YPJ General Commander Newroz Ehmed called on women from Girê Spî and Raqqa to return to liberated areas, and informed that YPJ fighters at the frontline have prepared special rooms to ensure the security of women and meet their urgent needs. Ehmed said they have humane responsibilities as much as the duty to liberate lands from ISIS gangs.

YPJ General Commander Newroz Ehmed issued a statement calling on women from Girê Spî and Raqqa to return to liberated areas and overthrow the cruelty of the ISIS gangs through the joint struggle and solidarity of Kurdish and Arab women, as well as women from different ethnic backgrounds.

Newroz Ehmed drew attention to the fact that ISIS occupation imposed slavery on women and targeted primarily women in order to strengthen and extend its dirty system. Ehmed added that ISIS gangs could impose slavery on the whole society only through the oppression of women.

Ehmed recalled the brutal attacks of the ISIS gangs on women, and said women preferring to migrate from their own lands prove that they do not accept the slavery imposed on them by the gangs. The YPJ Commander said that women of Girê Spî and Raqqa know well about the dirty ISIS policies more than anyone, and want to liberate themselves from the gangs.

Ehmed recalled that the women of the region had to live under hard conditions and migrated to other regions in the Middle East in order to save themselves. Ehmed added that women prefer their incredibly hard living conditions to the cruelty of the ISIS gangs.

Ehmed further stressed in her statement that one of the reasons that led YPG/YPJ forces to target Girê Spî is the ISIS terror on women, who have migrated to Cizire and Kobanê cantons during the past 3 years. Ehmed added that it was now time to overthrow the cruelty of ISIS gangs through women’s rebellion.

The YPJ Commander recalled that dozens of woman fighters have fallen in the war against ISIS gangs and stressed that the aim of all the women fighting against the gangs has been the liberation of ISIS occupied areas and the return of civilians to their own lands.

YPJ Commander Ehmed called on all women to return to liberated areas and said that YPJ fighters have prepared special units to serve the women of Girê Spî and women from Arab, Kurdish and other communities nearby in order to meet their basic needs and ensure their security. Ehmed added that YPJ fighters have humane responsibilities towards women in addition to their duty of liberating ISIS occupied territories.

Ehmed further said they would like women from Girê Spî and Raqqa to return to liberated areas rather than piling on barbed wire fences at the border, adding that they will refer all woman returnees to women’s organisations in order to sustain their security. Ehmed ended her statements in the following way:

“It is time for freedom and the joint struggle of peoples. We reiterate our promise that as long as ISIS cruelty continues, we will step up our forces and raise our struggle to defend our society, primarily the women. Our operation to liberate Girê Spî will be victorious. This is the demand of our martyrs and the peoples of the region.”