In early 2016, the first time a friend told Gayle Tzemach Lemmon the story of Kurdish Women’s Projection Units in northeastern Syria — also known as the YPJ — she had two reactions. The first was fascination: How had no one else told the tale of these women, aligned with US forces (and later provided with support by the Trump administration) who were fighting the Islamic State — a group which routinely kidnapped, raped and murdered women?