WOMEN’S ALLIANCE FOR KURDISTAN, IRAQ AND SYRIA
https://peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/activities/womens-alliance-for-kurdistan-iraq-and-syria/
Defend the women’s revolution in northeastern Syria
October 9 2019/Roar Magazine
Since 2012, with the leading role of women, the people in North and East Syria have been building a social system that enables a peaceful, radical-democratic, gender-liberated life for all ethnic, religious and cultural groups in the region.
https://roarmag.org/2019/10/09/defend-rojava-tjke-statement/
Eyewitnesses to the Rojava revolution: women empowerment
November 4 2019/Roar Magazine
What has been taking place in Rojava is easily one of the most inspiring and exciting experiments in autonomous self-government to ever exist. It is also one of the most massive, and gender inclusive, often compared to the Spanish Revolution of 1936, as well as the Zapatistas in Chiapas, Mexico. And yet, people outside the region know little about the different dimensions of the revolution taking place in Rojava. And now, this revolutionary territory is under military and political attack — its very existence at risk.
https://roarmag.org/essays/eyewitnesses-rojava-revolution-bookchin-sahin/
YJA Star Guerrillas: Self-defense is not just with weapons
4 December 2019/ANF English
YJA Star guerrillas pointed out that self-defense should be carried out not only with weapons but should be achieved through women’s self-education, recognition and defense of their country.
https://anfenglish.com/women/yja-star-guerrillas-self-defense-is-not-just-with-weapons-39848
Kongra Star: Effects of Turkish invasion on women and children
28 November 2019/ANF English
The Kongra Star Statistics and Research Committee visited the wounded or the families of those women who lost their life as a result of the Turkish invasion to establish more in depth information about the situation of civilian women and children.
https://anfenglish.com/women/kongra-star-effects-of-turkish-invasion-on-women-and-children-39691
Kongra Star urges UN to play its role against Turkish invasion
14 November 2019|Peace in Kurdistan
Kongra Star Coordination, the umbrella organisation of women living in North-Eastern Syria (aka Rojava) criticised the United Nations and called for immediate action to stop the Turkish offensive. The letter calls out the “continuous attacks of the Turkish state and the jihadist terror groups” which are displacing the local population through ethnic cleansing.
https://peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/2019/11/14/kongra-star-urges-un-to-play-its-role-against-turkish-invasion/
Two Yazidi women freed from ISIS on their way to Shengal
4 December 2019/ANF English
Two Yazidi (Êzidî) women who have been liberated from the clutches of the terrorist organization “Islamic State” (ISIS) in Northern Syria are on their way back home Shengal. The two women, aged 19 and 20, have been handed over to the Yazidi Women’s Foundation by the Mala Êzidiyan (House of the Yazidis) in Heseke to be reunited with their families in Shengal.
https://anfenglish.com/women/two-yazidi-women-freed-from-isis-on-their-way-to-shengal-39854
German police raid the flat of pro-Kurdish author from Hamburg
11 December 2019/ANF English
German author Anja Flach had her flat in Hamburg raided and searched by the German police at about 6 a.m. this morning. Flach is accused by the local Hamburg Court of having publicly shared symbols prohibited in the Federal Republic of Germany via the social media.
https://anfenglishmobile.com/news/german-police-raid-the-flat-of-pro-kurdish-author-from-hamburg-40015
French portrait artist immortalizes sacrifice of the Kurdish women who fought ISIS
11 December 2019/Rudaw net.
Elisabete Cargnello is a French artist. Engaged in portraiture from an early age, her current project is the depiction of Asia Ramazan Antar, a Kurdish woman who died in 2016 while fighting the Islamic State group in Syria as part of the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ), aged just 19.
https://www.rudaw.net/english/interview/11122019?fbclid=IwAR0eHIUECJ0HXeZ1Ov3vuQnGbyA6fHHmcN1sVQ05Lej-7vVwEYXGgw6jgvQ
Islamic taxi fatwa sparks debate on women’s freedom of movement in Iraqi Kurdistan
10 December 2019/Ekurd
A fatwa issued by Iraqi Kurdistan Region Islamic body earlier this week that decreed unaccompanied women should not take taxis driven by male drivers they don’t know has sparked social debate on women’s freedom of movement.
https://ekurd.net/islamic-taxi-fatwa-sparks-2019-12-10
In Kurdistan, Women Are Coming Into Their Own
December 9 2019/Truthdig
I met with Houzan Mahmoud, a Kurdish women’s rights and anti-war activist who travelled to Sulaymaniyah for the conference. Mahmoud currently lives in Germany and is founder of the Culture Project, a platform for Kurdish writers, feminists, artists and activists.
