Abdullah Öcalan’s call to women has begun to draw close attention from the public and is being carefully followed. His statements, particularly emphasizing that women are at the foundation of the struggle, have sparked discussions within the women’s movement in Turkey.

Özgül Saki, a member of parliament for the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) in Istanbul, who has studied self-governance experiences around the world for years and has closely followed the women’s struggle, spoke to ANF evaluating Abdullah Öcalan’s call to women.

Saki stated that feminists from Turkey and Kurdistan, and the women’s movement as a whole, have already begun to take steps in line with this seriousness.

The women’s struggle for peace dates back to ancient Greece

Özgül Saki stated the following about the history of women’s struggle for peace:

“In fact, we can trace the roots of women’s struggle for peace back to ancient Greece. In Aristophanes’ play Lysistrata, known as the first anti-war theater play, the struggle of women to end the war between Athens and Sparta is depicted. Tired of the devastation and destruction caused by years of war, both Athenian and Spartan women organized for peace.

The Middle Ages can be seen as an era of war against women for the sake of land ownership and primitive capital accumulation. However, beginning with the modern era started by the French Revolution, women have been involved in both war and peace processes, not only as victims of wars but also as founding, independent political subjects.

Just four years after the French Revolution, in 1791, Olympe de Gouges declared the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen, stating that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights contained no reference to women. In the same period in England, Mary Wollstonecraft wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Later, during the Paris Commune, women known as the Communards took part both in defending Paris and in challenging the male-dominated attitudes within the Commune itself.

Moreover, until recent times, women were excluded from all international institutions established to end wars. For example, in 1812, the Society for the Promotion of Permanent and Universal Peace was founded in England. Of course, women were not allowed to join the society; they were only permitted to send letters. In 1840, the World Anti-Slavery Convention was held with the participation of 409 delegates from the colonies of the United States, France, and Britain. Although there were female delegates at the conference, they were not allowed to speak. Later, in 1849, at the Peace Congress in Paris, Anne Knight proposed the establishment of the International Women's Association for Peace and Freedom.

During the period of the First World War, throughout the Soviet Revolution, and in the struggle against fascism in Europe, women continuously voiced their words through both their organizational structures and their activism. As active subjects in political and social struggles, they carried on their collective pursuit of peace.

Of course, this struggle was never limited to a single geography; women’s struggle for peace has always been international. Today, from Abya Yala to the Middle East, it continues to permeate even the smallest corners of the earth.

Why have women insisted on peace for centuries? This is deeply connected to the patriarchal system: women are forced to live within a societal structure where men are the decision-makers at every level. Regardless of their class, ethnicity, or faith, women experience the consequences of war differently but share common impacts in state institutions, within the family, and under the broader destructiveness of war.

In conditions of war, women are subjected to sexual violence, forced displacement, poverty, and rising male violence in parallel with the glorification of militarism. They are expected to silently endure these hardships without being included in any decision-making mechanisms. For women, the struggle for peace is not merely a political goal, but a profound transformation of their daily, practical lives.”

The women’s struggle for peace is not only against male domination, but also against colonialism and slavery

Özgül Saki emphasized that women’s insistence on peace should not be defined solely as a reaction to male domination, as women also confront the bourgeoisie and colonialism in the struggle for peace. She continued:

“Women’s insistence on peace is, of course, not limited to a reaction against male domination. In many cases, it initially emerges as general demands shared by both women and men. However, as women engage in collective struggles against slavery, the bourgeoisie, and colonialism, they find themselves directly confronting patriarchy.

Olympe de Gouges’ rebellion was such a confrontation, as she objected to the absence of women’s demands in the Social Contract that emerged after the joint struggle of women and men in the French Revolution. Similarly, during the Paris Commune, women known as the Communards took up arms to establish and defend the Commune, yet they were not accepted into its governance. Thus, women fought both to defend the Commune against Versailles and to claim their silenced voices within the Commune itself. We can also cite similar examples from the Soviet Revolution. What must be emphasized here is that even in the smallest struggles women wage against war, forced displacement, and poverty, they simultaneously erode patriarchy.

