberation movement led by the Kurdish people of Northern Syria. Learning about their development of multiethnic democratic confederalism under the robust leadership of women militia was truly eye opening… however I felt like the author flattened the conflict with ISIS, Assad, Daesh, etc. in an extremely one-sided way that left no room for nuance, which always leaves me skeptical and wanting more. I have come to take interest in Rojava through the solidarity expressed by some comrades in movement, and I do not doubt the historical accuracy of this book, but it just felt… too simplistic. Also, the author is a British-American white woman who has no analysis of anti-imperialism and is obsessed with the academic writings of her spouse Murray Bookchin, whose philosophies she deliberately centers on progressively throughout the book in a bit of an obsessive way. And don’t get me started on the actual graphics… they are god awful, though they get the point across I guess.

[Pierre-Olivier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Janet Biehl , offre dans ce b.d reportage, une belle analyse contextuelle d’introduction sur la question kurde et la révolution au Rojava. Je le recommande pour tout les curieux intéressé par ce qui se passe dans ce coin de pays. DEFEND ROJAVA !!!!!

[Hal Schrieve · Rating 5 out of 5]

“We the people of the areas of democratic self-administration– Kurds, Arabs, Assyrians, Aramaens, Turkmens, Armenians, and Chechens– by our free will have announced this to materialize justice, freedom and democracy in accordance with the principles of ecological balance and equality without discrimination on the basis of race, religion, creed, doctrine or gender.”--The social contract of Rojava, adopted in Jazira, Kobane and Afrin in January 2014, as quoted in Janet Biehl’s Their Blood Got Mixed: Revolutionary Rojava and the War on ISIS, p. 69

Like Jews in the Pale of Settlement, Kurds have a history of persecution under regimes which deny them citizenship, language, right to move around, and identity. Kurds do not have the same history as Jews–no minority is the same as any other– but are also an longstanding ethnic group whose homelands have been bifurcated and administered by sometimes-favorable, sometimes-hostile empires and now nation-states.
Turkish persecution of Kurds was going on in the 1920s, driving many Kurdish groups South and East, where they formed significant minority communities alongside Christian Assyrians, Armenians, Arab Muslims and other groups. Under the Ba’athist Syrian regime, wire borders fenced in Kurds and cut them off from resources, jobs and education, while industry controlled by the regime denied them to advance beyond agrarian economies. In 1962, Kurds were stripped of citizenship, leaving them stateless. While Kurdish nationalism has since then advocated a variety of solutions to this issue, there is a sizeable movement in the intersection of Turkey, Iraq, and Syria for an alternative to nationalism which, like the Bund, can include everyone. And, like Bundism, it finds itself living through both violent defeats and unexpected successes, and in need of international solidarity. It lives in Rojava, or the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES).


Abdullah Öcalan, PKK leader imprisoned in the Sea of Marmara, wrote Democratic Confederalism in prison in 2005, a few years before the Arab Spring uprising. It marks a development in thought from his older interpretations of Kurdish liberation; his tradition is one of Marxism-Leninism, but is now distinct from liberationist movements of the decolonial era that envision decolonized people becoming new nation-states. It’s a decentralized, libertarian socialism. You can read the entirety of his treatise in English at the link above, but the jist of the structure is: local community councils can administer areas democratically, without or within nation-states, as long as equal rights of all people are respected by the larger state structures, and local actors can protect these rights on the local level– though basically, he sees the larger states as unnecessary. Ecological balance, feminism, and antiracism are all key ideas.

