and tell us about the daughters of kobani. how did you first hear about them and what made you want to tell their story? >> thank you. great to be here. i first heard about them because one of the u.s. special operations soldiers who was part of the book i had written, "ashley's war," called me from syria in the sumr of 2016. and she said, gayle, you have to come. i'm working in syria with this partner force where women are leading in battle and they're not just leading men, but they also have the full respect of the men they fight with. and the u.s. special operations soldiers have just enormous respect. and she said and not only that, it's not just that they're fighting against isis, ty're fighting for women's equality. >> nawaz: and one of those women you tell us about is a woman named klarra, you meet her in raqqa here, actually is apart from one of your reports for the pbs newshour from back in august of 2017. >> she is part of the kurds own all women fighting force known in kurdish as the y.p.g. they have fought and died

congratulations on the book and tell us about the duferse kobani.ear about them and what made you want to tell their stories? gayle: one of the u.s. special operions soldiers called me from syria in the sum over 2016 and said gayle, you have to come. i'm working in syria with this partner force where women are leading in battle. and they're not just leading men. but they also have the full respect of the men they fight with and the u.s. special operation soldiers have enormous respect. she said, not only that, it's not just that they're fighting against isis. they're fighting for women's equality. amna: one of those women is named clara. here's part of one of your reports for "the newshour" in 2017. gayle: she's part of the kurds own all-women fighting force, known heas y.p.j. they have fought and died alongside their brothers in arms. and some of the most vellbrated fighters, including snipers, come come from their ranks. she took us to the front line to the site of a still-smoking isis car bomb attack. >> they know they are surrounded and can't su

>> it is so interesting because the story in daughters of kobani go news this, there is a deep connection partner force that fought isis for the united states and for the world, right, to eliminate the physical caliphate of isis. when i was there in december of 2019, that's the thing that struck me. so much of what has been built since 2014 has endured. there are women leading the civil council still in every town that has been taken over after isis. there are women's councils in all of the towns and the relationship between the u.s. and the syrian kurds and arabs who are partners in the isis fight really endured much more than you would expect because people are deeply hopeful that the future will look dish from the past. >> gale, thank you so much for being with us on this news. we appreciate it. >> thank you. >> well, officials are scrambling to find enough space for the growing number of migrant children crossing the southern border into the u.s. the pandemic is making it more complicated and the biden administration has now reopened a trump era detention facility, a very, very -- a d

the daughters of kobani, a story of rebellion, courage and justice., this is really the david versus goliath story, about the women who fought to hand isis its first battlefield loss. only david also happened to be a woman the story at a time when america was deeply worried about the threat isis posed to the united states, and these women stepped up to fight isis, house by house, and room by room, and town by town. to really stop the threat that isis could pose to folks in the region and of course to the united states and europe. >> they're fighting isis, they're fight agriculture, they're fighting tradition, so important that these women were the commanders and they were seen as the leaders. >> yes, and that was one of the women who led and america's partner, worked with the americans to fight isis said to me, we couldn't let stand a world in which men were able to buy and sell women and in isis was able to rule when they really believed that women had no value at all. secondly to me she turned and said, why did you start this unit? you already had f

her new book is called "the daughters of kobani." congratulations. your book is compelling.. i'm proud to call you a friend. but i am just in awe of what you have established. i've known over the years your multiple trips into the fighting zone, into this combat zone where most people, most journalists would be afraid to go. how did you hear about the women fighters? tell us the back story of how you got involved. >> thank you so much. i'm so glad to be here. i remember you telling the admiral to convince me not to go to syria. this story happened when one of the soldiers from ashley's war, which is a book i wrote about an all-women's special operations team, syria and she said you have to come see this. there's women leading in the fight against isis. it's not just that they are leading in battle. they have the full respect of the men they serve alongside and huge, deep respect from the u.s. special operation soldiers alongside whom they were working and part of this training effort. i think that whole question of how did this experiment in women's equality come to be on th

her new book "the daughters of kobani" is now a "new york times" best seller. mika?oe", the house is set to vote on president biden's massive stimulus package today. but will it achieve democrats' goal to raise the federal minimum wage? we'll speak to the direct of the white house national economic council brian deese next on "morning joe". we'll be right back. e next on "morning joe". we'll be right back. we'll be right back. hi sabrina! >>hi jen! so this aveeno® moisturizer goes beyond just soothing sensitive skin? exactly jen! calm + restore oat gel is formulated with prebiotic oat. and strengthens skin's moisture barrier. uh! i love it! aveeno® healthy. it's our nature.™ the holidays weren't exactly smooth sledding this year, eh santa? no, but we came through smelling of mistletoe. the now platform lets us identify problems before they became problems. if only it could identify where my ball went. this you? hmm... no, mine had green lights. whatever your business is facing. let's workflow it. maybe i should workflow my swing... servicenow. trelegy for copd. ♪ bir