https://peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/activities/womens-alliance-for-kurdistan-iraq-and-syria/
1. Weaving for Life holds online panel against political femicide
23 June 2021/ANF English
The Weaving for Life platform organises its first online panel within the scope of campaign for struggle against political femicide. A number of women’s organisations and activists, among them REPAK, launched the campaign ‘Weaving for Life’ against the systematic killing of female leaders.
https://anfenglish.com/women/weaving-for-life-holds-online-panel-against-political-femicide-52973
Watch the meeting here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MCNHL1-Xyl
2. Kobanî trial | ‘Women targeted again in the person of Deniz Poyraz’
24 June 2021/Bianet English
Following Çakan’s and his attorney’s statements, Ayla Akat Ata, a former HDP MP and a former spokesperson for the Free Women’s Movement (TJA), took the floor. Akat Ata started her speech by remembering Deniz Poyraz, who was killed in the armed attack against the HDP İzmir office.
https://m.bianet.org/english/law/246027-kobani-trial-women-targeted-again-in-the-person-of-deniz-poyraz
3. Kongra Star calls for actions to remember Zehra, Hebûn and Amina
22 June 2021/ANF News
On June 23 last year, three women, Zehra Berkel, Hebûn Xelîl and Amina Waysî were murdered by the fascist Turkish state in the village of Helincê in Kobanê.
https://anfenglish.com/women/kongra-star-calls-for-actions-to-remember-zehra-hebun-and-amina-52956
4. Turkey is radicalizing extremists to attack Kurdish women
20 June 2021/Jerusalem Post
Women have become key targets of Turkey’s extremist government in recent years, videos increasingly showing violence against women in the streets of cities, including women being beaten by men.
https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/turkey-is-radicalizing-extremists-to-attack-kurdish-women-671544
5. Great Women’s Gathering: The Istanbul Convention is ours!
19 June 2021/ANF English
A “Great Women’s Gathering” is taking place in Istanbul. Thousands of women and LGBTI people are demanding the preservation and implementation of the Istanbul Convention, from which the country is withdrawing by presidential order on July 1.
https://anfenglish.com/women/great-women-s-gathering-the-istanbul-convention-is-ours-52897
6. How Nordic Countries are Handling the Question of Repatriating Islamic State Women
18 June 2021/Jamestown Foundation
As the self-styled Islamic State (IS) “caliphate” collapsed in March 2019, the international community was faced with the problem of more than 70,000 IS family members stranded in Syria. The Kurdish Peshmerga gathered these family members into camps in northeastern Syria. Currently, these camps still house around 60,000 people, of which 30,000 are Syrians, 20,000 are Iraqis and around 10,000 are of other nationalities, including approximately 1,000 from Europe (Egmont Institute, October 2020).
https://jamestown.org/program/how-nordic-countries-are-handling-the-question-of-repatriating-islamic-state-women/
7. ‘The Return: Life After ISIS’: new documentary tells story of women who want to restart their lives
18 June 2021/National News
Spanish director Alba Sotorra Clua’s thought-provoking new documentary, The Return: Life After ISIS, jumps compassionately into the debate over the repatriation of people who joined the extremist group. The documentary features wives of ISIS fighters of different nationalities who remain in camps in Syria as they long to go home.
https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts-culture/film/the-return-life-after-isis-new-documentary-tells-story-of-women-who-want-to-restart-their-lives-1.1242634
8. Life after the Islamic State: A filmmaker’s journey capturing the women caught between the eternal limbo of loss, redemption and the longing to go back home
17 June 2021/ Al Araby
The New Arab Meets: Catalan filmmaker Alba Sotorra, whose insightful documentary tackles the controversial aftermath of a small group of Western women radicalised by IS and now living with their children in a camp in the Northeast of Syria.
https://english.alaraby.co.uk/features/return-life-after-isis-de-radicalisation-possible
9. Women politicians in prison: We know where the attacks come from!
18 June 2021/ANF English
The women politicians in prison now under trial in the Kobanê Case against the HDP condemned the attack on the party’s Izmir Provincial Organization and the murder of Deniz Poyraz and said, “We know where the attacks came from.”
https://anfenglish.com/women/women-politicians-in-prison-we-know-where-the-attacks-come-from-52862
10. Tuncel writes for Jacobin: Erdoğan will never defeat the fight for democracy
22 June 2021/ANF English
We will resist the way we have resisted for a hundred years. We will continue to defend the struggle for democracy, ecology, women’s freedom, human rights, democratic justice, equality, and peace.
https://anfenglish.com/news/tuncel-writes-for-jacobin-erdogan-will-never-defeat-the-fight-for-democracy-52960
11. IDP women run restaurant in Syria’s north Aleppo countryside
14 June 2021/NPA Syria
NORTH ALEPPO COUNTRYSIDE, Syria (North Press) – Along with three other displaced women, Zeyneb Battal, an IDP from the city of Afrin, northwest Syria, is busy preparing kibbeh (a fried ball of spiced ground meat, onions, and grain, popular in Middle Eastern cuisine) and other dishes in a small restaurant in the town of Fafeen in the northern Aleppo countryside.
https://npasyria.com/en/60894/
12. First football league for women held in Syria’s Kobani
12 June 2021/NPA Syria
KOBANI, Syria (North Press) – The Youth and Sports Board in the Euphrates region, is preparing to hold the first local women’s football league in the city of Kobani, north Syria. The Education Committee’s women’s football team is the first women’s team to have been formed more than five years ago, to currently become seven teams.
https://npasyria.com/en/60774/
VIDEOS
13. (Video) Who is Abdullah Ocalan? – Women Weaving the Future
This panel addresses who Abdullah Öcalan is through his personal and political biography. We will explore the question of Abdullah Öcalan as a leader of peoples and women in particular, while a source of fear for those who seek to dominate power.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F16Ma9uik4
14. A brief History of the Kurdish Women’s Movement in 4 Parts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3HptQFGPnE
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, 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, 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.