The Coordination of Kurdistan Women’s Union (Komalên Jinên Kurdistan, KJK) released a statement on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and called for a common struggle for all women.

“The 25th of November is a day when women will develop their power and we should treat it as a day when the fight against violence grows, said the statement of KJK Coordination, which includes the following:

“Starting from the Mirabel Sisters, who were instrumental in the 25th of November Day of Elimination of Violence Against Women, from Roza Luxemburg to Sakine Cansız, Şilan Kobanê, Asya, Sêvê, Pakîze, Fatma, Evîn Goyî, Jîyan, Reyhan, Yusra, Nagehan, Zelal Haseki, Gulistan and Hêro Bahadin, we strongly condemn the murders of the women resisters and promise to carry the legacy of struggle they left us into the times of freedom. In social life, people from all generations – from childhood to youth, from adulthood to elderly – are murdered, raped, and tortured. There is the reality of women being exploited and insulted. Sometimes it is the bodies of women who were raped and murdered in front of everyone in the middle of the street, sometimes in dark corners, sometimes found in stream beds and dam waters, sometimes washed up on the shores or buried underground where no one can see corpses. There are women’s corpses thrown away without being buried in every inch of the world. There are babies who are raped and brutally murdered when they just opened their eyes to life. Women and children are exploited and their bodies invaded in a way that is beyond comprehension and emotion.

All women and children who were murdered and subjected to physical and mental violence are our reason for struggle and revenge. Holding massacres accountable is, for us women, on the one hand, a condition of living, and on the other hand, a justification. The war taking place worldwide, in the Middle East and in Kurdistan has reached the highest stage of our time and throughout the ages. The crises are intensifying in every aspect with the wars within the scope of the Third World War. Capitalist modernity is at a deadlock and the male-dominated system is decaying. In the middle of World War III, violence against women is increasing day by day. Unless women’s movements can wage an integrated, organized and self-defensive, militant and impeding struggle against this increasing multi-faceted violence, the violence will become more intense. It is as if the existing impasse is getting tighter; it further disintegrates women, society and nature and makes them weak-willed. As women’s movements, it has become a vital need for us to put self-defense, peace and solution policies on the agenda more strongly and effectively against these war policies around the world.

Violence against women, which pervades every moment and every area of daily life, derives its origin from these wars fed by power and nationalism. There are thousands of women and children affected by the war that has been going on in Ukraine, the war that has been going on for more than a year in Palestine, the war that has just started in Lebanon, and the civil wars in countries such as Yemen, Sudan and Ethiopia. There is also a heavy massacre of women in regions such as Latin America, Afghanistan, India, and Iran. In the countries that are the center of capitalist modernity, which we call the Western world, there is a heavy massacre of women that is made more invisible, covered up and is almost a continuation of witch hunts. We are participating in these wars. We must say: stand against the fact that people are murdered in wars, raped, displaced, impoverished, and condemned to starvation and disease. Violence against women has both universal and local characteristics, originating from the hegemonic male mentality and system. At the same time, starting with women, this crime against nature, children and the whole society, is being developed in a holistic manner.

For this reason, we must be able to weave our fight against violence into an integrated line of struggle from local to universal. We must stand against it by ensuring the integrity of women, nature, children, and society. In this context, we must fully increase our fight against states, non-state gang structures, hegemonic masculinity, and all kinds of mentalities and institutionalizations developed by it, and dominant male individuals. We live in an age where violence has become habitual and social reflexes against violence have weakened. There are thousands of massacres and rape incidents whose perpetrators are not held accountable and are even rewarded. After each massacre or rape, the events are kept on the agenda for 5-10 days like a news tabloid, and then they are forgotten over time, covered up, and a similar incident occurs again a few days later. This is nothing but getting society, especially us women, accustomed to such events. Because of this, it is very important to reveal our clear stance against this developing special war violence, to give the message, “we will never get used to it, and we will never forget it” against the policies of normalizing and legitimizing all kinds of violence against women, and to determine the route of organization and struggle accordingly.

In general, there is a stagnation in the women’s struggle around the world. Although there is a fragmented women’s resistance and organization, it seems that it has fallen back from the intensity and tempo it had before the pandemic. Through this fragmentation, the hegemonic system is trying to further spread disorganization, hopelessness and discouragement. As all women’s movements, we must analyze this fact well and develop ways and methods that will further strengthen our struggle against the hegemonic male system. We must strengthen our united struggle strategy and tactics. A unity of struggle in which everyone participates with their own color against attacks by the dominant male system, states, sexist traditions and individuals. We must develop with education, organization, and self-defense. It doesn’t matter what nation, what religion, what color or race we have. We must meet with the philosophy and culture of Democratic Nation and Democratic Modernity, with the understanding that our differences are richness. We must increase our power to fight against nationalism, religiousism, scientism and sexism, which are the main sources of violence against women. As women’s movements, what can we do, what concrete steps can we take, what actions can we do, what organizations can we develop, in a way that will be permanent within the scope of self-defense, that limits, deters and ultimately exceeds male domination? There is a serious need for awareness and discussion on these issues. As women, we must break this deepened special war of the genocidal enemy and male domination. This requires a serious and concrete organization on the basis of self-defense.

