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Title: Jineoloji Author: Marcel Cartier Date: June 2016 Language: en Topics: decolonial feminism, anarcha-feminism, feminism, kurdistan, kurds, Rojava, libertarian socialism Source: https://internationalistcommune.com/jineoloji-the-science-of-womens-liberation-in-the-kurdish-movement/][internationalistcommune.com]] [[http://kurdishquestion.com/article/3923-jineoloji-the-science-of-women-039-s-liberation-in-the-kurdish-movement][kurdishquestion.com]] [[http://kurdishquestion.com/article
After the first week I spent in northern Syria had come and gone, a
friend of mine in the United States sent me an animated text message to
check up on me: âYo! Howâs it going out there??! You staying safe??â
Where to even begin was the question. There was so much I wanted to tell
him at that moment about what had already been such a life changing
first seven or eight days, but I knew I wouldnât be able to convey a
great deal in both the limited amount of time I had to reply (wi-fi
wasnât so easy to always find while on the road) and the fact that a
text isnât exactly the best way to communicate profound emotions related
to witnessing such monumental social change (thereâs no emojis for those
revolutionary concepts that I know of that can do justice). My mind
raced as I thought back over the days that felt like weeks, the week
that felt like a year. Then, after about twenty seconds of thinking it
over, I simply wrote back: âMan, itâs amazing. A deep social revolution.
Women really do run things here.â
Well, that may have been a bit of an oversimplification. If anything, I
blame our reliance on technology in which ideas have to be greatly
compacted for any reductionism that comes with the sentiments expressed.
Women of course do not ârun thingsâ in Rojava â itâs not as if the
society has been turned upside down, especially overnight, so that a
deeply patriarchal society has now become a matriarchal one (nor is that
the goal). Also, I wasnât trying to romanticize the revolution, or to
fall into the trap (which I will try my best not to do here in my
writing) to be just another western man to somehow fetishize the role of
women in the Kurdish military struggle, as so much of our mainstream
press has done with its portrayal of the women of the Womenâs Protection
Units (YPJ). Still, the point I was trying to make to my friend
maintains its validity: the Rojava revolution is fundamentally, at its
core, about the liberation of women from the shackles of patriarchal
degradation that is wrapped up, and inherent, in capitalism.
It didnât take long after my arrival in Rojava to see this concept in
action. The first place I arrived at once crossing the border from Iraq
into northern Syria was a military checkpoint that was guarded by women
of the Asayish, or security of the democratic self-administration (I
very nearly typed âmanned by womenâ here, which would have made for an
embarrassing, and maybe revealing error about the kind of language we
are often naturally driven to employ). It was difficult to comprehend
that just a few hundred kilometres from this point, the fascist forces
of Daesh [ISIS] still held the city of Raqqa and a considerable amount
of territory in which women are confined to a life of slavery and
drudgery.
After hours later arriving in the city of Qamishlo, I was told that the
first order of business for me and the group of internationalists I was
with was going to be to sit through a series of educationals to get a
better sense of the foundations of the revolution that had been started
half a decade before (as I was to find out, this process has actually
been ongoing for several decades). These would focus on what they deem
to be key concepts, including the history of the Kurdish freedom
movement, internationalism, and the womenâs struggle. The classes on the
womenâs movement were to be divided into two sessions, one focusing on
the history of the Kurdish womenâs movement and one on the âscience of
womenâ, referred to in Kurmanji as âJineolojiâ.
The seriousness in which the comrades presented the education on the
fundamental role of women in transforming society in the four parts of
Kurdistan (that has now extended to Arab cities and villages that have
been liberated by the YPG/J-led Syrian Democratic Forces) showed me very
clearly that in this struggle, womenâs emancipation was no mere
footnote, or something that was alluded to but which lagged behind in
practice. I had known before coming to Syria that the Kurdish movement
in both Turkey (or as Kurdish regions there are called, Bakur) and in
Rojava practices a system of co-chairs, in which for every man elected
to hold an office, a woman also has to be elected. I knew that there was
a system of autonomous organization for women, of which the YPJ was but
one example. But I was curious to really dive into understanding just
what this official organizational structure means in tangible terms.
