The International Women’s Alliance (IWA) strongly condemned the brutal attack on Kurdish women in a protest rally held on October 26 against the detention of Gültan Kışanak -the first female mayor of Diyarbakir -and Firat Anli, co-mayors of the Kurdish city who had been detained in the evening of October 25.

IWA slammed Turkish security forces for the arrests during the protest rally of Ayla Akat, the chairwoman of the Kurdish women’s movement in Northern Kurdistan/Turkey, the Free Women’s Congress (KJA) and Ceylan Bağrıyanık, KJA board member and representative of the Kurdish women’s movement in the talks between the imprisoned PKK-leader Abdullah Öcalan and the Turkish state. IWA recalled that the Turkish security forces also raided the home of Akat Ata and the office of KJA purportedly in search for ‘evidence’ so that the Turkish state can keep the women in jail.

IWA continued, condemning the wars that have caused destruction, displacement, detention, disfigurement and deaths among women, and announced the launch of an anti-war campaign dubbed as “Women Fight Repression, Fascism, Militarization and Wars of Aggression.”

IWA expressed solidarity with the Kurdish women’s movement in Turkey in their struggle against the fascist regime under the leadership of Erdoğan and his party AKP.

The International Women’s Alliance saluted the national women’s organizations that are leading the resistance against exploitation and oppression, fascism and militarism, occupation and war and those promoting freedom and democracy all around the globe. 

The IWA invited everyone to participate in the demonstration in Montreal on Saturday, November 26, 2016 under the theme: “Women Resist Militarization, Occupation and Wars of Aggression!”

Place: Norman Bethune Square

Date: At 13:00 on 26 November 2016, Saturday

The demonstration to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women is organized by Women of Diverse Origins, International Women’s Alliance, and allied groups.