Kurdish Women, Women's Alliance for Kurdistan in Iraq and Syria

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 2020 SOLIDARITY

Peace in Kurdistan stands in solidarity on International Women’s Day, 8 March 2020, alongside all Kurdish women, across Kurdistan, in the diaspora, and all who are engaged in the struggle for liberation and for their just democratic rights. We stand with all women fighting for justice and freedom from state violence, who are so often at the forefront of global liberation movements.

In these tragic times with the Kurdish-Turkish conflict well and truly ignited in Syria the struggle of the Kurdish people for their genuine liberation remains as urgent as ever. In the face of systematic violence and state oppression, Kurdish women’s voices and activism are among the loudest and most fearless of the mass popular movement that has emerged over recent decades.

They so often pay the highest price. Women politicians have been deliberately targeted during the conflict, for example, Hervin Khalaf, the secretary general of the Future Syria party, a greatly respected politician and diplomat, who was assassinated by Turkish backed mercenaries in Syria in October 2019. Continue reading “INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 2020 SOLIDARITY” →

Kurdish Women

In memory of Sakine, Fidan and Leyla

Statement, 9 January 2020

Today, 9 January 2020, we mark the seventh anniversary of the brutal assassinations of Sakine Cansiz and her colleagues Fidan Dogan and Leyla Saylemez in their office at the Kurdish Information Centre in Paris on 9th January 2013. We remember them in love, respect and gratitude and pay tribute to their remarkable achievements and fortitude. Continue reading “In memory of Sakine, Fidan and Leyla” →

Audio, Democratic confederalism, Kurdish Women

(AUDIO) The Kurdish Women’s Movement: On Revolution, Militarism and Body Politics

Isabel Käser traces the complex history of the Kurdish Women’s Liberation Movement, discusses how women’s autonomous organisational structures have emerged and how they operate today between the mountains and the cities of the four different parts of Kurdistan.

Her talk, at the LSE Middle East Centre, analyses the emancipatory power this movement holds but also unpacks some of the tensions that emerge from the interplay between militarism, the party’s body politics and the movement’s revolutionary quest for a more democratic Middle East. Recorded on 4 June.

Continue reading “(AUDIO) The Kurdish Women’s Movement: On Revolution, Militarism and Body Politics” →

Kurdish Women, Uncategorized

The Kurdish Women’s Movement: On Revolution, Militarism and Body Politics

https://podtail.com/en/podcast/lse-middle-east-centre-podcasts/the-kurdish-women-s-movement-on-revolution-militar

 · LSE MIDDLE EAST CENTRE PODCASTS

  • 01:20:20

Women have been at the forefront of many of the political and military struggles in the Kurdish Middle East, most visibly so since the outbreak of the ‘Rojava Revolution’ in 2012. But women have in fact since the foundation of the PKK in 1978 played an integral role in the ideological and political development of the Liberation Movement as a whole; as guerrillas, activists, politicians, mothers and prisoners. Isabel Käser will trace the complex history of the Kurdish Women’s Liberation Movement, discuss how women’s autonomous organisational structures have emerged and how they operate today between the mountains and the cities of the four different parts of Kurdistan. Her talk analyses the emancipatory power this movement holds but also unpacks some of the tensions that emerge from the interplay between militarism, the party’s body politics and the movement’s revolutionary quest for a more democratic Middle East. Recorded on 4 June.
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Isabel Käser holds a PhD from SOAS where she worked on the Kurdish Women’s Movement. Her work contributes to debates around gender and war, feminism and nationalism, as well as conflict and body politics.

Continue reading “The Kurdish Women’s Movement: On Revolution, Militarism and Body Politics” →

Kurdish Women, Uncategorized

Jineology – science of women, science of revolution

Camilla Power is an activist and academic. She has been teaching anthropology for over 20 years at University of East London. With the Radical Anthropology Group, she researches the role of women in human origins, and the evolution of language, art and symbolism. She has done fieldwork on gender and ritual with Hadza women of Tanzania. 

“If women combine forces they can make a huge revolution”

With these words, Fawza Yusif, cofounder of the umbrella women’s organization Kongreya Star, launched the founding congress of the Women’s Council of Northern and Eastern Syria (Jun 14 2019).

shahmaran

The Painting of Şahmaran outside the Jineology centre in Derik.

 

Continue reading “Jineology – science of women, science of revolution” →

Kurdish Women, Uncategorized

Jineology – science of women, science of revolution

Camilla Power, Senior Lecturer in Anthropology, University of East London

“If women combine forces they can make a huge revolution”

With these words,  Fouwza Yusuf, cochair of Kongreya Star launched the founding congress of the Women’s Council of Northern and Eastern Syria (Jun 14 2019).

Practical evidence for women “making ourselves powerful” and “building a new life” was all around us. As a Perwerde delegation of US and European academics invited by Rojava University, we brought a message of solidarity to this historic congress. It was one of the most multicultural events I have witnessed with translations across four, five or more languages, and representation from multiethnic and multireligious communities, Islamic, Christian and also the preAbrahamic Yezidi. Women wore dazzling celebratory costumes showing off their traditions, alongside the more practical military fatigues of the YPJ (Women’s Protection Units). Continue reading “Jineology – science of women, science of revolution” →

Kurdish Women, Political prisoners, Uncategorized

Statement from Leyla Guven and other HDP deputies:

The statement of the HDP deputies said the following;
“After eight years, Mr. Öcalan has had a meeting with his lawyers. This meeting is historic and of great importance. However, it also brings into question “In what kind of a country are we living that we feel happy over a visit of lawyers that has been arbitrarily and unlawfully prohibited so far?” True, we are all experiencing a bittersweet happiness. Bodies have been melting away to make sure that this meeting takes place. 8 young people have ended their lives for this visit to take place. Our mothers are dragged on the ground every day in order for this meeting to take place, in order for this state to implement its own laws, in order for laws to be equal for everyone.

Continue reading “Statement from Leyla Guven and other HDP deputies:” →

Kurdish Women, Political prisoners

Solidarity with Leyla Guven MP

PEACE IN KURDISTAN

WOMEN’S ALLIANCE

FOR KURDISTAN, IRAQ AND SYRIA

Dear Leyla

We send you solidarity, greetings and respect from Women Alliance for Kurdistan, Iraq and Syria.

We have been following the news of your hunger strike almost daily and we want to assure you that we are standing with you in your resistance and will do our utmost to support you and to spread the message that the cruel isolation of Abdullah Ocalan and the persecution of the Kurdish people must end. Continue reading “Solidarity with Leyla Guven MP” →