The Kurdish Women’s Movement International Office has issued a statement to mark 8 March, International Women’s Day, calling on women to develop self defence mechanisms and to strongly resist male dominance.
The Kurdish Women’s Movement International Office has issued a statement to mark 8 March, International Women’s Day, calling on women to develop self defence mechanisms and to strongly resist male dominance.
The Kurdish Women’s Movement International Office said women no longer have security of life, adding that this has been proved recently by the massacres women have undergone and the increase in feminicide and therefore women must develop self-defence forces to protect and defend themselves.
The statement recalled the history of Women’s Day and commemorated the struggle of 129 women workers in 1857, saying that the struggle of these women against male dominance is still resonating in the streets. “This revolution rising against inequality, sexism and violence of all types will grow in our day and continue to preserve the values of humanity”, added the statement.
The statement recalled that despite the recognition of 8 March as International Women’s Day by the UN on 16 December 1977, still none of the member countries recognise it as an official day.
Stressing that women are subjected to various forms of discrimination and male dominance, the statement said women are targeted as they become more conscious and organised against male dominance. “The attacks on organised and struggling women get deeper and turn into an unnamed feminicide”, said the statement, adding that feminicide is being perpetrated brutally all over the world, ranging from Europe to Africa, and from Latin America to the Middle East. The statement called the situation a war against women, stressing that women are resisting, organising and struggling continuously against these savage attacks on women.
The statement said gains obtained by the centuries old struggles of women have also created democratic values for the whole of society, adding that however the attacks on women, violation of their rights and male violence have also increased as women continued to struggle.
The statement of the Kurdish Women’s Movement International Office further stressed that the attacks on women; male violence, honour killings, forced marriages, rape, harassment, female genital mutilation, deterioration, enslaving, selling in slave markets, and all the attacks targeting the bodies and identities of women have enormously increased in the Middle East through the savagery of ISIS on Kurdish, Yazidi, Christian, Shia, Kakai, Turkmen, Alevi, Assyrian and Armenian women.
The statement further noted that the wars in the 21th century increased the attacks on women and mentioned the abduction of 400 women as war booty in Ukraine, the abduction of 3,000 Yazidi women in South Kurdistan and their being sold in slave markets, the killing of 350 women in Nigeria and the abduction of 300 girls by Boko Haram. Recalling that these are only a few examples, the statement stressed that women no longer have life security across the world.
This is why, said the statement, women need more than ever to develop self-defence forces to protect and defend themselves, remarking that this has been achieved in Rojava Kurdistan by the formation of YPJ forces in all three cantons.
The statement further stressed that the self-defence force of women in Rojava, the YPJ, has not only succeeded in military terms, but also created the possibility of the liberation of women. The statement said Kurdish women turn each day into 8 March through their struggle, calling for this struggle waged in Kobanê and Rojava to be carried to other parts of the Middle East and the world. The statement moreover called for solidarity among women and a unified struggle against all forms of oppression of women and male dominance.