‘JIN, JIYAN, AZADÎ’ AGAINST VIOLENCE

The massacres of women in the Middle East region are on most agendas around the world. In the West, the impression is given that women are free, as if there were no such problem in Western countries where capitalist modernity prevails.   By being ostensibly included in male-dominated power mechanisms, the misconception that women are free and equal is developed as a distorted perception by hegemonic masculinity. It is very important to make visible and expose the true face of the exploitation of women – who have been made invisible and turned into the queen of commodities – and the male hegemony of Western capitalist modernity.

As well as understanding the hard face of violence, it is also essential to understand its soft masked face, the aspect described as “soft power. Operations performed on the female body under the name of fashion, beauty and aesthetics turn every part of the female body into a commodity and put it on the market, restricting freedom by confining it to sexuality and the body, creating mental fragmentation in women by destroying the woman’s view of her own body, making women more vulnerable to the power of right-wing parties, statist wars and fascism. Being included and masculinized in the name of “will” are different versions of violence within the scope of soft power.

Again, the exploitation, rape and prostitution experienced by women who migrated to the West due to war and poverty in their own countries are also intense. One of the most serious problems of our age is what immigrant women experience. The EU and some Western states soften the concept of rape, reducing it to the discourse of “sexual abuse” and thus camouflage male violence. In fact, since there is no consensus on the concept of rape in EU law, there are problems in determining a common law against it. Rape is almost no longer a basic crime.

On the other hand, with the strengthening of right-wing fascist and religious tendencies around the world, the imposition of the “holy family” is intensifying. The rights that women have gained in many issues, including the right to abortion, are being regressed, and the discourse of “sacred motherhood” is being imposed by imprisoning women in the family and children. The ruling Islamic forces do this based on the discourse of “nature”, legitimizing all kinds of rape, subversion and violence according to its own ideological principles. Although our age is presented as a world of freedom not backwardness, and they seem to be opposed to each other, capitalist modernity and traditional modernity are essentially based on breaking the will of women and enslaving them, and they have a common point here. For this reason, we must better analyze and decipher the global and regional characteristics of hegemonic male policies, how they become a common fist against women, and escalate the struggle. There are women’s actions and resistance against femicide in Europe, the USA, Abya Yala, India, Baluchistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Africa and the Middle East, in different parts of the world. As KJK, we salute all our resisting women friends and comrades. We call for our common struggle power to be further developed and for November 25th to be considered as a day when our common struggle against violence grows.

EVERY MURDERED WOMAN IS A CALL TO THE WOMEN’S REVOLUTION

The Middle East is a hot war zone and massacres against women are happening more clearly. The execution regime of the Iranian state, the gang rule in Afghanistan, the nation-state structure and gang structures in Yemen, Sudan, North Africa and other Middle Eastern countries are in a serious attack against women. Sexist states and institutions, sexist customs and mentalities claim their rights in all kinds of debilitating and murderous laws and policies – from execution to lynching, female circumcision, forced veiling, and child marriage. It is very important to resist and take action against each of these forms of attack. However, it is our primary responsibility to set the agenda against the executions of women on the 25th of November with actions, events and protests, and to expose the nation states, especially Iran, that practice inhumane forms of attack. There are hundreds of women who have been executed and are currently awaiting execution in Iran. As fellow strugglers outside, taking care of them is one of our basic women missions. By following the path of rebellion of Jina Amini and Şiler Resuli, we should expand the struggle of ‘Jin, Jiyan, Azadî’ (Woman, Life, Freedom) together. We must be able to keep their memory and the memory of thousands of women like them alive. There are thousands of women and children murdered as a result of Israel’s attacks on Gaza. There is also the recent war against Lebanon and its consequences.

Palestinian and Lebanese women and children face the brunt of the consequences of this hegemonic and genocidal war. Apart from being massacred, they face serious problems such as hunger, poverty, disease, prostitution, rape and migration. It is of great importance to fight against these consequences of the Third World War. We must develop women’s solidarity and struggle partnership in this field as well.

AGAINST OCCUPATION, BETRAYAL AND MALE VIOLENCE, ‘JIN, JIYAN, AZADÎ’

For Kurdistan, 2024 has been a year in which genocide and femicide continued to intensify. The AKP-MHP fascist government continued its genocidal attacks this year, targeting everyone everywhere in Kurdistan- from mountains to cities, from guerrillas to civilians, from women to children. Finally, with the attacks on Rojava and Shengal, it added a new one to the war crimes it has committed for years by targeting civilians, women and children, and community service institutions. The fascist Turkish state is committing crimes in all areas of Kurdistan – from Afrin to Yazidi women in Shengal, from Bashur to Bakur, Rojava and Maxmur. The AKP-MHP government is guilty of war, genocide, femicide, infanticide and ecocide in Kurdistan. It has been imposing this oppression on the Kurdish people and women for years.