Before seeing it in practice, however, the educationals provided a
necessary framework for understanding how it was that this revolution
was even made possible to begin with.
If you get your only information about the world from the western
mainstream media, you might be forgiven for believing that the reason
why the Rojava revolution has been able to see women actively fighting
on the frontlines against the so-called Islamic State is because âthe
Kurdsâ have something inherent in them that allows this to be possible.
Mainstream narratives seem to soft peddle, if not overly make the
argument, that by their nature âthe Kurdsâ are more predisposed to
gender equality than others in the region, especially Arabs. Of course,
another element to the mainstream western press giving airtime to the
role of the YPJ in the Syrian war is that it plays well with the
establishmentâs peddling of Islamophobia, especially to equate Daesh
with Islam, and mischaracterize the YPJ and âthe Kurdsâ as being the
vanguard of a kind of secularism that is âwesternâ in orientation (you
would be hard-pressed to find reports that mention the fact that the
majority of Kurds are Sunni Muslims).
The reason that a series of classes for internationalists arriving in
Rojava on the history of the Kurdish womenâs movement is so essential is
to provide a corrective for the kind of misconceptions brought forward
by our beloved establishment news outlets. The reality is that far from
âthe Kurdsâ having gender-equality in their genes (one can look at Iraqi
Kurdistan today to make the opposite argument), the groundwork for the
YPJ and every womenâs organization in northern Syria today has been laid
by the more than 40 years of the Kurdish freedom movement organizing the
people.
The hevals (comrades) were keen to point out if one takes the long view
of history, the system of patriarchal oppression may at most comprise 2
percent of it, as various examples of social organization and ways of
living preceded the âsexual rupturesâ that gave rise to menâs dominant
position in society that we often think of as being somehow natural.
Even to this day, evidence of these previous societies in Mesopotamia,
some of them matriarchal, can still be seen in many mountainous regions
of Kurdistan that were less susceptible to foreign invasions, thus
allowing the communities to maintain their ânaturalâ beliefs (the
Yezidis are one example of this).
To the revolutionaries in Kurdistan, itâs insufficient to simply talk
about the heroines of today or even of the past four decades. The
examples given of women resisting patriarchy in the middle east starts
much further back than one might expect. Nefertitiâs resistance to the
priests and the pharaoh in 300 BC is cited alongside examples such as
Queen Zenobiaâs refusal to go along with Roman dictates in Palmyra in
the third century. After the first division of Kurdistan, Xanimzade led
the tribal resistance against the massacres committed by the Persian
Empire, and she was followed by names such as Halime Xanim who resisted
the rule of the Ottoman Empire.
The examples of 20^(th) century Kurdish women who are the modern
forerunners to women in the YPJ are seemingly without end. Adile Xanim
helped bring together 56 tribes in a confederation in modern day Iran
before her death in 1924. Zarife (1882â1937) was a widely known leader
among the Alevi population who was executed due to a traitor giving her
in to the Turkish authorities. The same year of the massacre of the
Kurdish people in Dersim, a woman named Bese who had led an uprising
threw herself from the rocks to avoid capture. In the next decade, women
like Gulazer and Mina Xanim would play a key role in the establishment
of the first Kurdish socialist state, the short-lived Mahabad Republic
(1946).
Prior to the establishment of the Kurdistan Workersâ Party (PKK) in
1978, the story of Leyla Qasim served as inspiration to the womenâs
struggle. Leyla started one of the first Kurdish Students Unions in
Baghdad, and planned to hijack a plane to raise awareness of the Kurdish
cause (comparisons can be drawn here to Leila Khaled, the Palestinian
revolutionary whose act of political hijacking on behalf of the Popular
Front for the Liberation of the Palestine helped to promote that
national liberation struggle). She was caught before her plan could
materialize and executed by the Iraqi state in 1974.