During the chaos of the Syrian civil war, ISIS/IS made significant inroads to controlling the majority of Syria. They raped women systematically, killed many civilians, and attempted to implement extreme interpretations of Islamic law which prohibited women from really living public lives, and refused to acknowledge religious diversity. Some 200,000 Syrians have died in this civil war. However, in the vacuum of power left by Assad’s struggle against jihadists, PKK and YPG groups had the opportunity to try to put Öcalan’s ideas into practice in North and Eastern Syria. Author and artist Janet Biehl visited in 2014, just as a handful of liberated cities like Kobane and Afrin had beat back IS militants, and returns to interview people in 2022. What she drafts in her graphic novel is undoubtedly a work of propaganda for the effectiveness, harmoniousness and promise of democratic confederalism– but she provides enough supporting detail to be persuasive that this is a real-world anti-racist movement with the ability to both liberate, rebuild and administer urban and rural areas. The YPG, YPJ and larger SDF fight in egalitarian military units where officers are elected and accountable to their units, and Rojava is administered in a system where every civil post has both a man and woman representative. Biehl talks to people who have found refuge, jobs, community, education and development even in a region torn by war–where libraries of books are dedicated to the dead, and where workers can take home the fruits of their own labor. She speaks to men who recognize women’s equality as innate and unquestionable because of the bravery of female fighters that they personally have witnessed. She observes workers’ cooperatives running restaurants, farms, refuges for women and children fleeing domestic abuse, and diesel distribution hubs, as well as training fighters to defend against both IS and Turkish incursion (the PKK and YPG are classified as terrorist groups by Erdogan, and there are some allegations of allowing IS troops to cross Turkish borders to attack Kurdish towns).

The enormous promise of these cities and farms being run by the people, for the people, with not much in the way of ruling class and with popular distribution of goods for the benefit of everyone the rule, is infectious and seductive. It works, Biehl argues– even in one of the world’s most extreme geopolitical crises! Can this be the model of what could happen during future crises in other places in the world? Can people come together, without leaders, and succeed in producing a peaceful and stable city or town by respecting differences and prioritizing democratic egalitarianism? Will these case studies of democratic confederalism succeed?

It is not 2022 now.

Matthew Petti wrote in 2026 that the Rojava revolution has been crushed through a military campaign by the new Syrian state that attempts to integrate DAANES into the larger government.

“The Kurdish rebels of Rojava, the northeastern region of Syria, promised a type of revolution that had never been done before. Rather than trying to break the country into ethnic states, they would join with their neighbors to decentralize the state from below. And for over a decade, it seemed to work. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) brought together Kurdish, Arab, Assyrian, and other militias in a multiethnic, feminist, anarchist-inspired revolution. That dream has come crashing down over the past few days.” –Matthew Petti, Jan 20, 2026, Reason.com


Petti describes the SDF being abandoned by local allies– and the United States– and forced to capitulate to Damascus and al-Sharaa, whose government is accused by Natasha Walter of the Guardian of massacres of Alawites and Druze. In April, Druze factions protested against violations of their rights in several cities. In May, Rojava’s Kurds are protesting against mass detentions of their neighbors by the state. The new Syrian government is not recognizing women’s appointments to government positions long held by women in DAANES/Rojava. Petti discusses how Rojava was forced by the US to take on priorities that were not natural to its goals, such as hunting down IS fighters outside its own territories and occupying Arab-majority cities. Trump’s administration, like Biden and Trump1 and Obama before, does not really care about local democracy or human rights, and the SDF were always a tactical and expedient–and expendable– partner. When the new government came to power in 2024, there was an ultimatum and deadline presented to the independent areas which required compromise. Petti’s read is that SDF leadership chose not to compromise on any territorial claims with the centralized state, lost allied Arab forces to the new state, and so eliminated the possibility of its continued administration. To me, it is unclear to what extent Rojava has actually come under centralized Syrian control. On the upside, al-Sharaa’s government has as of right now recognized Kurdish civil rights and Kurdish as an official language.

As of May, there are protests against the Syrian centralized government in many cities through Rojava, primarily by families of those abducted by the government, as reported by Hawar News. This rhymes with the persecution of radicals in earlier eras, in other places– in the Russian Empire, and in the nationalist states nascent in Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine.