On the occasion of November 25th, there should be a memory of the women and children who were murdered, tortured and raped in Kurdistan. We must shout out the names of each of them and make them a reason to fight. We must be the voice of the Yazidi women who are still captive in the hands of ISIS and the women who were displaced from their homes in Afrin and Serêkaniyê. While committing these crimes in Kurdistan without any laws or borders, the state mentality, soldiers, police, guards, specialist sergeants, agents and gangs are also bleeding the Turkish geography with daily massacres of women and children. The consequences of this genocidal and femicidal dirty war are reflected in very serious consequences for Turkish women and children. In Turkey, nationalism, chauvinism and the sexism it provokes are at the level of disaster and chaos. The intellectual crisis of capitalist modernity has become an impasse in sexism. Violence is imposed on women and everyone, especially through men, and the reflection of war on daily life and the reshaping of society are carried out through this violence. In this way, it is very important for the women’s movements from Kurdistan and Turkey to jointly increase the struggle and expand the united women’s struggle and struggle for a solution against the source of violence. Women who resist in prisons also experience male state torture in the most severe forms. Women imprisoned in the prisons of Türkiye, Bakurê Kurdistan and Iran and women resisting in prisons in the Middle East and around the world are instantly faced with the sexist attacks of the male state. This November 25th, we must also stand in solidarity with all female comrades who resist in prisons wherever they are, reach out to them and carry their voices to the action areas. Especially the honorable resistance of our mothers who, despite their illnesses resist the fascist genocidal Turkish state in prisons with the difficulties brought on by their advancing age, should illuminate our actions like a torch. Mothers of martyrs, Saturday Mothers and relatives of missing people whose children’s bodies were not delivered or whose bones were given in a bag are the cornerstone of our struggle for women. As the KJK, we salute the honorable resistance of these brave mothers and reiterate our promise to further expand the culture of resistance we received from them on the occasion of the 25th of November.

Girls, and children in general, also face significant levels of violence and are more vulnerable. When we talk about women’s self-defense, we should know that one of the main duties is the defense of children. The facts revealed in the situation of Narin made the disaster more visible. Children are either murdered or their will is completely broken. Preventing this is one of the most important tasks of women’s movements. For this reason, on the occasion of November 25th, we must consider many dimensions – from child rape to massacres, labor exploitation and use in various forms – and comprehensively evaluate the issue of how we can defend our children. Children are all our children! We must protect them while they are still alive, not after they are murdered.

YJA STAR FIGHTS AS A MODEL OF WOMEN’S SELF-DEFENSE OF OUR AGE

Women’s army formation in Kurdistan has completed 32 years. YJA STAR, the pioneer of our women’s army, is waging a very strong self-defense struggle against male domination, male state and sexist culture, as well as fighting against colonialism and fascism. Tactics, mental strength, professionalism and self-sacrificing spirit are in complete integrity. There is the reality of a female guerrilla force that bravely resists the Turkish army that fights with NATO support, and all banned weapons, from chemical weapons to tactical nuclear weapons. Thousands of female revolutionaries were martyred in this struggle, and great prices were paid. We commemorate Berwar Dersim, Beritan Nurhak, Axin Muş, Dr. Sara, Asya Ali and all our female comrades who were martyred while fighting against male violence, as well as all our male comrades in the person of Rojger Hêlîn, with love, respect and gratitude. All the female and male comrades who fell martyrs in this struggle are the martyrs of creating a democratic culture of free cohabitation against the culture of violence. Our promise to them on this occasion of November 25th is to be worthy of their memories and to achieve their goals. While YJA STAR played a leading role in this struggle, YPJ in Rojava, YJŞ in Shengal, and HPJ in Rojhilat took this struggle as an example and further strengthened and expanded the women’s self-defense struggle. This struggle is an example and model for women in the Middle East and the world. It will be important to know and understand this example more and to organize it in accordance with its own foundations.

WE DEFEND OURSELVES WITH ‘JIN, JIYAN, AZADÎ’

What will save women, girls, young women and our mothers from dominant male violence and massacres is self-defense, organization and struggle. Just as there is no salvation alone, without struggle, there is also no life without self-defense. If we women are organized and fight in self-defense, we can survive and become a source of life force. We can overcome this burgeoning male violence. Our struggle must create organization and self-defense and become the source of life. For this reason, we must turn every area of life into a battleground, establish women’s platforms everywhere to tell the truth, and judge male domination through justice platforms.

To this end, as the KJK, we call on all world women’s movements, especially women from Kurdistan and the Middle East, to organize around November 25th. Let’s evaluate and expose male violence against women and at the same time develop self-defense awareness and organization against this violence.

Around the slogan “WE DEFEND OURSELVES WITH JIN JIYAN AZADΔ, we call on women to unite and increase our strength. In today’s reality, where massacres have increased so much both physically and spiritually, let’s defend ourselves and our lives with “JIN JIYAN AZADI”, which Leader APO (Abdullah Öcalan) expressed as a magic formula! For this purpose, let’s transform every area of life into areas of action and awareness, join hands and add your voices to ours. And finally, let’s destroy male domination and build a free life.”