The Zilan Women's Festival will take place in Frankfurt on June 18 under the motto "Defend yourself! Organize yourself! Live your freedom!". The festival is the largest event of the Kurdish women's movement in Germany and will be held for the 16th time. Preparations are in full swing, and the organizers have met for a meeting in Darmstadt.

After several years of pandemic break, the organizing committee assumes that there will be great interest in the festival this year, and the preparations are accordingly. The program includes musical contributions in the various Kurdish dialects and dance performances. Kurdish clothes will be demonstrated in a tent, and a separate program is planned for children. There will be information booths about the content of the Kurdish women's movement. In addition, other women's organizations are invited to bring their own content.

All Kurdish women are invited to participate in the festival in the clothing of their regions of origin. The participation of children is also expressly desired. A joint bus trip to the festival will be organized from many cities in Germany. The women's festival is open to all genders and identities.

Zilan Women's Festival: Kurdish tradition since 2004

The first Zilan Women's Festival took place in Gelsenkirchen in 2004 under the motto "Women Cross Borders". The following year, the women's movement dedicated the festival to the internationalists Uta Schneiderbanger (Nûdem) and Ekin Ceren Doğruak (Amara), who died in a car accident in southern Kurdistan on May 31, 2005. In the following years, central themes of the women's movement, such as the struggle against the prevailing concept of honor ("We are no one's honor, our honor is our freedom!") and against feminicide ("Women are life, don't kill life!") took center stage. In 2013, thousands of women declared their determination to continue the struggle of Sakine Cansız (Sara), Leyla Şaylemez (Ronahî) and Fidan Doğan (Rojbîn), revolutionaries murdered by the Turkish secret service in Paris. Other festivals were dedicated to the fighting women in Kobanê and Şengal. In 2018, after the Turkish invasion of Afrin, the motto was "Defending Afrin means defending the women's revolution." The last festival was held in June 2019 under the motto "Women's Resistance Liberates."