Many accounts place the blame on the Kurds, variously claiming that Shello was killed for demanding a higher leadership position, for championing the Assyrian cause as well, or for being sexually involved with some high-ranking member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party.

She remains one of the most famous Peshmerga commanders and is revered by both Kurds and Assyrians as a freedom fighter, a symbol of bravery and an icon.

They to a large extent inhabit the same lands as the largest minority group in the region, the Kurds, with whom they for most of their history have coexisted with peacefully.

[6] Many Assyrians, particularly in the mountainous regions in the northeast, were drawn to the Kurds because of their struggle for autonomy and their fight against the Iraqi government; they were not necessarily in support of a greater Kurdistan which also included their lands.

[15] Margaret George Shello was a Christian Assyrian[c] woman, born on 21 January 1942[a] in the village Dūra,[1] located in the mountainous Barwari region in the Duhok Governorate.

[17] Shello's father at some point attempted to marry her to one of his business partners but she did not approve of the marriage and refused to live with her "husband".

[18] Originally a hospital worker,[3][19] Shello joined the Peshmerga at the age of 20 in 1963[1][e] after her village was attacked by a pro-government militia[3] (jash).

[16] The photographs of Shello in military clothing alongside weapons were heavily circulated in Iraq and eventually reached Europe, where they gave a romanticized image of the Kurdish cause.

[20] Shello's propaganda power might have made her a higher priority target than the leader of the Kurdish movement, Mustafa Barzani.

Kurds on the other hand tend to believe that Shello was killed because she was sexually involved with a high-ranking KDP official, perhaps Barzani himself, and that her death was thus an honor crime.

[24] Other attributed causes of death include being executed by Barzani after demanding a higher leadership position,[8] killed by a spurned lover, and being assassinated by either the Iraqi government or a rival Kurdish faction.

These disagreements result from the limited surviving textual records – Shello left no memoirs and all of her letters to other fighters have been destroyed – and the wish of many, often competing, groups to represent her memory.