After the establishment of the PKK in the Turkish-occupied region of
Kurdistan, the movement for Kurdish liberation was elevated to a higher
level. The founders of the PKK, Abdullah Ocalan among them, deemed the
creation of the organization necessary as the existing Turkish left had
largely viewed the Kurdish question incorrectly, putting national
chauvinism in command. This clashed with the thesis of the newly
established party, which stated that Kurdistan was a colony, and that a
national liberation struggle was a historical necessity.
Among the founders of the Party was Sakine Cansiz, who would be murdered
in Paris in 2013 alongside two other women leaders, Fidan DoÄan and
Leyla Ćayleme. Sakine played a pivotal role in the development and
growth of the organization, and a central role in the partyâs embrace of
gender equality as a primary part of its makeup. Her leap into politics
was itself an act of rebellion against the traditional family structure
that aimed to keep her in bondage. Reflecting on her decision to become
involved in political activities, she said âIn a sense I abandoned the
family. I did not accept that pressure, insisting on revolutionism.
Thatâs how I left and went to Ankara. In secret of course.ââ
Sakineâs relationship to Ocalan is important, as both were in leadership
positions in the organization. It was the latter who through personal
reflection and self-criticism of his own relationships with women began
to question the patriarchal family structure in which women were always
put in the position of being an object. He concluded that he needed to
undergo a transformation by âkilling the manâ inside himself, observing
how society had made him the way he was. These reflections were in
addition to looking back on other instances of womenâs oppression and
subjugation he saw in his life, such as a childhood friend of his who
was forcibly married to an old man, and seeing his mother live in what
he saw as prison-like conditions within her own home. Most important to
his decision to take up the issue of womenâs freedom on a higher level,
though, was his relationship with Fatma, another founder of the party
who he saw as someone he had used for his own interests.
Although Ocalan promoted the concept of âkilling the manâ and advanced
theoretical concepts relevant to womenâs liberation, including that
women constituted the oldest colony, he also understood that he â and
men, in general â could not lead this process. He is viewed within the
movement as someone who has given his strength and development to the
process, but who has also actively encouraged women to take up
leadership of their own liberation in an autonomous way within the party
and other organizations in the wider movement.
Today, the revolutionary movement that is grouped together in the
Kurdistan Communities Group (KCK) in the four parts of Kurdistan
advances the science of women, or Jineoloji, as a principle theoretical
and practical part of the revolutionary process. However, this concept,
adopted in 2008, was the ideological culmination of decades of
experience in organizing.
In addition to Ocalanâs concept of âkilling the manâ, another
fundamental idea is that of the âtheory of separationâ (both put forward
in 1996) which holds that women should be able to have control of their
own organizations. If it is held that revolution cannot be made FOR the
people, but rather by the people, then it must be held that revolution
cannot merely be made FOR women, but must be made by women. The
separation theory also means that women should remove themselves from
relationships based on hierarchies. One can see the seriousness today of
this application, as romantic relationships and marriage within the
ranks of cadre in the movement are non-existent. Part of this is to also
protect the organizations from adopting a liberal approach to work and
life.
Research into the role of women throughout the history of Mesopotamia
also became a key part of the work of the movement towards the end of
the 1990s. During the same year that Ocalan was captured in Kenya by the
Turkish state, the PJKK (Kurdistan Working Womenâs Party) was created as
a womenâs party, although it was later superseded by other autonomous
structures such as the PJA (Free Womenâs Party). In the 2000s, new
theories were developed including the âtheory of the roseâ which held
that women may âlook fragile but have thorns to protect themselvesâ. In
the run-up to the new paradigm of democratic confederalism being adopted
by the party and by the larger Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) in
2005, a âparadigm of a democratic, ecological society on the basis of
womenâs freedomâ was advocated in 2003.
