WOMEN’S ALLIANCE

FOR KURDISTAN, IRAQ AND SYRIA

https://peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/activities/womens-alliance-for-kurdistan-iraq-and-syria/

  1. Interview: Women’s revolution and the occupation of Afrin
  2. Between Erdogan and the Ayatollahs, These Women Lead the Kurdish Battle for Freedom
  3. The theory and practice of the Kurdish Women’s Movement: an interview in Diyarbakir
  4. Open letter to the women of the world from Leyla Güven
  5. Kongra Star writes letter to Leyla Guven
  6. Women paid solidarity visit to Leyla Güven
  7. Video: ‘IS families can’t stay in refugee camps,’ Syrian Kurds leader EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW – BBC Newsnight
  8. Syrian Defence Forces ‘Cannot’ Detain IS Fighters Without Foreign Help
  9. ‘We are now free’: Yazidis fleeing Isis start over in female-only commune
  10. Syrian Woman Council In Til Abyad… Organizing Women And Returning Their Pioneering Role In Society
  11. French MPs issue call for Rojava and hunger strikes
  12. ‘You’re the first infidel I’ve seen in four years’: Isil women emerge defiant from last scrap of Syria territory
  13. Two Canadian women flee ISIS pocket, surrender to Kurdish forces
  14. Women’s Movements in Iraq – Part XXVI
  15. KJAR’s Viyan: Iranian women no longer remain silent
    16. Jineolojî Camp held in England

  1. Seminars on Jineology in Colombia

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  1. Interview: Women’s revolution and the occupation of Afrin
    9 january 2019/The Region
    One year ago this month, the first Turkish jets bombed the outskirts of Afrin Canton, a peaceful Kurdish region in northwestern Syria. The military operation that followed, conducted by the Turkish military and members of the so-called Free Syrian Army, devastated an area that had known relative piece throughout Syria’s brutal war. In March of 2018, hundreds of thousands of people were forced to flee, as occupying forces closed in on the center of Afrin city. The final days of the campaign were the most brutal, with Turkish airstrikes targeting overcrowded residential neighborhoods where people displaced earlier had fled, and even bombing Afrin’s main hospital.
    https://theregion.org/article/13333-interview-women-039-s-revolution-occupation-of-afrin

 

  1. Between Erdogan and the Ayatollahs, These Women Lead the Kurdish Battle for Freedom
    19 February 2019/Haaretz
    IRAN-IRAQ BORDER — It’s been an hour since the road disappeared under our wheels, but we still manage to maneuver across mud tracks that the torrential rains of the last days left almost impassable. Both the driver and his companion are members of the Assembly of Free Life Party of Kurdistan (PJAK), a guerrilla group formed mainly by Iranian Kurds, which has waged an armed struggle against the Iranian government since 2004. Actually, their house is not far from this steep valley in Iraqi Kurdistan.
    https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/MAGAZINE-the-kurdish-women-leading-the-battle-for-independence-1.6953903

 

  1. The theory and practice of the Kurdish Women’s Movement: an interview in Diyarbakir
    3 January 2019/Open Democracy
    One of the undisputed achievements of the Kurdish movement in Turkey and Syria is the advancement of women in social, economic, and political domains of life. The theoretical underpinning of the movement’s efforts to achieve gender equality lies in the concept of jineology elaborated by the movement’s leader Abdullah Ocalan.
    https://www.opendemocracy.net/anya-briy-eb/theory-and-practice-of-kurdish-women-s-movement-interview-in-diyarbakir

 

  1. Open letter to the women of the world from Leyla Güven
    7 February 2019/Open Democracy
    Despite our geographies being split by thousands of miles, I’m glad that you have heard my voice. Even when we are from very different corners of the world, as women, we have always recognised each other. As Hypatia says, “none of us look like one-another, but the things that unite us are greater than the things that separate us”. We are all sisters. The thing that unites us the most is our freedom struggle, our resistance against all kinds of fascism, dictatorship and the patriarchal mentality.
    https://www.opendemocracy.net/can-europe-make-it/leyla-g-ven/open-letter-to-women-of-world-from-leyla-g-ven

 

  1. Kongra Star writes letter to Leyla Guven
    24 February 2019/ANF English
    Kongra Star wrote a letter to DTK Co-chair and HP MP Leyla Güven who is on the 109th day of her indefinite hunger strike against the aggravated isolation regime imposed on Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan.
    https://anfenglish.com/women/kongra-star-writes-letter-to-leyla-guven-33171

 

  1. Women paid solidarity visit to Leyla Güven
    ANF English/24 February 2019
    DTK co-chair and HDP Hakkari MP Leyla Güven is on the 109th day of her hunger strike demanding the end of isolation against Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan.
    https://anfenglish.com/women/women-paid-solidarity-visit-to-leyla-gueven-33176

 

  1. Video: ‘IS families can’t stay in refugee camps,’ Syrian Kurds leader EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW – BBC Newsnight
    22 February 2019/BBC Newsnight
    Exclusive interview with Ilham Ahmed, leader of the Syrian Kurds.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeXY4hggzi8

 

  1. Syrian Defence Forces ‘Cannot’ Detain IS Fighters Without Foreign Help
    22 February 2019/Forces Network
    Hundreds of suspected former so-called Islamic State (IS) fighters could be released by Syrian Kurds unless they get help from other nations to detain them, the leader of the group has said. Ilham Ahmed, co-chairwoman of the Syrian Democratic Council, the political wing of the Syrian Democratic Forces, told BBC Newsnight that the group could not be responsible for holding the former fighters in camps without assistance.
    https://www.forces.net/news/syrian-defence-forces-cannot-detain-fighters-without-foreign-help

