PAJK’s Sareza Xelat underlined the importance of self-defence in women’s struggle for freedom in an interview with ANF Turkish Service on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
Sareza Xelat, a member of the council of Free Women’s Party of Kurdistan (PAJK) pointed out the long history of violence against women and said that the society was enslaved after enslavement of women five thousand years ago.
Xelat remarked that the problem of violence against women has many forms and said the violence should be considered as a tool of power and patriarchal society. “The violence by men in the family is only an aspect of the violence against women. Women face many forms of violence by the society and these forms are all represented by the nation state” Xelat said.
Regarding the state violence against women in Turkey, Xelat pointed out that there are thousands of women in Turkish jails and they are subjected to torture and degrading behaviour by Turkish state.
Xelat also spoke against Turkish courts which give light sentences against those who attack women: “In Turkey, courts release men after they say that they regret what they did. Or their sentences are reduced. These are all sponsored and supported by the state.”
On the other hand, what does it mean to give authority to the clerics to solemnize couples? This means that there are no guarantees for women’s life and their legal rights. In return, women in Turkey face rape, abuse, violence and incest” Xelat said.
Xelat criticized Iraq’s decision to allow marriage with nine-year-old girls and stressed that those practices are shameful in the 21st century.
Xelat praised the struggle of women in Kurdistan, especially in Rojava and Shengal in the recent years and said: “PKK’s forty year of struggle is not only a military one. There is also a struggle in the social aspect. It sparked off a social change. In the social aspect there are great differences today from forty years ago.”
She also pointed out that the only way to achieve women’s freedom is self-defence and disengagement from capitalism.
“One woman alone can’t do anything. Against the system a woman can’t do anything without organizing, bettering herself and developing self-defence” Xelat said and called on all women to join the ranks of the freedom movement.