By the time the first day of my education about womenâs freedom in
Kurdistan was half way over, I could understand why it was so important
to begin with these classes rather than dive right into visiting
organizations responsible for concrete, day-to-day issues and
organizing. The instructors frequently spoke about how revolution isnât
about taking power and then building something new, but struggling to
overcome the ideology of capitalism while organizing, something that the
movement had been doing for decades before Rojava came to prominence in
2012 with the establishment of the democratic self-administration.
Key to understanding Jineoloji is that self-defence doesnât only mean
taking up the gun, but actually manifests more frequently in building up
structures and organization. As one leader in the movement told me with
palpable revolutionary zeal, âSelf-defence also has to begin in the
mind. If you see yourself as a victim, you canât overcome oppression.â
During the second day of education, there was an elaboration upon the
history of feminist thought globally, including the first wave of the
19^(th) and 20^(th) centuries that focused on campaigns for the right to
vote, equal civil rights, and workersâ rights, the second wave
(1970â1990) which was characterized by slogans such as âthe private is
politicalâ and âmy body belongs to meâ, and the third wave since 1990 in
which the deconstruction of genders has taken centre stage.
Importantly, and of critical interest to those in my class who had come
from western societies, were reflections on how the state has attempted
to liberalize the radical womenâs movement by funnelling money to
various organizations that has had the effect of bringing them within
the framework of the capitalist system. In addition, the instructors
spoke of the strand of liberal western feminism that often is
orientalist in nature, and alluded to groups like FEMEN that equate
Islam with womenâs oppression. Such groups promote the narrative of the
imperialists who aim to subordinate the Middle East to their brand of
capitalist modernity in the name of freedom. As one devoted Muslim woman
who was also a dedicated part of the Rojava revolution was to tell me a
few days later of her hijab, âitâs not important whatâs on my head. Itâs
important whatâs in my head.â
The flexible and undogmatic approach of the Kurdish freedom movement to
the idea of revolution and womenâs liberation was made clear to me
during the instruction I received on what Jineoloji means today as a
science of womenâs liberation. For instance, to the initial confusion
and frustration of some of the internationalists, the instructors often
didnât have cut and dry answers to give to certain questions. After all,
Jineoloji holds that there isnât some immutable one and only truth, but
that the work done by revolutionaries in defence of humanity can give
meaning to life and thus bring us closer to understanding the truth.
However, they were clear about the fact that just because they donât see
their as being âone truthâ, this doesnât mean that one should lapse into
the liberal approach of âmy truthâ in which everyoneâs subjective
analysis of reality has merit even if itâs absurdly backward or
reactionary.
Part of the analysis of Jineoloji is to realize that everything and
everyone is alive, and to not fall into the dichotomy of the material
versus the immaterial. This may seem like quite a metaphysical approach
for comrades in the west who may be accustomed to much more materialist,
and often positivist, approaches. The ideology also recognizes unity in
diversity, understanding that advancements are made with solidarity and
cooperation, but not through crushing individuality (as opposed to
individualism).
Jineoloji also recognizes the âPrinciple of the Indefiniteâ, which is
that although the future cannot be predicted, humanity can analyse that
there are different options and roads which can be taken and therefore
we can intervene to change developments. Duality was spoken of often
during instruction, and it was an idea that was kept resurfacing during
my visit to Rojava. As I was told about the war that continues to rage
and the revolution that is unfolding at the same time: âby seeing that
thereâs light, we become aware of the darkness. One cannot exist without
the other. There are contradicting parts.â Other aspects to the ideology
included not separating subject and object, as well as creating unity
between emotional and analytical intelligence. As the instructor made
clear, âon the one hand, we criticize rationalism. Emotional
intelligence played a key role in the Neolithic period. We can be both.
