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Category: Kurdish women

  • Afghan and Kurdish women revolutionaries urge joined up global resistance

    Following misogynistic Donald Trump’s 2020 sell-out deal with the equally misogynistic Taliban, the big powers have helped restore fundamentalist rule in Afghanistan. That deal included a guarantee by the Taliban to ensure that no group or individual violates the security of the US or its allies within Afghanistan. However, the bombing at Kabul airport by IS-Khorasan (IS-K), which tragically saw at least 169 Afghans killed and many more wounded, put an end to that provision. It was the latest humiliation for the retreating US and its allies.

    But Afghan women revolutionaries have come out fighting. And they’re calling for international solidarity and resistance against the Taliban and IS-K. And their Kurdish sisters, with their vast experience of combatting Daesh (ISIS/ISIL) and its Turkish backers, have issued a similar call.

    Defiance

    In a statement issued on 20 August, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) – first founded in 1977 – declared that:

    Women will not be shackled any more! Just the next morning after the Taliban entered the capital, a group of our young brave women painted graffiti on the walls of Kabul with the slogan: Down with Taliban! Our women are now politically conscious and no longer want to live under the Burqa, something they easily did 20 years ago. We will continue our struggles while finding smart ways to stay safe.

    Two days earlier the YPJ (Kurdish Women’s Protection Units) General Command also issued a statement, saying:

    Just as we as YPJ have resisted IS and the Turkish occupiers and their gangs with the organized force of women, strengthened and increased our army, Afghan women too can become a force for freedom with their strength and organization.

    Kurdish women call for solidarity

    On 16 August Komalên Jinên Kurdistan (KJK) – a confederation of women’s organisations – issued a statement of solidarity with the women of Afghanistan. Referring to Turkey’s war on the Kurds, the KJK commented on how the US and its allies simply cannot be trusted:

    Those who handed over Afghanistan to the Taliban today and those who occupied Afrin, Serêkaniyê, Girê Spî to the Turkish Republic yesterday are the same powers. Those who gave the green light to the Turkish invasion of Rojava and North East Syria yesterday, repeat the same scenario in Afghanistan today.

    This was proven yet again when US forces shot civilians dead following the Kabul airport bomb blast.

    KJK’s statement also referred to the Turkish invasion of the largely Kurdish-populated Afrin:

    Just as in Afrin, where the YPJ, which inspires women from all over the world, was founded, and where today women are subjugated and murdered as a result of the policies of the global hegemonic powers, also the women in Afghanistan face the same threat now.

    It concluded:

    We call upon all women, especially upon the women in the Middle East, to stand in solidarity with our sisters in Afghanistan, to raise their voices, and to defend their lives, achievements and dreams.

    Leading the resistance

    Back in October 2001, RAWA stated that:

    The continuation of US attacks and the increase in the number of innocent civilian victims not only gives an excuse to the Taliban, but also will cause the empowerment of the fundamentalist forces in the region and even in the world.

    Tragically, twenty years on, that prediction has proven correct.

    Moreover, in March this year, RAWA made it clear what exactly would happen as a consequence of the 2020 Trump-Taliban deal. It declared:

    Today, it is up to our people, especially our women, to stand against the treason of the US through a nationwide uprising to fight Pakistani mercenaries, both Taliban and ISIS.

    RAWA also referred to how their Kurdish sisters in Kobane (Rojava) “rubbed the snouts of ISIS to the ground”. Referring to the financing and arming of the Taliban from Pakistan, RAWA added:

    If we rise without fear, with determination and resilience, we can drive the ISI-created Taliban to their Pakistani godfathers’ bosom.

    RAWA further declared that it is women who must now “lead the resistance against the Taliban and co”.

