YJA STAR guerrillas have been fighting for freedom in the Kurdistan mountains for 40 years. Stating that they are the successors of resisting women and the flag of resistance they inherited will always fly high, they talked to the ANF on the significance of today.

Jin Çiya: I celebrate March 8 International Working Women’s Day for all women. Today is the day women’s will was recognized and women fought for. For us, this historic day is very significant. Back before the patriarchal mindset caused women’s downfall, every day was women’s day. Women have always resisted the patriarchal mindset in history. There were periods of passivity in this struggle, other times it was suppressed, but the resistance displayed by women today is grand.

It’s not in vain that today women are chanting Jin-Jiyan-Azadi in streets. Because life becomes meaningful with women. Woman is life. When woman was made a slave, life was taken captive. There have always been outcries of freedom against this slavery and captivity. From Clara’s to Sara’s and Sêvê’s, they never end. And they never will. Like Sara, the symbol of our history of freedom, and all women comrades who heroically gave their lives, today as the YJA STAR forces we are continuing their cause. We are fighting for identity and will in the Kurdistan mountains. It’s not just the Kurdish women, all women throughout the world are fighting this fight, risking their lives. This fight is the fight for all women. That is why, women should turn wherever they are in the world, be it a village, a neighborhood, a city, or a dungeon, into arenas of freedom and resistance.

Zelal Mêrdin: In 1992, comrade Beritan (Gülnaz Karataş) stood against the treacherous and submissive line and the feudal and regressive hegemonic mindset, and chose to throw herself off the cliff rather than surrendering. Leader Apo stated that founding the Women’s Freedom Movement (YAJK) was inevitable after comrade Beritan’s resistance, and founded the Women’s Freedom Movement under the lead of Sara’s. In the decades since, devotees of the women’s freedom movement have grown with the life and blood of thousands of women. The cause for freedom is passed down to us from Sara, Bêrîtan, Zîlan, Vîyan, Sema and thousands of resisting women. We as women from all nations, races and religions are here to uphold this legacy and always fly their flag of resistance high. We as women will fight for our freedom against all fascist regressive and tyrannical ideologies that hinder our freedom.

I am calling all Armenian, Turkish, Kurdish, Alevi, Arab women to the resistance front against the AKP government’s dirty policies over women today. Standing against all immoral policies of Erdoğan’s fascist government and voiding them should be the priority responsibility for all women.

Ronahî Dilxwîn: I have celebrated March 8 women’s day before, but greeting this day in the ranks of the guerrilla for the first time as a woman in resistance is very important for me. I saw the will and the reality of women in the ranks of the resistance. I regained the confidence stolen from women in the mountains of Kurdistan, with the Women’s Freedom Movement. Today I am proud to be a woman once more. Because I understood that woman is life itself, and the color and the language of life in the ranks of the struggle. We are given this strength by the founder of the women’s struggle, our Leader. For that, I am forever thankful to Leader Apo and our heroic martyrs of freedom. On such a meaningful day, I celebrate March 8 for our Leader, our martyrs and all the women of the world.

On this significant day, as the Women’s Freedom Movement our struggle will be louder than ever. The fire of the women’s revolution will burn all fascist and dictatorial hegemonic ideologies. Life will have new meaning through our women’s freedom struggle.