A former B.C. model that's gone to Syria twice on her own to join the fight against ISIS is preparing to journey back into the war zone to put herself in danger once again.
Even though she didn't have any ties to the country, Vancouverite Hanna Bohman felt the need to join the Kurdish fight against ISIS in 2015.
"I was disgusted with them like most normal people would be," she said, adding that she felt she needed to "do something" with her life.
"I was bored. I didn't feel i had done anything that i felt was important."
Bohman joined the YPJ, the female brigade of the Kurdish People's Protection Units, fighting in the Middle East. She says she never joined the Canadian army because she felt women are given more logistical duties, rather than participating in active combat.
She says she was smuggled into Syria and, at times, found herself in the middle of gun battles.
The first part of her time was spent in a defensive unit, where she was kept on the lookout for suicide bombers. She also spent times on the frontlines of active combat, helping regain control of a city near the border with Turkey.
"We would enter villages, we would clear the devices and the villagers who were essentially hostages under ISIS would come out and greet us and they would be so happy," she said.
Bohman has never been seriously injured in combat but says there have been close calls, some involving sniper fire.
"We fight with the men. We're in the same trenches. The girls get killed with the guys too," she said.
After returning to Vancouver last spring, the Vancouverite says she's ready to return to the work she finds so rewarding.
The work does come with a heavy personal cost: She estimates 20 per cent of her friends have been killed in the conflict.
"The fighting with ISIS will end. There really is not much left of them," she said.
With a report from CTV Vancouver's Michele Brunoro
