Khowleh used her gender to her advantage when helping to free local men as women were targeted less on visits to military bases and checkpoints - she helped free 15 men.
By early 2012, the violence had increased. Khowleh had been at numerous protests in which civilians had been shot dead. Tanks entered her village, more than a dozen people from her extended family had been killed or wounded and Syria seemed to be at war.
Convinced that peaceful protests would not work and that civilians had no choice but to defend themselves, she began smuggling weapons through checkpoints, and decided to start an armed brigade with 40 of her female friends.
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