January 31-February 1, 2015, in Diyarbakir
Your Women’s Congress in Kurdistan to be held in Diyarbakir in the coming days promises to be an important event where some key issues facing women everywhere will be addressed.
In today’s difficult times, women around the world are facing serious challenges to their basic civil rights and fundamental freedoms as well as to their very existence as independent human beings and to their lives.
Women in the Middle East and Kurdistan in particular are confronting the newly resurgent threat from jihadist groups such as ISIS who are seeking to reverse the small gains that women have made in achieving liberation. ISIS reduces women to mere chattels, the property of men and compels them at risk of death into acceptance of forced marriage, prostitution and sex slavery. Girls as young as four years old are sold for less than the cost of a donkey in those areas where ISIS has wrested control from the traditional state power structures in countries such as Syria and Iraq.
Fortunately we learn that the assault by ISIS on the Kurdish town of Kobane, which had been under siege for many months, has now been successfully resisted and ISIS has been driven out by Kurdish forces, many of whom are women. This news is of momentous significance for women everywhere.
Kurdish women have inspired people all over the world by their fortitude, courage and resilience in their fight against the forces of ISIS.
Kurdish women have tenaciously defended the equal rights with their male counterparts that they enjoy in Rojava, the self-governed Kurdish region of Syria, and throughout the Kurdish movement directly inspired by the pro-feminist vision espoused by Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan.
Kurdish women in their many thousands have grasped with enthusiasm the opportunities for achieving freedom and the advancement of gender equality that have been opened up by the Kurdish political movement.
They have shown tremendous courage and determination in their struggle for the liberation of their people and for their own liberation over recent years. Their remarkable achievements stand in stark contrast to the cruel oppression suffered by women under the dictatorial regimes of the regional powers and the fundamentalist nightmare offered by ISIS.
We are proud to stand firm in solidarity with all Kurdish women and we honour their struggle which is our common struggle for a better future where all women can hold their heads up high and breathe the sweet air of freedom.
Signed by
Baroness Helena Kenney QC
Natalie Bennett, Leader of the Green Party England and Wales
Baroness Jenny Jones, Green Party
Katy Clark MP
Jill Evans MEP, Plaid Cymru
Linda Fabiani MSP, Scottish Parliament
Christina McKelvie MSP, Scottish Parliament
Anni Pues, Lawyer, International Committee Scottish Green Party
Margaret Owen OBE, WPD Widows for Peace through Democracy (WPD)
Annette Lawson, NAWO, the National Alliance of Women’s Organisations (UK)
Margaret Tait MBE, IFUW delegate to CSW59
Victoria Brittain, writer and journalist
Romayne Phoenix, Deputy Chair, Green Party National Executive
Melanie Gingell, barrister, Doughty Street Chambers
Radha D’Souza, Academic, University of Westminster
Kariane Westrheim, PhD, Associate Professor, University of Bergen, Norway
Melanie Sirinathsingh, Peace in Kurdistan Campaign
Professor Mary Davis
Natasha Walter, writer and campaigner
Ruth Walter, trade unionist and Older Feminists Network
Lindsey German, Stop the War Coalition
Sally Jackson, Standing Together Against Domestic Violence
Amrit Wilson, Freedom Without Fear Platform
Isabel Kaeser, PhD student, SOAS London
Ancil Adrian-Paul, Trustee of WPDT
Sarah Parker, activist
Michelle Allison, KNK women representative UK
Eylem Guler, Roj Women Assembly
Evrim Yilmaz, Roj Women Assembly
Arzu Pesmen, Kurdish People’s Assembly
Aysegul Erdogan, London Borough of Islington Councillor
Cynthia Cockburn, feminist researcher and writer
Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML)
Charlotte George, Green Party Parliamentary Candidate, Hackney South & Shoreditch
Aurora New Dawn
Oonagh Cousins, Film Producer
Camilla Power, Lecturer, Radical Anthropology Group
Trisha Hall, Country Manager for SASW (Scottish Association of Social Work)
Bridget Robb, CEO of BASW, the British Association of Social Work and General Secretary of SWU, the Social Workers’ Union
Maggie Mellon, Vice Chair, British Association of Social Workers and member of Women for Independence
Dr G.E. Banner, President, British Federation of Women Graduates (BFWG)
Margaret Gallacher, Chair South Lanarkshire UNISON
Miranda Stern, Academic Researcher
Catriona Grant, Scottish Socialist and Feminist
Lesley Riddoch, Writer, broadcaster, Women for Independence
Kezia Kinder, National Co-coordinator, Women for Independence
Councillor Frances McGlinchey, North Lanarkshire Council
Stefanie Keir, Scottish Green Party
Ewa Jasiewicz, Journalist and Human Rights Activist
Bronwen Jones, barrister, Mansfield Chambers
Dr. Philippa Whitford MD FRCS, Consultant Breast Surgeon
Zennure Duru, activist, Women for Peace
Lucy Allwright, Violence Against Women Trainer
Ellie Mae O’Hagan, Journalist
Caroleen Bray, Support Worker
Bertie Grunberg, Teacher
Jane Stephenson, Writer
Roxanne Halsey, Campaigner
Kim Bannar, Charity Worker
Kirsty Norris, Nurse
Lauren White, Charity Worker
Jessica Costar, Charity Worker
Suzanne Feltham, Young Women’s Advocate
Johanna Riha, Ph.D. student, University of Cambridge
Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Rights Organisation (IKWRO)
Roza Salih, Kurdish Human Rights and Cultural Group in Scotland
Maggie Cook, NEC Member, UNISON
Ruth Young, Student & UNISON Activist
Maggie Chapman, Co-Convener of the Scottish Green Party
Estella Schmid, Peace in Kurdistan Campaign
London 30 January 2015
For information contact
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 Sirinathsingh – Tel: 020 7272 7890