    Armed resistance

    Earlier in August, one commentator tweeted how Afghanistan needs armed resistance via the equivalent of the YPG (Kurdish People’s Protection Units) and YPJ and the largely Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces:

    The YPJ are feminists who practise democratic confederalism. This is a form of direct democracy based on the ideas of US anarchist Murray Bookchin. According to Kongreya Star, democratic confederalism is:

    a system based on a network of small, local communes and assemblies in which people come together to self-organise their neighbourhoods and towns and to decide on their collective needs and concerns. This system is not based on the paradigm of the nation-state with its centralised, state organised democracy, but is rather a bottom-up, direct form of democracy.

    It was the YPG/YPJ and their allies who defeated Daesh in its de facto Syrian capital of Raqqa. But Joe Biden, then US vice-president, warned Kurdish militias to back off from their advances. Biden said they “should not spread west of the Euphrates… if they do they will never receive US support again”.

    Biden’s threat was all about backing NATO member Turkey, which seized Kurdish-populated territory in the north of Syria. Turkey is now bombing hospitals in Rojava and the mainly Yazidi-populated Sinjar province. As for Turkey’s authoritarian president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, he claims the Taliban’s recent statements are “moderate”.

    Kurdish women-RAWA links

    Meanwhile, the link between Kurdish women and Afghan women’s struggles for freedom was further emphasised:

    In a September 2019 interview, activist Samia Walid also referred to the link between the Kurdish struggle against Daesh and that of Afghan women:

    The struggle and sacrifices of the lionesses of Kurdistan have been an inspiration and source of strength for us. Their struggle against ISIS and other medieval-aged criminals have given us huge lessons.

    Walid added:

    RAWA believes international solidarity with independence-seeking, freedom-fighting, democratic and progressive organizations and parties as a vital part of our internal struggle. Our struggle converges with the Kurdish people’s struggle as most of our enemies are similar in nature.

    Taliban reality

    Walid also explained how RAWA’s political activities include:

    publishing our magazines and articles, and mobilizing women to get this consciousness and join our struggle. We collect and document the killings, raping, pillage, extortion, and other crimes of these warlords in remote parts of Afghanistan. Our social activities are providing education to women (not just literacy classes but social and political awareness as to their rights and how to achieve them), emergency aid, making orphanages, and health-related activities.

    More recently, RAWA published 29 prohibitions that the Taliban could impose upon women in Afghanistan. These range from prohibition of female work outside the home to prohibition of women from studying at school or university or other educational institutions.

    Moreover, the Taliban has organised an Orwellian ‘Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice’, which is:

    responsible for controlling the little details of people’s daily lives like the length of the beard, the dress code and having a Mahram (male companion, only father, brother or husband) for a woman.

    Rise up!

    RAWA is now calling for a “democratic front” to rise up and resist the Taliban:

    Today, as we call for the establishment of a democratic front against the Taliban, we call upon all democratic, secular, anti-fundamentalist and anti-occupation forces, all our tormented women, girls and men, to say that nothing will come out of mourning. Let us rise and resist against the Taliban and their partners, in any way and at any level, and give them a taste of defeat and sorrow.

    The US and its allies have abandoned Afghan civilians to the mercy of the Taliban. Consequently, resistance within the country will, of necessity, be strictly underground.

    And the women revolutionaries of Afghanistan will need all the support they can get.

    Featured image via Flickr/Kurdishstruggle

    By Tom Coburg

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • This is Anna Campbell. She fought and died for the liberation of all women.

    This is the revolutionary Anna Campbell. Monday 15 March marks three years since she was murdered by the Turkish state in Rojava, north-east Syria.

    Anna was an anti-fascist, feminist and queer internationalist. She joined the women’s revolution in Rojava in May 2017 during the fight against Daesh (ISIS/Isil). Turkey invaded Rojava’s Afrin region in 2018, and Anna joined the YPJ’s armed resistance against the invasion. She was murdered by a Turkish missile strike in March 2018, along with her friends Sara Merdin and Serhildan, as they tried to help refugees flee Afrin.

    Fighting for a “free and dignified life for everyone”

    Rojava is a region of around 3 million people, organising themselves using a model of direct democracy, attempting to give power to the grassroots. It is a society that centres on women’s liberation, religious tolerance, and minority protection as key. According to Anna’s friends:

    It was anti-fascism, peoples’ democracy and women’s liberation that first attracted Anna to Rojava.