We can both think and feel.â
These concepts help to illustrate the major theoretical work that has
gone into creating this science of women, but the actual principles of
the ideology can be underlined as the following:
Welatparezi
To reject estrangement, colonialism, assimilation imposed on women
Free Thought / Opinion
Woman must make their own decisions and make a mental break with the
structures that dominate
Autonomous Womenâs Organizing
Only if women have the chance to organize themselves will patriarchy be
overcome
Struggle for Change
Not merely making demands of the oppressor, but taking rights through
struggle and creating alternatives
Aesthetic and Ethics
Women should not stick to patterns of beauty dictated by society or men
Of course, theory without any kind of practical application is
meaningless, and the Kurdish Freedom Movement has gone through a process
of constantly refining and developing its theories related to
emancipating half of the human race. Even within the movement itself,
there have been no lack of incidents â including involving leadership â
that have shown that revolutionary organizations themselves are not
immune from patriarchal attitudes. For instance, in the beginning of
women participating in the armed struggle in Bakur, many men within the
PKK had an attitude that women were incapable of taking on certain tasks
that were deemed to be âmanlyâ. The argument from some men in leadership
was that women were too emotional and soft for warfare, and that
therefore it was better to place them in non-guerrilla roles. Some
commanders wanted their women comrades who did become guerrillas to wear
scarves. One young woman fighter, Heval Beritan, heard about this and
suggested that women build up their own guerrilla forces. The autonomous
organization and separation of the men from the women guerrillas that
followed had the effect of meaning that men and women had to take care
of all tasks now (for instance, men were now completely responsible for
cooking).
The story of Heval Beritan is one that clearly illustrates that fact
that women are at the very least on par with men in terms of being able
to accomplish every revolutionary task and play every role. She was
initially a journalist, but wound up a commander in warfare as she
wanted to play a more hands-on role in the struggle. In 1992 during the
South War, she fought until her last bullet and rather than submit to
being captured by the reactionary forces of the Kurdistan Democratic
Party (KDP), she threw herself from a mountain, committing revolutionary
suicide in the same vein as Bese had done so more than fifty years
before, during the battle of Dersim.
The lives of the Beritans, the Sakines, and the other countless women
revolutionaries in Kurdistan provided the practical example for the
women who went on to form the YPJ. Todayâs womenâs revolution in Rojava
would have been an impossible dream without the examples of these
shehids (martyrs) who gave their lives for the cause of not only freedom
for Kurds, but for women everywhere. Every day, the soil of Rojava is
nourished by the blood of women who fall in combat, side by side with
their male comrades as equals. The self-sacrifice of those like Arin
Markin, who blew herself up during the battle of Kobane rather than be
taken prisoner by Daesh, illuminates the path of women, as does YPJ/SDF
Commander Rojda Felat who is at the forefront of the ongoing Raqqa
operation. Their examples are the practical manifestation of the
ideology developed over decades of struggle, one that the movement
believes has the potential to not only liberate the Middle East, but the
whole of humankind.
The scene couldnât be more jubilant. The sun shines brightly in a way
that is simultaneously agonizing and unbearable, yet beautifully
brilliant. Scores of packed cars and Toyota trucks with men and women
clutching tri-color Rojavan flags make their way to a makeshift parking
lot in the middle of what appears to be a seemingly endless field. The
colors are vibrant and festive, indicative of the Kurdish nationâs
cultural traditions and identity. Smiles abound as thousands descend on
a massive public gathering, one that everyone knew was going to take
place on this day, even though the location had only been announced the
previous night. Security is tight. After all, this is still a warzone
despite the liberatory feeling that reigns supreme.
Over what is otherwise picture perfect scenery of Dirbesiye, the newly
constructed Turkish border wall isnât far off. On that side of the
divide that keeps this nation torn apart, Kurds are subject to the
brutality of a colonial state they have been fighting for what seems
like an eternity. Women too, Kurdish or Turkish alike, are subject to
the demeaning policies of Recep Tayyip Erdoganâs AKP Party, an
organization that proposed just last year that rapists should be
pardoned if they marry their victims. Erdogan himself has proclaimed
that women are not equal to men in blunt, and unmistakable terms.
Standing on this piece of free territory over the barely completed
border wall, life couldnât be more different. Today is March 8^(th),
International Womenâs Day. Itâs a day that is easily one of the most
important in the calendar in northern Syria, along with Newroz and
perhaps March 15^(th), the day that Abdullah Ocalan was captured in
1999.
