https://peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/activities/womens-alliance-for-kurdistan-iraq-and-syria/
ARTICLES
1. HOW SAKÎNE CANSIZ’S REVOLUTIONARY MEMOIR MADE ME RECONSIDER THE MEANING OF FEMINISM
6 April 2022/Bad Form
In Sakîne Cansız’s (code name Sara) memoir SARA, My Whole Life Was A Struggle she bares her vulnerabilities. Her honesty in regards to her shame connected to her Kurdish identity during her childhood is refreshing to read. Sakîne was one of the founding members of the Kurdish Workers Party in 1974 and dedicated her life to the cause of a free Kurdish state until she was assassinated in Paris on the 9th of January 2013. She is one of the many Kurdish women who inspire me every day, who restore my hope and remind me why we mustn’t give up our struggle for a free Kurdistan.
https://www.badformreview.com/read/uq9h
2. Celebrating Zapatista and Kurdish Women’s Struggles, on International Women’s Day
8 March 2022/The Nation
In 2021, 500 years after the Spanish conquest of the Indigenous communities in what is today Mexico, the Zapatistas launched an “invasion” in reverse, sailing across the Atlantic to Europe. This was not your usual invasion. The Zapatista delegation landed to discover the “other” Europe—in their words, the Europe of “those who fight, resist, and rebel,” as a way to share and learn from each other’s struggles, successes, and failures. Given the centrality of women in the Zapatista struggle, it is not surprising that one of the delegation’s encounters was with members of the Kurdish women’s movement, active in Europe. Kurdish and Zapatista women share more than just long-standing solidarity with each other. They share deeply resonant histories of developing women’s struggles within liberation movements.
https://www.thenation.com/article/world/zapatista-rojava-womens-movement/
3. An Ode to Kurdish Women on International Women’s Day
8 March 2022/Washington Kurdish Institute
To begin, the mosaic containing the story of Kurdish women contains many colorful tiles and a rich history that could never be fully covered in one article. However, it is my hope to provide a very brief overview here of that story, which is both equally inspiring and tragic.
https://dckurd.org/2022/03/08/an-ode-to-kurdish-women-on-international-womens-day/
4. International Women’s Day: A Clarion Call for Justice
07 March 2022 | ANF
“We are the gears that make the world move and we must demand our rightful place amongst humanity,” says the KNK Commission on Women and stresses that, “The future can only be saved if it is female.”
https://anfenglishmobile.com/women/international-women-s-day-a-clarion-call-for-justice-58528
5. Where Is the Women’s Movement?
5 April 2022/The Nation
In 1980, my first book, The Rising of the Women: Feminist Solidarity and Class Conflict 1880–1917, was published. In it, I used the term “united front of women” to mean a broad women’s movement of different classes within which progressives must fight for leadership without destroying the unity needed to move forward. The suffrage movement in the early part of the 20th century was like that, drawing in everyone from millionaire J.P. Morgan’s daughter Anne to radical union organizer Clara Lemlich. While anarchists and syndicalists saw the vote as a bourgeois distraction, most socialists recognized it was a basic democratic right; the Socialist Party’s founding program in 1901 included equal rights for men and women.
https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/feminism-socialism-womens-movement/
6. Free Women’s Movement calls on everyone to celebrate Abdullah Öcalan’s 73rd birthday in Amara
3 April 2022/ANF English
Preparations for the march to Amara, in Halfeti district of Urfa, tomorrow 4 April, the birthday of Kurdish people’ leader Abdullah Öcalan, who has been in isolation in Imrali F Type High Security Closed Prison for 23 years, continue. In Van the protests and events continue for Öcalan’s 73rd birthday and Free Women’s Movement (Tevgera Jinên Azad-TJA) activist Şükran Şen has called everyone to attend the celebration in Amara.
https://anfenglishmobile.com/women/tja-calls-on-everyone-to-celebrate-abdullah-Ocalan-s-73rd-birthday-in-amara-59076
7. Deadly attacks on women rise sharply in Iraqi Kurdistan
20 March 2022/ Al Monitor
A woman burned alive by her husband, others shot dead by a father or a teenage brother — bloody violence against women has spiked in northern Iraq’s Kurdish region. The autonomous area, keen on projecting an image of a relative haven of stability and tolerance in war-battered Iraq, has seen a sharp rise in femicide, killings motivated by gender.
