lived in the country-side and sided more with the Kurdish efforts to establish an independent Kurdistan. Many Assyrians, particularly in the mountainous regions in the northeast, were drawn to the Kurds because of their struggle for autonomy and their fight against the Iraqi government; they were not necessarily in support of a greater Kurdistan which also included their lands. Whether the Assyrians fought for the Kurds or alongside them for their own goal is still a matter of dispute. In any case, Assyrian contribution to the movement was immense. Assyrian leaders were invited to meetings of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and many waged war alongside the Kurdish Peshmerga militia, sometimes in their own battalions, manned and led by Assyrians. Biography Margaret George Shello was a Christian Assyrian woman, born on 21 January 1942 in the village Dūra, located in the mountainous Barwari region in the Duhok Governorate. Shello had a sister (Rosa) and a brother. Her father was recruited to the Kurdish cause in 1961 by Mustafa Barzani. Shello's father at some point attempted to marry her to one of his business partners but she did not approve of the marriage and refused to live with her "husband". Peshmerga Originally a hospital worker, Shello joined the Peshmerga at the age of 20 in 1963 after her village was attacked by a pro-government militia (jash). Initially continuing to work with medical tasks, she quickly rose to become a military leader. Shello was the first female Peshmerga fighter and attracted renown as the female leader of an all-male unit, based somewhere in the vicinity of Akre. In contrast to the Muslim Kurdish women, who were not allowed to fight, Shello's right to fight, despite her gender, was secured through her Christian faith and her family members already being involved in the movement. Shello's fame was further increased after she killed a prominent jash leader. She fought in the First Iraqi–Kurdish War, leading her forces into battle several times, notably commanding the Peshmerga forces to great success at the Battle of the Zawita Valley. A lover of photography, Shello developed a friendship with the Kurdish photographer Zaher Rashid, often visiting his studio in Qaladiza. According to Rashid, Shello liked to have her pictures taken and distributed so that people would know that she was a Peshmerga and to inspire other women to join the fight like she had. The photographs of Shello