    But, like all of her comrades in Rojava, Anna wasn’t just fighting for direct democracy in that region. She was fighting for a free and dignified life for everyone, and she was fighting for women’s liberation everywhere. The people of Rojava don’t see their struggle as separate from here. They see it as a small part of a global struggle.

    Organising in the UK

    Anna was an anarchist and anti-capitalist organiser, working tirelessly before going to Rojava. Her friends say:

    [Anna was] involved in every type of resistance in the UK and Europe, from distributing food, protecting the environment, resisting detention and deportation of refugees and immigrants, to prison abolition.

    In the UK, Anna stood on the streets against fascists. The Canary’s Tom Anderson recalls:

    We both stood our ground alongside fellow anti-fascists one day in Dover, as the National Front lobbed bricks at us. The Front was trying to hold a racist march through the city.

    Her friends say that Anna:

    knew how to fight fascism, but that fight was not limited to street punch ups or macho posturing. Anna was humble and she gave meaning to every action, serving the people.

    “Her loss leaves a legacy”

    If Anna were alive in the UK today, she would no doubt be outraged by the systematically misogynist UK state, which fails to protect women and, in many cases, doesn’t even bother to investigate their murders. She would be disgusted by the fact that a man murders a woman every three days in this country, and that 62% of these victims were murdered by a spouse or former-partner. She would be using her education in Rojava to build a different society in the UK: one that actually tackles patriarchy and misogyny head on, and one that ensures that women are actually safe in their own homes.

    Her friends say:

    Remembering those we have lost in the struggle against capitalism, fascism, and patriarchy reminds us of the need for revolutionary commitment, grief and love. The present is born in every moment from the past, and we walk in the paths trodden by those who came and left before us.

    We miss Anna every day, not just at the time of this anniversary. Her loss leaves a legacy; we must keep revolutionary fires burning…

    They continue:

    Let’s keep the momentum going in 2021, in the name of Anna Campbell, of Sara Merdin, of Serhildan, and of every person who has fallen in our struggle for freedom and dignity.

    We have the power to create a society where gender liberation is at the forefront. But we can’t rely on our government to do it for us. The majority-Kurdish women’s struggle in Rojava and Bakur (within Turkey) is perhaps the strongest women’s movement in the world right now. Let’s learn from these revolutionary women so that Anna, Sara and Serhildan, and all of their comrades haven’t died in vain.

    Featured image via Anna’s friends, with permission

    By Eliza Egret

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • On International Women’s Day, let’s take a look at one of the strongest women’s movements in the world

    Perhaps the strongest women’s movement in the world right now is the Kurdish Women’s Movement. On International Women’s Day, The Canary takes a look at these revolutionary women.

    Kurdish women came to world attention in 2014, gaining global media headlines in their fight against Daesh (ISIS/Isil) in Rojava, Syria. Yet, as is typical in a patriarchal society, western media outlets usually depicted the Kurdish Women’s Movement as young, beautiful twenty-somethings with guns, even appearing in women’s magazine Marie Claire. But Kurdish women, from the young to the very old, were struggling against patriarchy and fascism for decades before Daesh existed.

    Kurdish people are the largest stateless group on Earth. Most live in the geographic region of Kurdistan, which lies within Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran. The Kurdish people have experienced generations of oppression in all four countries, from Saddam Hussein’s Anfal genocide in Iraq, to the torture and disappearance of hundreds of thousands of people and the burning of villages in Turkey.

    Sakine Cansız

    Yet this oppression contributed to the creation of one of the largest women’s struggles in the world in the Kurdish regions within Turkey and Syria. One of the biggest icons of this struggle is Sakine Cansız (in the left-hand image at the top of the page). She was a co-founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in 1978 with Abdullah Öcalan. The PKK began an armed struggle against the Turkish state in 1984. Kommun Academi writes:

    Sakine Cansız was tasked by the leadership to build the women’s movement, a duty that she took very close to her heart. She single-handedly managed to gather large groups of young women, often students, for discussion and educations. On November, 27th 1978 only at the age of 20, Sakine Cansız became one of the two female co-founders of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, when she participated in the party’s founding congress.