https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2022/03/deadly-attacks-women-rise-sharply-iraqi-kurdistan#ixzz7PUPm6nAe
8. Who are the Syrian Kurdish women fighters who took down the Islamic State? Gayle Tzemach Lemmon tells the inside story
Al Monitor episode 39 podcast
Bestselling author and senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations Gayle Tzemach Lemmon speaks to Al-Monitor about her new book, The Daughters of Kobani, which tells the story of the women who fought on the front lines of the war against the Islamic State in Syria.
https://www.al-monitor.com/podcasts/2021/02/who-are-the-syrian-kurdish-women-fighters-who-took-down-the-isla.html#ixzz7PUSRtqMi
9. Masrour Barzani who hides his wife from the public, calls for ‘gender equality’8 March 2022/Ekurd
Barzani said on Tuesday during an event in Erbil titled ‘Gender Equality Today for a Sustainable Tomorrow,’ which was attended by hundreds of women, entrepreneurs, and government officials to commemorate International Women’s Day, that women in Kurdistan region, like women in many other countries, face violence and Kurdish women have played an important role in society throughout history, and there should be no gender inequality if all individuals have a secure society.
https://ekurd.net/masrour-barzani-hides-his-wife-2022-03-08
10. Report: Iran blocked women from attending soccer match
29 March 2022 | Rudaw
Iran blocked women from attending the country’s last 2022 World Cup soccer qualifying match Tuesday, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported. ISNA said 12,500 tickets were sold online, of which 2,000 had been reserved for women. Iran defeated Lebanon 2-0 in the match. A victory in January over Iraq assured the team a spot in the World Cup in Qatar.
https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iran/29032022
STATEMENTS
- KNK Women’s commission: International Women’s Day is a clarion call for justice
7 March 2022/Hawar News
Wars are increasing across the globe, and with conflict between Russia and Ukraine the carnage has reached European territory. Political developments also show that freedom and democracy are under threat, alongside their foundational pillars of international law, human rights, women’s rights, and state sovereignty. In this new era, the law of the strongest reigns.
- Let’s build up World Democratic Women’s Confederalism!
7 March 2022/Peace in Kurdistan Campaign
On the occasion of International Women’s Day we commemorate all women that lost their lives in the struggle for freedom and equality. The memory of women like Sakine Cansız, Rosa Luxemburg, Meena Kewshwar, Berta Caceres, Shadia Abu Ghazaleh, Maita Gomez, Emily Davison and many, many more continues to light our path of resistance. On March 8, 2022, as the Kurdistan Women’s Movement, we send our revolutionary greetings to all freedom-seeking women and recommit to transforming our century into the age of women’s liberation.
https://www.peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/lets-build-up-world-democratic-womens-confederalism/
Peace in Kurdistan
Campaign for a political solution of the Kurdish Question
Email: estella@gn.apc.org
https://www.peaceinkurdistancampaign.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/peaceinkurdistan1/
Contacts Estella Schmid: 07846 666 804 & Melanie Gingell: 07572 430903
Patrons: John Austin, Baroness Blower of Starch Green, former GS NUT, Prof Bill Bowring, Julie Christie, Noam Chomsky, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Maggie Cook, UNISON women activist; Prof Mary Davis, Lord Dholakia, Simon Dubbins, UNITE International Director, Jill Evans, former MEP, Desmond Fernandes, Lindsey German, Convenor STWC, Melanie Gingell, Christopher Gingell, Prof Dr. Michael Gunter, Secretary-General, EU Turkey Civic Commission (EUTCC), Rahila Gupta, journalist, Nick Hildyard, policy advisor, Dafydd Iwan, Former President Plaid Cymru, James Kelman, Bruce Kent, Jean Lambert, former MEP, Dr Les Levidow, Open University, Elfyn Llwyd, John McDonnell MP; Aonghas MacNeacail, Scottish Gaelic poet, Mike Mansfield QC, David Morgan, journalist, 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, Dr Thomas Phillips, Liverpool John Moores University, Trevor Rayne, writer, Joe Ryan, Bert Schouwenburg, International Trade Union Adviser; Tony Simpson, Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation, Stephen Smellie, PIK Trade Union Liaison Officer, Jonathan Steele, journalist, Steve Sweeney, journalist, Gianni Tognoni, General Secretary Permanent People’s Tribunal, Dr Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, Dr Federico Venturini, Associate Researcher, University of Udine, Italy; Dr Tom Wakeford, Dr Derek Wall, Julie Ward, former MEP, Kariane Westrheim, Chair, EU Turkey Civic Commission (EUTCC); Hywel Williams MP.