The women’s umbrella organization in North-East Syria, Kongra Star released a statement in solidarity with Pakistan’s Women Democratic Front calling for country-wide protest against the brutal rape of a woman on Lahore motorway.

The statement by Kongra Star includes the following:

“Dear friends of the Women Democratic Front in Pakistan,

We as Kurdish women in Western Kurdistan welcome the call and actions of our sisters of the Women Democratic Front in Pakistan. A brutal attack on a woman took place in Pakistan on 10 September 2020. The woman was traveling with her children in her car from Lahore to Gajranwala. When her car stopped on the motorway, she went out into the street to wait for help. Two men saw her, stopped, stripped her naked and raped her in front of her children.

In the face of these terrible attacks, we as women become angry and our fight and radical struggle is only made stronger, because these attacks are neither an isolated incident nor are they new. The culture of rape is part of the universal system of femicide, which is practiced daily against women. The capitalist system and the nation states which have spread all over the world are based on a patriarchal mentality. Rape is a tool of femicide, by which women in this system are attacked from all sides, both physically and psychologically. This rape is not merely a single incident but a sexist war implemented against women in a hegemonic system.

We must be aware that these attacks and this war are being waged against the existence of women. These rape attacks and patriarchal wars against women are carried out all over the world and also in our country. Women and girls are kidnapped and raped daily by Turkish gangs in occupied Afrin in Western Kurdistan.

We share the view of our sisters of the Women Democratic Front that the execution of rapists is not a permanent solution. However, a radical solution is for women to organize themselves at every stage of their lives in the face of these systematic and barbaric attacks. Only when women achieve their freedom can the security of women in society be guaranteed. For this, women all over the world must find the solution in organization and self-defense and strengthen their struggle.

Our fight for women's freedom is a common struggle. Beyond the expression of solidarity we must fight together. The solution is to organize and defend ourselves. We must strengthen our struggle as women, because this war is about the being or not being of women. If we do not organize and defend ourselves, these rape attacks on women and femicide will continue. We as women must unite with our voices and our attitudes.

We as Kongra Star salute the struggle of our sisters in Pakistan and their actions on September 12 and send them a lot of strength.

Jin Jiyan Azadî”