Driving through Cizire canton to get to the festival, banners lined the
roads proclaiming âAdure 8â as a day to be celebrated. Walls brightened
up the city of Amude painted with the most stunning murals marking the
importance of this day. Women hold up half the sky, the old Chinese
saying goes. Here, the desire for the slogan to be more than just words
is palpable. Itâs not just that women have been given guns to defend
their lives and their newly claimed freedom, although thatâs without a
doubt an important component of it, perhaps the most visual
representation of all of the work taking place within the society to
raise women up to genuine equality. Womenâs autonomous organizations
were among the first to be set up here, even before the revolution was
announced in 2012. Itâs groups such as Kongreya Star that have entrusted
themselves with the responsibility of putting together this festive
display of celebration and struggle.
As I walk through the field filled with thousands of people from all
ethnic backgrounds and age groups, that spirit of revolution Iâve
alluded to before grabs me and takes full hold of me. Iâm startled by
the juxtaposition of the stage in front of me, in which a banner of
Serok Apo (Abdullah Ocalan) hangs proudly behind it, and the border wall
that I can make out maybe a few hundred meters behind it. The Turkish
forces have hung a flag of the increasingly fascist Republic over it, as
if the disgusting slabs of concrete werenât enough to cement the idea
that the occupiers were always watching. And yet, Rojavaâs self-defence
forces are ever vigilant and ready to do battle.
A young man Iâve just met from one of the Turkish communist parties that
has sent militants to fight in Rojava puts his arm over me and tells me,
âon that side of the border today, women will be beaten and arrested for
demonstrating. No matter if theyâre in Istanbul, Ankara, or Cizre. Same
shit.â Here, though, women dance. Women sing. Women shout. Women demand
their emancipation. As part of moving from object to subject, from
oppressed to equals, women are in motion. They are the backbone of this
revolution.
The day before attending the International Womenâs Day festivities, I
was fortunate enough to be able to visit the head office of Kongreya
Star in Qamishlo, both the capital city of Cizire canton and the
Federation. As the women here are eager to tell me, the position of the
womenâs movement in Rojava today wouldnât be even close to where it is
if it wasnât for the work the movement had done over decades prior to
2012 in all four parts of Kurdistan. Here, the first independent womenâs
organization Yekitiya Star had been founded in 2005, but they faced
immense challenges in organizing freely due to opposition and
restrictions from the Syrian state. This was the forerunner to the
current organization that adopted its new name to reflect the entirety
of the Federation.
As three women hevals are keen to tell me, theirs is a structure that
aims to tackle hierarchy, and therefore organizes from the base. As the
commune is the basis for the new society being set up in Rojava, it is
within that structure that problems concerning women are first addressed
(each commune has a representative of Kongreya Star within it). If,
however, they cannot be handled within the commune, they then go to
their regional Kongreya Star group. If the problem requires an even
higher level of mediation or assistance, central Kongreya Star is then
consulted. The aim of the organization as a whole is to tackle every
problem that concerns the lives of women today in northern Syria, which
is no small task given the backwardness that women have had to confront
and attempt to overcome.
One of the most difficult aspects of organizing has been the resistance
to the notion of womenâs empowerment that comes from men who are still
rooted in traditional patriarchal mentalities. As one of the younger
hevals explains to me, this is changing gradually, and a noticeable
difference is already apparent in five years of organizing. She explains
to me how even though the entirety of the Kurdish nation has been
oppressed, men have had the power over women in the home. âMen often
donât want women working in politics, or outside of the home in general.