What solidarity can the people of America offer to people struggling throughout the world for democratic, egalitarian communities? How can we organize to support not only our own working class, but people struggling far away for rights and ways of living that can be a model for our own futures in a world of state collapse and state rupture? The main things I learned reading these two exceptional works of revolutionary and social history is that anti-racism and anti-nationalism will always be the fulcrum on which everything else turns. I want to continue to apply these lessons to my own politics.

[Ginger Stephens · Rating 4 out of 5]

Their Blood Got Mixed: Revolutionary Rojava and the War on ISIS by Janet Biehl is a really good overview of the Rojava Revolution. It is the first graphic novel that I have read and I really enjoyed it. There are a lot of complex political theories in the book but they are explained in simple language, so it doesn't read like most books on political theory. I especially liked that Janet Biehl spoke with common people in the Autonomous Area of North and East Syria (AANES). Having visited AANES in February 2022, I hoped that I might see someone that I met. Unfortunately, I did not meet of the people that Ms. Biehl included in her book.

Unlike most books about ISIS and the YPG/YPJ, this one is suited for teenagers. I think that it would be a great book to educate young people about AANES for a couple of reasons. First, it is easy to read and understand. Second, it explains democracy in language that is familiar to Americans, so the concepts are easy to grasp. Finally, this book makes a point that all of us need to remember: Freedom isn't free. We all need to participate in democracy for it to function correctly. As I was reading the chapter on the women's classes in Raqqa and Taqba, I was reminded of the Ladies of Liberty by Cokie Roberts. In the early days of the United States, women could not vote, but the education of women was considered essential because those women had the job of teaching their children who would carry the American Experiment into the future. I think AANES realizes that the education of women is the key to a strong foundation for democracy in Syria or anywhere else.

I am so glad that I took the time to read this graphic novel. It is worth the time and I hope to give my copy of the book to some young people. The lessons in the book are important. They are also a reminder that for democracy to attain its true essence, the people rule, it takes all of us participating and taking responsibility for the future.

[Shelley Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book length graphic novel about an on-going social experiment in northern Syria. After decades of persecution, Kurds began to organize themselves and their non-Kurdish neighbors, including Arabs, Assyrian Christians, and Yazidis, to both defend and rebuild their villages. To defend themselves against attacks from Daesh/ISIS, and from the Syrian dictatorship, and to rebuild their communities based on mutual cooperation and democracy.

Building from the grassroots up, pioneering new forms of political power, the villages and cities of the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria currently encompass almost a third of Syria. It's also known as Rojava, an area where women's rights are prioritized. Researcher Janet Biehl had visited the area twice before, in 2014 and 2015. She returned again in with a film crew in 2019, to see how this experiment in self-government, and building a multi-ethnic democracy, fared.

This graphic novel provides an abbreviated history of several pertinent hot spots: the Kurds and Turkey, the on-going civil war in Syria, and the fall of Daesh/ISIS in the area. The emphasis is on the Kurdish issue, and on how this experiment in democratic governance is being build. The black/white art work has a very distinctive style, and the illustrations do help illuminate the complicated history of the region and some of its inhabitants.

Biehl herself asks good questions, though she is clearly supportive of the experiment. One of their influences was the writings of an American political philosopher named Murray Bookchin (1921-2006), whose thought has also influenced the modern environmental movement. Biehl collaborated with Bookchin for his last 19 years and wrote his biography, Ecology or Collapse.

This is a book for anyone interested in the region, in the Kurdish issue, and in progressive political experiments.

