YJA Star guerrilla Nûda Karker stated that in the PKK, which is a women’s movement at the same time, a wholly realized person with identity and will emerges and rebuilds life, aware of herself and knowing herself. Karker said she was very lucky to have been able to achieve this.

YJA Star guerrilla Nûda Karker was married with two children when she joined the PKK from Rojhilat in 2013. She spoke to the ANF on the situation in Rojhilat and Iran in her case, the reason she joined, the significance and how right her decision was in retrospect.

As a Rojhilati woman, how did you achieve your break away from the system?

The male mind owns the system, and it determines a life form according to its needs. Women are seen as an oppressed, humiliated and refused gender. We were spending great efforts for the system, but it was not visible. There was no accumulation. I was focused on why a woman should be a revolutionary, and what kind of a revolutionary she should be. Heval Nûda’s (NHPG Military Council Member and YJA Star commander Nûda Karker/Nazan Bayram was martyred in Besta on April 1, 2008, after 16 years in the guerrilla) life sparked my interest in particular.

Is that why you chose this name?

Yes. Heval Nûda was martyred while holding up the struggle in Botan in 2008. Her love for her country, her ideology, her sacrifice, her loyalty to the party, her devotion to her comrades and people pulled me in. I wanted to be the Kurdish Woman she was. I considered her an example, so I took her name when I joined.

What were the obstacles that you faced during your time of searching for a solution within the system? How did you get over them?

We had a certain strength, interest and efforts, but they were prevented from fully manifesting. The people were being robbed off their will. Everything was banned. I had faith in myself, but the system’s mindset posed obstacles for me. As I got to know the movement, I came to realize the truth of the Kurdish Woman. The Kurdish woman has taken a step and created a tradition of resistance against tyranny. I learned of the lives of Zîlan and Berîtan. There were people who carried the struggle within the system as well, like Şirin Elemhuli. I was looking for an answer to why I wasn’t a Kurdish woman like that. I was struggling, because the system weawes its web starting from inside your home. Your mother, brother, father, sister, all are intervening in your life. If you have a house or a car within the system that’s it. I wasn’t convinced by this. Like the Kurdish women who carry the struggle, I focused on walking in the path of freedom. I fought for what kind of a woman I should be, and how I should organize my wrath and my ambition.

Can you talk about the bounds the Iranian state system traps women in?

The Iranian state is supposed to be a “Muslim” state. Iran is the country with the most femicides. They push women to prostitution, and open the path for this in schools and hospitals. They prepare girls for marriage at a young age. The Iranian system first lets you free and pulls you in, then locks you in a cage and erases you. The family “train” the children this way. Those who have a house, a car and a child within the system think they are free. Women consent to this slavery, without realizing. I was in the same situation. That ends in civil death. Like I said, despite it all, I worked to be rid of this and pushed myself out of the system.

There are other organizations in Iran. Why PKK, and not them?

PKK is a women’s movement at the same time. There is women’s freedom in the PKK ranks. Here a person has an identity and a will. In the PKK, a person is manifested with every aspect of herself, she realizes herself and knows herself, and rebuilds life. PKK is knowledge. PKK is a guide, a mentor, and with everything else, morality. By joining the PKK, I understood my existence. I organized and revealed my ambition, wrath, rebellion and objection in the PKK. I’m very lucky to have been able to do this. I am trying to use this chance to be worthy of the Nûda Karker name.

What were your expectations before you joined, and what interested or impressed you while you joined?

What interested me the most when I joined was that the comrades organized themselves in troops and battalions in a unique way. The devotion of the women, their will and their struggle impressed me a lot.

I achieved my will in the free ranks and all women can achieve this. The women in Rojhilat are weaving rugs, getting married and cooking in the kitchen. The time for this slavery to stop has to come. I was married for 10 years, and I had 2 children. None of these could be an obstacle in my way. Every Kurdish woman can recreate herself in the ranks of the Kurdish Freedom Movement.