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/in-kurdistan-women-are-coming-into-their-own/
Whole of Turkey marked in map showing unsafe places for women
9 December 2019/Ahval
A map displaying the places in Turkey where women feel unsafe has showcased the country’s long-standing gender-based violence problem. Thousands of women have virtually marked the entirety of the country as unsafe on a map, which is part of a UN campaign titled “Light the Dark with Fireflies,’’ news site Bianet reported.
https://ahvalnews.com/violence-against-women/whole-turkey-marked-map-showing-unsafe-places-women
Turkish women arrested over viral Las Tesis chant condemning violence against women
9 December 2019/Alaraby
Turkish police on Sunday fired tear gas to disperse a protest against violence against women. Hundreds of women had gathered in Istanbul’s central Kadikoy district to perform “A rapist in your path”, created by Chilean group Las Tesis. Seven protesters were detained over the lyrics of the song.
https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2019/12/9/turkish-women-arrested-over-viral-las-tesis-anti-violence-chant
Women’s Internationalism against Global Patriarchy
Issue 8/Roar Magazine
Women’s liberation is at its heart a struggle for the liberation of all humanity from the most treacherous and insidious forms of oppression and domination.
https://roarmag.org/magazine/womens-internationalism-global-patriarchy/
Jineology: from women’s struggles to social liberation
25 November 2019/Roar Magazine
Following the recent developments in northern Syria, Kurdish women have often been portrayed in the Western media as fierce fighters combating the savage barbarians of the so-called Islamic State. Considering Kurdish female guerrilla fighters as heroines defending Western values of democracy and gender equality, however, frames Kurdish women in an Orientalist narrative that grants political agency and recognition only as long as their actions fit liberal Western values.
https://roarmag.org/essays/jineology-kurdish-women-movement/
No to the Oppression, Sexism, and Compulsory Veiling of Women.
29 November 2019/Rojhelat
No to the oppression, sexism, and compulsory veiling of women. These are the slogans that Iranian women chanted against male-dominated mentality across Iran. Today is the 25th of November, the anniversary of “struggle against violence towards women”. The Islamic Republic of Iran’s system facilitated further oppression, injustice, and attacks on women, however, women’s struggles have risen to a new level. Civilians and activists both women and men express their dissatisfaction in form of protest across the country.
Unfortunately, the Sharia and Fatwa based reactionary mentality of the Islamic Republic of Iran try to contain and limit women by law in all political, social, cultural, economic fields and also to mentally and physically repress women in society.
http://rojhelat.info/en/?p=9969
Beyond Killing: Gender, Genocide, and Obligations Under International Law
December 6 2018/Global Justice Blog
Gender permeates the crime of genocide. It is woven into the perpetrators’ planning and commission of coordinated acts that make up the continuum of genocidal violence. It is through these gendered annihilative acts that perpetrators maximize the crime’s destructive impact on protected groups.
http://globaljusticecenter.net/blog/20-publications/briefs-and-white-papers/1009-beyond-killing-gender-genocide-and-obligations-under-international-law
Peace in Kurdistan
Campaign for a political solution of the Kurdish Question
Email: estella24@tiscali.co.uk
www.peaceinkurdistancampaign.com
Contacts Estella Schmid 020 7586 5892 & Melanie Gingell – Tel: 020 7272 7890
Fax: 020 7263 0596
Patrons: John Austin, Baroness Blower of Starch Green, former GS NUT, Prof Bill Bowring, Julie Christie, Noam Chomsky, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Prof Mary Davis, Lord Dholakia, Simon Dubbins, UNITE International Director, Jill Evans MEP, Desmond Fernandes, Lindsey German, Convenor STWC, Melanie Gingell, Christopher Gingell, Rahila Gupta, Nick Hildyard, Dafydd Iwan, Former President Plaid Cymru, James Kelman, Bruce Kent, Jean Lambert, Elfyn Llwyd, Aonghas MacNeacail, Scottish Gaelic poet, Mike Mansfield QC, Doug Nicholls, General Secretary, GFTU, Dr. Jessica Ayesha Northey, Sinn Fein MLA Conor Murphy, Dr Thomas Jeffrey Miley, Kate Osamor MP, Margaret Owen OBE, Ali Gul Ozbek, Former Councillor and Mayor of Haringey; Gareth Peirce, Dr Felix Padel, Maxine Peake, actor, Trevor Rayne, writer, Lord Rea, Joe Ryan, Tony Simpson, Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation, Stephen Smellie, Jonathan Steele, Steve Sweeney, Gianni Tognoni, General Secretary Permanent People’s Tribunal, Dr Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, Dr Tom Wakeford, Dr Derek Wall, Julie Ward MEP, Hywel Williams MP.