She was the wife of Muhammad's final opponent, abu Sufyan. SHe eventually becomes a ruthless enemy of the Muslims before she and her husband convert.

“Women on both sides joined the troops in battle to fight, to nurse the fallen, and encourage the fighters” (p66).

“Go forward!

The Daughters of al-Lat,

the Daughters of the Morning Star

cannot abide cowards!

Are you afraid? Are you children?

Go forward!” (p87).

Source: Heath, Jennifer, The Scimitar and the Veil

Also known as Nusayba bint Ka'b. She was one of the numerous early Muslim women who fought with Muhammad against the Meccans and other battles.

She is known to be a great healer and interpreter of dreams.

During a battle, she is led by Hind (above) and charges into battle to pull fallen soldiers off the battlefield and treat their wounds. At one point Muhammad is near her and she sees he is being attacked. She takes a sword blow for him and helps him fight off the men until help arrives. She is mortally wounded and carried off the battlefield where she lays next to her wounded sons.

Source: Heath, Jennifer, The Scimitar and the Veil

During the battle against Heraclius the Byzantine and his 200,000 soldiers, Khawla and her 3 captains, Alfra, Oserrah, and Wafeira, charge into battle and kick ass. Khawla is portrayed as “the black knight.” WHen it is asked how women came to be trained as great warriors, Oserrah exclaims, “The pegs” (217). This is a reference to the above and the women training to fight with tent pegs. Khawla was a Bedouin, so it is likely she was trained as a warrior since childhood.

Source: Heath, Jennifer, The Scimitar and the Veil

Khawla Bint Al Azwar was the sister of Zaraar bin Malik, both from a tribe of Adnite Arabs that are said to be descendants of the Prophet Ishmael. Her brother was captured in a battle with the Roman Christians, at which point Khawla just goes into battle solo and starts killing Christian soldiers left and right. SHe is a fierce warrior, like her brother. This inspires the Muslims to attack the Romans and rout the enemy.

After the battle, Khawla refuses to remove her facial covering. Eventually, it is revealed that she is a woman. Everybody celebrates this. When they find out her brother is being taken to a prisoner camp, they plan a daring rescue, Khawla frees him and they escape.

At the battle of Shakura, the women were captured by Peter and the Romans. The stage they own revolt using tent pegs. Peter's men are actually afraid of them, so they end up releasing them. Zaraar kills Peter for capturing his sister. Source: Akbar, Shaik

“Other noteworthy female fighters related to the Prophet were his favored wife Aisha bint Abu Bakr (614–678) the “Mother of Believers”, who led an army against Ali on the back of a camel at Basra (656)—hence the name of “Battle of the Camel” originated—and his granddaughter Zaynab bint ‘Ali (d. 682), a die-hard fighter whose embroilment in the Battle of Karbala (680) at the side of her martyred brother Imam al-Husayn would later become the symbol of female militancy against injustice among Shi’a Muslims.19 Historical memories around the leadership and fighting skills of these two exceptional women, especially in the latter case, have been essential to (re)-crafting modern gender roles in times of social and political upheaval. The burden of responsibility assumed by sister Zaynab after the death of al-Husayn is, for instance, one of the leitmotif of Shi’a devotional literature produced in nineteenth-century colonial India by Urdu poets like Mir Babar Ali Anis (1802–1874). “Zaynab Made Islam Safe from the Flames”, one of Anis’s most famed nawhas (lit. lamentation-dirge), offers a portray of the woman as an everlasting symbol of assertiveness and endurance in defeat.” (Previato 304)

From Neglected Genealogy of the Martyred Heroinby Previato, Tommaso

(dates unknown) who also fought in the Battle of Ajnadayn, was not less pugnacious. An account of her warlike temperament is offered by the great early Muslim historian and muhaddith al-Waqidi (747– 823) in his controversial Futu¯ h. al-Sha¯m (The Islamic Conquest of Syria). [Referring to Khalid ibn Sa’id]: Oh commander, by Allah! We will be more pleased if you put us in front to fight the Romans and break their faces [instead of encouraging our men to do so]. We will kill them until we are all martyred and none of us remain.29 Waqidi’s account does not fail to reveal also invaluable details about the close friendship between the two women and the extraordinary endurance displayed when they threw themselves valiantly into the Battle of Yarmouk (636) across the disputed territories of the then Christian Levant.” (306)

From Neglected Genealogy of the Martyred Heroinby Previato, Tommaso

“Nearly contemporary with Khawlah and ‘Afirah was Umm Salamah Asma bint Yazid (dates unknown)—not to be confused with Muhammad’s sixth wife Umm Salamah bint Abi Umayya (ca. 580–680). She was reported to have joined the Muslim army in the Battle of Khaybar (628), and to have killed nine Byzantine soldiers with just the pole of her tent not long afterwards at Yarmouk.31 On another occasion, serving as a sort of attorney before the Prophet, she delivered a colorful speech which brings out sahabiyyat’s concern over the issue of whether women should be allowed to become more actively involved in jihad operations.” (306)

From Neglected Genealogy of the Martyred Heroinby Previato, Tommaso