There is a fear of them leaving their âmother role.âââ
It should come as no surprise that women receive education here about
the history of the Kurdish womenâs movement and the theoretical basis
for womenâs liberation in Kurdish society known as Jineoloji. What I
found more surprising â and deeply impressive â is the lengths to which
the organization is also going to educate men. Iâm told that in the city
of Afrin, there was just recently an educational strictly for men that
focused on 5,000 years of male hegemony. There are classes across the
whole of the region that last for weeks, or even months for those
serious about âkilling the dominant maleâ inside themselves. These aim
to do more than just educate â they are akin to a form of rehabilitation
to overcome reactionary attitudes toward gender roles and patriarchal
oppression. The courses are given by both women and men, and aim to cut
out attitudes ranging from extremely overt sexism to the more subtle but
still sexist attitudes of âI need to protect her because donât want to
see her hurtâ (assuming the position of men is to protect women because
of the superior role of men and asserting that women cannot defend or
protect themselves).
The youngest of the hevals continues, âMale chauvinism is obvious even
in those who talk about womenâs liberation. They might be able to speak
on it theoretically, but often canât really back it up in practice.ââ I
find her words more than just relevant. How many of us men in the west
who would call ourselves feminists, even those of us who have histories
of many years in socialist and radical political life, fall short on
questions of practice on this very issue? My experience has been that
more than any other question, it is relations between men and women in
which male âcomradesâ often fall far short of the mark. To be sure, this
cannot ultimately be rectified without revolution, and without a doubt
the ominipresence of extreme sexism in our uber-capitalist societies
canât help but to taint even the most serious of male revolutionaries
with a level of reactionary characteristics. Yet, it seems to me that
the model employed here by Kongreya Star in how serious re-education for
men is taken might be something that radicals in the west should
consider beyond just simple theoretical pronouncements about equality.
Although the idea of bringing men into the work being done Kongreya Star
is an important component, men do not participate in any way in the
organizationâs structure. Just as the Womenâs Protection Units (YPG) is
an autonomous force fighting alongside the YPG that has its own
structure of leadership, Kongreya Star makes decisions on its own
without the input of men. As Iâm told many times in Rojava, there are
two struggles unfolding at the moment â a military one against Daesh,
and a womenâs struggle in all aspects of society. For the womenâs
struggle to be successful, it is up to women themselves to achieve and
defend their free life.
Of course, there are concerns among the women of Kongreya Star here
about the long-term vitality of the movement. As Heval Amuda says, âIn
many previous revolutions, women would play a very central role
including in fighting. But at the end of the day, they would go home,
back to their previous positions in the traditional family. We want to
make sure that doesnât happen here. Sometimes a woman can think more
like a man than a man himself.â
The women here have all experienced the transformation of liberation
that has taken place both inside of themselves and in the greater fabric
of society. As they donât hesitate to point out, in the beginning many
of them didnât believe themselves (and these are now leaders!) that
women could do everything that men could. It was a process that meant
eroding the uncertainty of being able to be equal slowly but surely,
while building the self-confidence needed to assert themselves. They are
quick to point out that their freedom is not the western, liberal
conception of what it means to be liberated in which âI can go, do, and
speak what I wantâ but it is inextricably linked up with the collective
liberation of the entirety the people. They are blunt about their
objection to this concept in asserting that this westernized notion
âisnât freedom at all.â Theirs is a fight that is ideological,
philosophical, and above all practical, one that takes stock of the
historical role of the entirety of the revolutionary movement.
A short walk from the central organization of Kongreya Star is the local
Mala Jin, or âWomenâs Houseâ. This project was initially started by just
four women, but today there are thousands who work in a number of these
houses all across northern Syria. Their work focuses on giving women a
place to come if they need help or strength, particularly in the fight
against domestic violence and abuse.
As Iâm told, prior to 2011 the levels of domestic violence were high as
this was a time before widespread education about the rights of women
that the democratic self-administration ushered in. With the coming of
the revolution in 2012, a process began to saw the domestic abuse
numbers fall, though there was initially a considerable amount of
threats by men against the house and its leadership because of the work
they were involved in. These treats havenât completely been done away
with yet today, but as Iâm told the situation is vastly improved. Also,
as a testament to the transformation of family relations, most of the
women who come to Mala Jin today are not coming from abusive households,
but are Arab women who were previously in the hands of Daesh.
