YPJ International Fighters Info Office released a statement about the motives and experiences of YPJ International fighters.

The statement said the following;

„Lots of our fighters of YPJ International participated in the offensive Cizîre storm in different ways. We took part in the liberation and evacuation of tens of thousands of civilians and the controlled surrendering of Daesh-fighters and their families as well as in the last battles to end the fascist caliphate of ISIS. As women, especially as women being part of the self-defense unit YPJ, all this strengthened our conscious about the reasons and motives we came for and left our homes so far.

Being directly faced with the ugliness of the patriarchal and anti-freedom ideology of ISIS, being faced with the ugliness of their souls and minds, written in their faces, we even more see the beauty of the values, the beauty of the struggle for a free world and free life for everybody, written in the faces of YPJ, YPG and SDF.

Being faced with women, who also came here from far away, but who came to live in and support a system of oppression and hate. Women who are running for a life as slaves and sex objects of the men. Being faced with these women and to just feel, that we got nothing in common except to have not grown up here. We are fighting to liberate us and all oppressed people. This means to fight the enemy around us as well as the enemy inside ourselves. We came to overcome being women full of patriarchal approaches towards ourselves and between each other, what hold us down, makes us small and takes away the believe and love in our gender. We want to become free women. For that we are here and thereby it is an important question for us, how it is possible, that there are women, who exactly want to become the opposite? How can a woman feel her own oppression and the oppression and violence against other women as attractive?

We asked this and other questions to them, trying to get an idea of their motives. Not a small number of them said, that they were not happy in their lives before. They were not able to live their religion in the way they wanted. So they went to a community, which is accepting just one way of believing.

They said they didn‘t want to be seen in a sexist way by men anymore, that they had really bad experiences with this. So they ran to a life, where they are just invisible objects and servants for men.

They said they were sad about the materialistic approach to live, that people in the western countries are following. Therefor they joined a culture, what is celebrating the death more than the life.

They said they felt lonely and depressed by being individualised in the life in capitalist system and decided to be part of a group that is totally closed from others. They came just for themselves and not for anybody else.

All these are obviously big contradictions. And in the end, not a small number said, that they didn‘t really find what they were looking for. They are moved by hate. They chose a life built up by killing, torturing, solving and enslaving women and children, making women being nothing else than an object, depersonalizing everybody. Inside this we don‘t see any contrast or opposite to the life in capitalist patriarchy, but even a step more deep and further into its poisonous way. This way is not a radical alternative, because it‘s not solving any problems of humanity. It isn‘t an alternative at all, but just another corner of the same cage. Fascism, patriarchy and state-mentality.

What led us coming here, was the view of the situation of humanity, not just of our own life. Realizing the 5000 years old history of patriarchy and its consequences for each single person. Perceiving that all people have to leave this way and liberate themselves or we will continue to destroy the fundamentals of life until it‘s too late to change anything. A deep believe in humanity’s ability to live in peace and in diversity with each other. This believe is nourished by being aware of the 99% of humankind history, what were before patriarchy. We are moved by love. We fight for a community, that allows all identities to develop and grow in a free way, while living in true solidarity. We offer our helping hands, for that also men start to change theirselves to build up an equal society. We are following the way to create a mindset according to the valuableness of life, not of death. None of us came because of herself but for everybody else.

We saw the genocide and feminicide in Shengal against the Yazidi women and girls and we didn‘t close our eyes and hearts towards their enslavement by Daesh. Each single breath done by ISIS against women and humanity was growing a storm behind our back, pushing us forward to follow our human reflex of self-defense.

We know about these Daesh women, who tortured and solved other women. We know about these ones, who became killers, to eliminate everybody, who does not want to become part of their machinery of inhumanity. We know about these women, who closed their eyes for everything around them. Who were just staying inside the houses, that were robbed from others. We know about these female Daesh members, who sent their young sons to learn how to cut off heads by practicing on chickens. We know about these ones, who married their so young daughters to old men. We know these, who just wanted to become rich through a man, accepting everything, including to be his sex object.

We know about all these and we know, that we got nothing in common with them except to have not grown up here. We repeat this, because by coming from similar societies and using similar words, the meaning of these words is as most different as it can be. When we say we are not happy with the capitalistic patriarchy, we mean the necessity to overcome this system and rebuild the connection between individual and community. When these women say that they are sad in this system, they mean to create a one and only way of life, distinguished by oppression. They mean to obliterate the roots of freedom by slaughtering the smallest traces of a free mind.

In the capitalistic patriarchy, these women learned to hate each other as women, to hate their own gender and they followed this idea. We try exactly not to act as this strong tool of patriarchy. The biggest proof for this is maybe shown in our practice: When these women, after all they did, came out of Al-Baghouz, we treated them well and we did not think about revenge. Our success is not about the number how many were killed, but how many lives were saved.

These women are expression of oppression, while we, as part of YPJ, are expression of resistance. While these women came to subjugate under men’s patriarchal mentality in its most perverted forms, we came to fight against this mentality and to give our duty to build up free life. Truly free life means differences. It means that there will be a lot of solutions for a lot of different people. It means that the right to express themselves freely will be protected for each identity. It means that humankind becomes one again, between each other as well as towards the nature.

Colourful diversity, not black uniformity, is, what brought us here.

And in the end, we found, what we were looking for.”