[Bryce · Rating 3 out of 5]

I agree with other mixed reviews on this one. The topic is so interesting that it's very hard to do wrong, but as other reviews have stated, the author really gets in the way here. She is no reporter. She had unique access to an important and hard-to-make-boring group of people but squandered it through poor writing and trying too hard to show off her own knowledge of theory. I have no problems with someone having an agenda, but Biehl's agenda was unclear and at times contradictory. She has publicly broken with her support for Murray Bookchin's ideas, so her almost braggy connections to him here feel a bit disingenuous, as if she's capitalizing on her proximity to stardom in order to get a book published. Her depictions of the revolutionary movement in Rojava is altogether too cutesy and simplistic to take seriously, although there are bits of information that are interesting mainly for the fact that firsthand accounts are relatively rare.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

While attending the Socialism 2024 Conference in Chicago, I bought a bunch of books including 3 about the Kurdish Freedom struggle. The first I read was "Freedom Shall Prevail," which was just okay, because after I finished I still did not understand what made the Kurdish struggle unique.

"Their Blood Got Mixed" is a much better explanation of the democratic self-administered area of North East Syria where Kurds, Arabs, Assyrians, Armenians and others govern themselves via democratic confederalism. It's a non-nation solution to nation states that were created in the wake of colonialism.

Of course there are weaknesses to this book, including too much uninspired artwork and a sameness of the characters but overall I recommend this book as an introduction to the real life experiments based on the thinking of Abdullah Ocalan.

[Duckie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would have liked to give it 3.5 stars because of how informative the novel was. I also really valued the perspectives that were shared. However, as other reviews have noted, the art is not my cup of tea & the author's whole push for Bookchin was quite misplaced. Also, the story was confusing at times as it jumped from one place to the next. With that said, I still will be suggesting this book to friends as I found it to be a nice intro to Rojava and related NE Syria historicontemporary events.

[Toby · Rating 4 out of 5]

A travelogue through autonomous northeast Syria (AKA Rojava) by an author with a uniquely personal perspective on the social ecologist/democratic confederalist ideals that have been adopted by the modern Kurdish revolutionaries who struggle there.
The sparse, impressionistic art style takes some getting used to, but the minimalist character art greatly supplemented by the more detailed, watercolor backgrounds.

[Fivel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was disappointed in its lack of complexity and the artwork is inspired. Individual interviewees were hard to differentiate, for example. Despite being in the form of a comic, I think more nuance would be possible and benefit the story. I do like the first person perspective, and ideologically support the revolution in Rojava, so it's great to see more work about the subject.

[Maddox O'Rourke · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an awesome overview of Rojava and its politics, in a beautifully illustrated graphic novel form. It's generally pretty uncritical of Bookchin/Öcalans ideologies but it does feel like an authentic, on-the-ground account from individuals of their experiences. A great place to start for anyone interested in Kurdish politics and Rojava!

[Jana G. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned a lot through this graphic novel. There are some aspects I would like to know more about. Especially the role of women and which difficulties they face. Each women (and man) asked this question in the graphic novel answers more or less with the exact same words. That makes me wary about what lies behind these words.

[Aurora]

Gave up at 136. The art wasn’t good, and the words were too repetitive. It felt more like the raw material research you turn into something interesting versus something interesting in its own right, if that makes sense.

[W M]

I think the book was very jumpy and could use some more structure.

[mats · Rating 5 out of 5]

what a nice accessible overview of the Rojava revolution with invaluable insights from local participants

[Kristy Cooper · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this with my kids. It was a great introduction to other ways of governance instead of the default top down empire pretending to be a democracy that we're taught in school.

[Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

While it was interesting to read about the social economic theories being put into effect, it got boring after a while. No critics interviewed?
The art was not to my taste.

[Dexia · Rating 5 out of 5]

whoa! soooo informative! such an amazing model for a journalistic project

[Isaac Davies · Rating 5 out of 5]

A deeply immersive exploration of a people gaining autonomy. Captivating and powerful. A story of pluralism, culture and breaking past loops. Recommend for anyone looking for a richer understanding of contemporary revolutionary spirit.

[My old review was deleted so had to do quick fresh one]

[Michael Daines · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned a lot about north and east Syria from “Their Blood Got Mixed”. I’m sure it’s glossing over some negative stuff, but looks like better democracy than anything I’ve seen.