An excellent article that provides an over view of the Rojava Revolution, the nature of the radical democracy being practised there as well as the role that the female Kurdish fighters are playing in this experiment. What is happening in Rojava (Kurdish parts of Syria) is an exceptional example of a women led revolution; but unlike previous revolutions these women are not content to return to the kitchen and lay down their arms. Although membership of the YPJ and its mother organization YJA-Star is voluntary and members can leave at any time, these women are nevertheless life time members of their guerilla organization by virtue of the vast rights that they receive as part of membership. When Kurdish women join the YPJ-YJA-Star, they are exulted to higher social status, instead of looked down by the collective Kurdish community. The immense respect that Kurdish female fighters have within Kurdish society, which on the large part continues to be conservative and traditional (largely due to decades of experiencing war, marginalization, socio-economic and political marginalization) creates a distinct space in which women can gain agency, bodily self determination, freedom, education, feminist self-awareness as well as respect otherwise denied in the traditional sphere. Many of the women are already married and have children and their commitment to the freedom and continued liberation of Rojava is based on two weekly rotations dividing family commitment with the cause. For these women, there is no end to the revolution and therefore no end to their membership, commitment and participation within the YPJ-YJA-Star organizations. Further, membership of these womens guerilla organization automatically involves vocational training, education that some of these women may not have had access to previously, but also feminist awareness of their role within the liberation movement- not as something fleeting and temporary, but as something lasting, long term, persistent and integral to the continuation of the liberation movement. These organizations are also not solely Kurdish, but numbers of women from other ethno-religious communities have also and can join the womens guerilla movement. The movement is essentially open to multiculturalism and representation of women of other ethno-religious communities as it views liberation of ALL women as an integral and non negotiable aspect of collective freedom within the region. As feminists there is much we can learn about the theory of womens liberation movements as well as their practices from these women. Har biji Rojava, Har biji jine Rojava (Long live Rojava and long live the women of Rojava) [OM] via The Middle-Eastern Feminist https://opendemocracy.net/arab-awakening/necla-acik/kobane-struggle-of-kurdish-women-against-islamic-state
Posted on: Thu, 23 Oct 2014 11:30:00 +0000
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