At this particular house, there are eleven women who volunteer their
time to assist with the work. As is the case everywhere in Rojava,
everything is built from the bottom up. It is families and individuals
who have donated not just their time, but their money and resources to
help in building this and other houses across Rojava.
Iâm stunned to hear just how hands on Mala Jin truly is in insuring the
liberation of their sisters, going as far as to go to homes with force
to physically liberate women who are confined by their husbands. Yet,
even when men initially appear beyond the point of rehabilitation, there
is always an attempt made at resolution. If a woman is taken to freedom,
or she escapes from home by herself, there will usually follow a
collective sit down with the man and the family. If these efforts of
resolving the situation arenât successful, the man can then be taken to
the Asayish (security service), but this is generally a last resort.
Even then, a simple punishment is not the norm for men who have been
engaged in domestic abuse, but restorative justice that attempts to
actually change the manâs thinking and behaviour is applied. In all
cases, women and their children can be taken to houses where they can
live in safety and security if they are under threat of physical or
emotional suffering.
With the coming of self-administration, a gap was left in terms of the
law. As I was to find out, many changes have taken place in this sphere
as it applies to the role of women. One example has been the outlawing
of forced marriages. While common prior to 2012, now families
responsible can be fined, or even imprisoned if absolutely necessary. In
an effort to overcome polygamy, all religious marriages must now be done
together with a legal marriage to make sure that a man cannot marry more
than one woman. Iâm also told that while marriage between relatives
wasnât unusual just half a decade ago, such occurrences today are few
and far between.
As I stand in the middle of such tremendous natural beauty the next day
in Dirbesiye, I couldnât think of a more ideal place to be spending
International Womenâs Day. Speakers take the stage to chants of âJin
Jiyan Azadiâ (Woman, Life, Freedom). Performers sing songs in Kurdish
with the passion and urgency of a people who have kept their national
customs under wraps â but always still in their sprits â for decades.
Young children born after the start of the revolution carelessly play in
the fields. Are they oblivious to the major historical earthquake thatâs
taking place here, one that they are part of whether they know it yet or
not?
I ask a young woman comrade Iâve just met from the Turkish-based
Marxist-Leninist Communist Party (MLKP) if sheâs encountered a fear from
women in Rojavan society about grabbing hold of their own freedom. She
seems perplexed, but I explain that Iâm asking because of something that
was said the day before at the Mala Jin. One of the women there had said
that women are often fearful about coming to the house, but once they
arrive, theyâre often so moved by their experience that they end up not
only breaking free from their household shackles, but they end up
joining the revolution in some organizational capacity. The MLKP heval
nods an approving âI understandâ then cuts me off quickly saying,
âThatâs true for all of us. I also had to overcome that traditionalist
family environment and the subjugation that comes with it. But once you
take that first step, the leap to being a revolutionary doesnât seem
that big after all. My family wanted to have me married off, but I
became a guerrilla for the people.â
It seems that this âleapâ is precisely what the whole of society here
has taken. The fear and uncertainty of self-administration, the doubts
about women taking the reigns, certainly had to exist at some point. But
just as so many individual women now walk chin up with an unbreakable
confidence, the whole of Rojava appears as such to me. Even with Turkish
soldiers positioned not far off with tanks and heavy weaponry, a
confidence of victory pervades this strip of liberated land and its
people armed with forty year old Kalashnikovs and ideas that belong to
the future of humankind. My newest heval has to abruptly leave, so we
exchange the customary handshake and âSerkeftinâ (victory). She leaves
me with one last message, a slogan that plastered on a number of
buildings and banners across Cizire canton: âIf not now, when? If not
us, who?â Itâs evident that for these women, there is no going back.
Fear seems to been vanquished. It seems contradictory for me to say so
of a society that makes every statement it can to confirm its
anti-hierarchical and anti-vanguard sentiments, but these women are the
leadership â not merely of northern Syria, but I would argue the world.
I am free of any level of doubt that they are in fact the vanguard force
of humanity.