The women's umbrella organisation Kongreya Star, which is active in northern and eastern Syria, has published a clear and well-designed brochure on the subject of self-defence. The declaration by Kongreya Star reads:

“Recently we have seen increasing violence against women and rising cases of femicide. At the same time, we can also observe the growing resistance to this patriarchal violence. With our new brochure “Self-defence: The answer to gender-based violence.” We take a look at the history as well as the current developments.

We as Kongra Star, women’s movement in Rojava, are following this increasing systematic violence, but also the organisation of resistance against it. Be it the struggle of women in Chile against the neo-liberal politics of the government or the Bosnian women demanding justice against the femicide during the Bosnian war. It is the Afghan women who fight against fundamentalism and for their rights. And it is the Kurdish women who fight against occupation. Against this increasing patriarchal mentality and violence, self-defence is necessary.”

The 21-page brochure is available on the website https://womendefendrojava.net/en/ and can be downloaded as PDF. The brochure presents examples of modern warfare and its effects on women and society, as well as examples of resistance to it. One chapter of the brochure deals with the definition of femicide. In the last section the different levels of self-defence are presented.