 

  1. ‘We are now free’: Yazidis fleeing Isis start over in female-only commune
    25 February 2019/The Guardian
    Jinwar is a female-only community, set up by the women of the local Kurdish-run administration to create a space where women can live “free of the constraints of the oppressive power structures of patriarchy and capitalism”. It opened in November and 12 of its 30 adobe brick houses are home to Kurdish, Yazidi and Arab families.
    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/25/yazidis-isis-female-only-commune-jinwar-syria

 

  1. Syrian Woman Council In Til Abyad… Organizing Women And Returning Their Pioneering Role In Society
    12 February 2019/SDF Press
    Syrian Woman Council, in Til Abyad district, is one of the councils that were established to enable women of all society components to be active politically and aware them, however, the council is working on attracting the independent women personalities in all aspects.
    http://sdf-press.com/en/2019/02/syrian-woman-council-in-til-abyad-organizing-women-and-returning-their-pioneering-role-in-society/

 

  1. French MPs issue call for Rojava and hunger strikes
    16 February 2019/ANF English
    Dozens of MP and senator women from various political parties in France called on the country to take urgent initiative with the UN Security Council and to support Rojava, targeted by Turkey, as well as Kurdish women on hunger strikes against isolation.
    https://anfenglish.com/news/french-mps-issue-call-for-rojava-and-hunger-strikes-32995

 

  1. ‘You’re the first infidel I’ve seen in four years’: Isil women emerge defiant from last scrap of Syria territory
    24 February 2019/The Telegraph
    She gestured back towards Baghuz, the village in eastern Syria that is now the last fragment of Islamic State territory. “The brothers are lions. They will fight on,” she said. “The Islamic State remains. We are weak now but we will come back again.”The 21-year-old was one of hundreds of bedraggled women who emerged from Baghuz in recent days. They waited in a huddled mass in a clearing to surrender to the Kurdish fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/02/24/first-infidel-seen-four-years-isil-women-emerge-defiant-last/

 

  1. Two Canadian women flee ISIS pocket, surrender to Kurdish forces
    7 February 2019/Kurdstan 24
    ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have added two more Canadian women to the growing number of foreign prisoners in its custody who are alleged members of the Islamic State.The identities of the two women and their four children were not revealed. The women surrendered to the SDF after they fled the Syrian province of Deir al-Zor, the Islamic State’s last pocket of territory, Global News reported.
    http://www.kurdistan24.net/en/news/adffa49c-5bf1-4593-9286-35fd95ba928e

 

  1. Women’s Movements in Iraq – Part XXVI
    7 February 2019/Ekurd
    Every country has its own intrinsic reason for the decrease or increase in the number of veiled women. What might be true in one country may be considered false in another. However the number of veiled women in the Middle-East rose dramatically in the second half of the 1980’s. In Iraq, the phenomenon came about after economic sanctions on Iraq were imposed in 1991. Ever since, the number of veils is increasing. Two factors always coincide with the rise of veils, poverty and lack of freedom, these two are the fertile grounds for the Islamists and Pan-Arabists.
    https://ekurd.net/womens-movements-iraq-2019-02-07

 

  1. KJAR’s Viyan: Iranian women no longer remain silent
    7 February 2019/ANF English
    KJAR Coordination Member Peyman Viyan stated that women in Iran are no longer silent against oppression: “women have written their name in history with their resistance. They took everything into consideration for freedom”
    https://anfenglish.com/women/kjar-s-viyan-iranian-women-no-longer-remain-silent-32735

 

  1. Jineolojî Camp held in England
    7 February 2019/ANF English
    Last week took place a Jineolojî camp for the first time in England, organized by the Jineolojî Committee and which was joined by around 35 women coming from the region and cities like London, Manchester, Sheffield, Bristol or Brighton.
    https://anfenglish.com/women/jineoloji-camp-held-in-england-32726

 

  1. Seminars on Jineology in Colombia
    19 February 2019/ANF English
    The confederalism project was explained to Colombian women as well as how this model is implemented when it comes to Kurdish women’s movement.
    https://anfenglish.com/women/seminars-on-jineology-in-colombia-33059

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, Christine Blower, NUT International Secretary, Prof Bill Bowring, Julie Christie, Noam Chomsky, Jeremy Corbyn MP,  Prof Mary Davis, Lord Dholakia, Simon Dubbins, UNITE International Director,  Jill Evans MEP, Lindsey German, Convenor STWC, Melanie Gingell, Rahila Gupta, Nick Hildyard, Dafydd Iwan, Former President Plaid Cymru, James Kelman, Bruce Kent, Jean Lambert MEP, Elfyn Llwyd, Aonghas MacNeacail, Scottish Gaelic poet, Mike Mansfield QC, Doug Nicholls, General Secretary, GFTU, Dr. Jessica Ayesha Northey, International Coordinator, Green Party of England and Wales; Sinn Fein MLA Conor Murphy, Dr Thomas Jeffrey Miley, Kate Osamor MP, Margaret Owen OBE, Gareth Peirce, Maxine Peake, Lord Rea, Joe Ryan, Stephen Smellie, Steve Sweeney, Dr Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, Dr Tom Wakeford, Dr Derek Wall, Julie Ward MEP, Hywel Williams MP.