In the 1800s, when women were prevented from institutional representation in both national and international peace conferences and organizations, many of them simultaneously joined the struggle for suffrage. This is not a coincidence. Similarly, in the labor movement, when women’s participation in unions was blocked on the grounds that they were ‘dividing class struggle,’ it became essential for women workers to organize not only against employers but also against the male-dominated practices within their own organizations.

Therefore, whether based on class, nationality, or religion, the collective struggle of women for equality and freedom is inherently a struggle against patriarchy as well.”

We are striving to build a social life that can become the heart of a heartless world

Özgül Saki stated that women’s struggle is a fight against the system of exploitation and that they are striving to build a social life that “can become the heart of a heartless world.” She continued:

“In wars fought on religious grounds or sustained as sectarian conflicts, it is very clear that women are turned into objects and their existence is devalued. From the Catholic Inquisition’s witch hunts to what has been done by the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan, by Hezbollah and ISIS in Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and Lebanon, as well as by Boko Haram in Lebanon and Nigeria, the experiences of women in countries governed by Sharia law show us this: any system that does not guarantee women’s political and social equality offers nothing positive for women.

This is why, even under heavy oppression and violence, women continue to struggle to make decisions about their own lives. It must also be acknowledged that many who seek refuge from the brutal practices of capitalism and colonialism turn to religion. As Marx said, ‘Religion is the opium of the people, but it is also the heart of a heartless world.’

Those of us who fight against all systems of oppression, domination, and exploitation must shoulder the responsibility of transforming our organizations today in accordance with the values of the life we dream of, driven by our belief that another world is possible, a social life that can become the heart of a heartless world. I would like to say that it is women who fight against patriarchal capitalism, and who feel this responsibility most deeply.

For this reason, women’s struggle for peace is not merely about silencing the guns, though that is undoubtedly very important, but it is also a struggle for liberation.”

The struggle of Kurdish women lies at the foundation of social change in the Middle East

Özgül Saki stated that at the heart of deep transformation in the Middle East is the struggle of Kurdish women and emphasized that the construction of Rojava serves as an example not only for the Middle East but for the entire world. She continued:

“Today, the only condition under which one can speak of peace in the Middle East is ending Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories and recognizing the reality of the Kurdish people’s struggle for freedom as a nation divided into four parts, resisting assimilation, denial, and statelessness.

Palestinian women have been organized in the struggle against occupation and genocide from the very beginning, and at the same time, they continue their pursuit of an honorable peace under all circumstances. Recently, a feminist peace coalition representing ‘Women Wage Peace’ from Israel and ‘Women of the Sun’ from Palestine marched to Jerusalem in their ‘Journey to Peace’ action, declaring, ‘We insist on peace.’

The origins of this joint peace struggle date back to 1988, when ten Jewish Israeli women decided to hold a solidarity vigil dressed in black alongside Palestinians on a sidewalk in Jerusalem Square. Later, they organized ‘Women in Black’ peace vigils in Haifa, Tel Aviv, and many other cities. Inspired by these women, Serbian women carried out a similar action in Belgrade in 1991.

However, without question, the most profound transformation in the Middle East has been led by the Kurdish women’s freedom struggle. Their remarkable resistance against the genocidal ISIS in Syria and the subsequent construction of a new social life in Rojava has inspired not only the region but all peoples around the world fighting for equality, freedom, and peace.

The joint, united struggle of the Saturday Mothers and the Peace Mothers has become a uniquely local peace initiative that changed the course of history. The struggle of the Peace Mothers, symbolized by their white headscarves, formed unbreakable bonds of solidarity with the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina, who hold vigils wearing white scarves.

The First NADA (Middle East and North Africa Democratic Women’s Alliance) Congress, held in May, has carried this historical accumulation into a new phase. Yes, in such a geography turned into a land of wars and massacres, the fundamental reason why women insist on peace, in my view, lies in their longing for a social life in which they can determine their own future and their trust in the gains of the struggle they have waged through their own self-organizations.”

To be continued...