About Viyan Peyman
Lived 1988 – 2015 (aged 26–27). Viyan Peyman was a resistance fighter, singer and teacher.
Viyan Peyman (originally Gülistan Tali Cinganlo) was an Iranian Kurdish singer and fighter with the Women's Protection Units (YPJ) who was killed fighting the Islamic State (IS) in Syria in 2015.
Cinganlo was from the town of Kobani, in Syrian Kurdistan. Before the Syrian Civil War, she was a teacher. Cinganlo was a folk singer, and wrote her own music in traditional Kurdish folk style. She was known as a dengbêj, a folk singer or storyteller, for her songs about the Kurdish resistance to the Islamic State in the Rojava-Islamist conflict, and her fellow fighters who had died.
Cinganlo was injured twice, shot in her leg and stomach, but returned to continue fighting.
Cinganlo was killed while fighting the Islamic State on 6 April 2015. The battle for Kobane ended in January 2015, and Cinganlo was killed in the town of Sere Kaniye on the Syria-Turkey border, where she had gone in mid-February. Many artists around the world highlighted Cinganlo's life in their works after her death.
The Kurdish musician Shahriyar Jamshidi has devoted his composition "Viyan" from his 2020 released My Sunset-Land ROJAVA album to Cinganlo, celebrating her life as a Kurdish singer from Iran where there are legal restrictions on women's public singing.
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Important facts
People in Viyan Peyman's life
Named in this biography and alive at the same time
Contemporaries
People whose lives overlapped Viyan Peyman's
Frequently asked questions
Who was Viyan Peyman?
YPJ fighter
When was Viyan Peyman born?
Viyan Peyman was born in 1988 in Maku.
When did Viyan Peyman die?
Viyan Peyman died on 6 April 2015 in Ras al-Ayn.
What was Viyan Peyman's occupation?
Viyan Peyman was a resistance fighter, singer and teacher.
What nationality was Viyan Peyman?
Viyan Peyman's recorded nationality: Kurd.
Sources & further reading
Cite this page
APA: Biography.guide. (2026). Viyan Peyman. https://biography.guide/viyan-peyman/
MLA: "Viyan Peyman." Biography.guide, https://biography.guide/viyan-peyman/.
Chicago: "Viyan Peyman." Biography.guide. https://biography.guide/viyan-peyman/.
Data last updated: 2026-09-22 · Spot an error? Report a correction.
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