    Cansız was imprisoned and tortured in Diyarbakır prison from 1979-1991. Kommun Academi continues:

    The resistance of Sakine Cansız in Diyarbakir prison led to a new approach towards women in Kurdish society. It encouraged women to join revolutionary structures in the cities and moved women towards politicization in the villages. Starting with her prison resistance, Kurdish women’s activism gained increasing respect and support among the popular masses.

    After her release from prison, Cansız continued in the PKK, and later as an educator of the Kurdish Freedom Movement in Europe. She was murdered in Paris in 2013, along with Leyla Şaylemez and Fidan Doğan, both central women in Kurdish organising.

    Decades of organising

    Long before the 2012 Rojava revolution in northern Syria, the Kurdish movement was developing structures for radically changing how society was organised. If you speak to any women in Kurdistan, they will tell you that this struggle didn’t start during the Arab Spring, or in the fight against Daesh. It began more than 40 years ago, through women such as Cansız, who organised tirelessly from prison.

    Democratic confederalism – an anti-capitalist, anti-patriarchal and anti-state ideology – was created by Öcalan from his prison cell. Democratic confederalism ensures that power that would usually be held by governments is given to people at the grassroots level. Local communes were set up within the Kurdish part of Turkey in 2007, empowering people to make decisions over areas of their lives. In Syria, people began putting the ideas of democratic confederalism into practice in 2005.

    Within the Kurdish Freedom Movement, women’s councils, academies, and cooperatives have been created, while positions of power are always held by co-chairs, at least one of whom identifies as a woman.

    A crucial ideology within the Kurdish Freedom Movement is jineoljî, or women’s science. A role of jineoljî is to transform the patriarchal mindset:

    The patriarchy of the government, which has constructed itself on the basis of women’s bodies, feelings, ideas, beliefs and labour, intervenes constantly in our daily lives. It invades our space with violence, exploitation denial, murder and creating illusions. As important as tearing off these masks and organising a strong self-defence against these patriarchal attacks is the construction of a mindset. Jineoloji, which we have reached by setting out from a paradigm based on freedom, will succeed in achieving this.

    Continuing the struggle

    Cansız and the many other women who have died in their struggle for women’s liberation, continue to be a source of inspiration not just in Kurdistan, but around the world. Within Turkey, thousands of Kurdish women continue to be imprisoned, including Leyla Güven (to the right of the photo at the top of the page), who survived a 200-day hunger strike in 2019. The women currently imprisoned gain their strength from those who have struggled before them.

    In the UK, Kurdistan Solidarity Network Jin (‘Jin’ means ‘women’ in Kurdish) released a statement for International Women’s Day. They said:

    As feminists, we know that struggle involves work and it involves love. It is militant just as much as it is joyful. Whether we look to you, our sisters and comrades who have been imprisoned by the Turkish state, to the women fighting in the mountains of Kurdistan, or the women building new ways of life across society in all four parts of Kurdistan, we see this same love and dedication in their actions.

    They continued:

    We join your call to continue the struggle, to stand side by side as free women and raise our voices, to oppose all forms of injustice and fascism, to strive for building a society where justice and equality prevail and where the rights and dignity of women are respected.

    We call for unity and solidarity, against feminicide and in defence of a free life and free society everywhere. United we will overcome. We salute you and wish you peace and strength.

    “Women, Life, Freedom” is an important slogan of the Kurdish Women’s Movement. On this International Women’s Day, we must stand in solidarity with all women like Güven, locked up as political prisoners, and we must remember all those who have died in their fight against misogyny and patriarchy.

    Featured images via ANF English

    By Eliza Egret

    This post was originally published on The Canary.