First of all, we send our greetings to the fighting young women all over the world.
We start writing this perspective by commemorating all the women that fell martyr in the vile attacks of the imperialist powers in Kurdistan, Palestine and in many other countries. From their sacrifice we take the strength and the determination to continue today the struggle for a just, human and free world.
Our monthly perspective will deal with women’s autonomy. By autonomy, we mean the creation of spaces and structures just for women in all different areas of life. Why is autonomous organisation so important for women? Why must we always insist on our autonomy, and how will it lead us to our freedom? These are questions we will answer in this perspective with examples from history and from life. Here in Rojava, discussions about women’s autonomy are increasing after Syria’s Alewi and Druze women called for perspectives from the Women’s Movement of Rojava.
In the past month, the jihadist transitional HTS government’s militias committed heavy massacres on religious minorities in Latakia, Suweida and other regions of Syria. These massacres must not be seen disconnected from the violent offensive that Israel and Turkey, leaded by United States and Britain, are committing against the peoples of the Middle East. As the terrible massacre committed against the people and the women in Palestine, so they want to do against the people of Syria and against everyone that does not fit into their imperialist plan. About the actual situation the women in Rojava are saying very clearly, „If we had not had our autonomous self-defense structures, they would have come for us, too. This is why we encourage all Syrian women to organize“. Pictures that arrived lately from Suweida show how the women started to mobilize and take action, the opportunity for them to build autonomous self-defense structure is now concrete. Because they realized that they have to be the leading force to defend their societies and end the dominant male jihadist mentality. Once again it is clear that just the freedom of woman can guarantee the freedom of a society. To reach this, autonomous organization is the first and fundamental step to take.
The month of August means commemoration of the women of Shengal
The month of August began with the anniversary of the Shengal massacre which was carried out on August 3, 2014. The Islamic State massacred the Ezidi community, killing more than 10,000 people. Women in particular were touched by the cruelty of ISIS. More than 7,000 women were abducted and sold in markets as sex slaves. More than 2,700 women are still missing. After the PKK guerrillas and the YPJ and YPG self-defence units came to Shengal and fought ISIS, the foundation was laid for the self-organization of the Ezidi society. The society was especially influenced by the courage and strength of the women fighters who took the lead in the fight. In order to be able to defend themselves specifically against sexist violence in the future, the Ezidis in Shengal set up autonomous women’s councils and the women’s units of Shengal (YJŞ). Today, the women’s structures not only guarantee the physical safety of Ezidi women, but they are also a place of common education and finding solutions to problems within society. The IS did indeed attempt to commit a complete femicide. With forced conversion, rape and murder, the Ezidi women’s existence as a whole was in danger. Therefore, the self-organization of women of Shengal today is the greatest defence of their existence.
The brave women of Vietnam, what are their names?
August marks the beginning of the August Revolution in Vietnam. On August 19, 1945 the Viet Minh took the Vietnamese capital Hanoi. This was the beginning of a relentless struggle for freedom and independence. Both in the August Revolution and later in the liberation war of South Vietnam, women played a central role. Over 1.7 million women fought in the Viet Cong. Countless other women were doing organizational work, as doctors and nurses, and espionage work for the revolution. The courageous Vietnamese women followed the example of the Trung sisters, who led uprisings against the Chinese invasion in 40-43 BC. In addition, Vietnamese women felt a strong attachment to their country and wanted to liberate it at any cost. But who were the Vietnamese fighters and pioneers? Why do we hardly know their names today? The first female commander Nguyễn Thị Định is a founding member of the NLF (National Liberation Front) and later led thousands of young women to the liberation of her country under the name Long Haired Army. Certainly, countless legends and novels could be written about these Vietnamese heroines, but their stories have mostly gone unheard and unwritten. This is based on the reality that although women were involved everywhere with great passion and strength, they did not organize themselves strongly enough ideologically and autonomously. They fought with determination, formed their units, but all with the goal of national liberation. Although there were some protests and demands for freedom for them as a women, they did not achieve any visible results. Aside from some legal reforms, could the Vietnam war be an answer for the women’s struggle?
“You exist as much as you are organized”
Rêber APO says “You exist as much as you are organized “. This is especially true for us women. Without organization, our very existence is in danger. The example of Shengal makes this quite clear. And in the example of Vietnam, we also see that organizing cannot only mean participation in the general political struggle, but it must be a women’s struggle, with the liberation of woman at its centre. Otherwise the issue of women’s liberation will be pushed to the sidelines again and again. What can we learn from the stories of the women before us? Even though we may now understand how central women’s liberation is, we often fall into the traps of patriarchy. The attacks of patriarchy vary from place to place. Especially in centres of capitalist modernity, like Europe, the attacks on our existence are much more abstract and difficult to understand. So in the next part of the perspective, we want to expose some of the mindsets that we carry within us unconsciously.
Women’s freedom comes after the revolution (or women’s meeting comes after the general one)
In many national liberation struggles, the women’s issue was dismissed as a so-called secondary contradiction. When women in revolutionary processes made demands for their freedom and autonomy, they were often not taken seriously. Perhaps a few reforms were discussed, but there was no fundamental convergence on the subject. Women fought heroically in liberation wars, but ended up back in the kitchen afterwards. And they were often discriminated against in their own structures, sometimes even abused and raped. Okay, in theory, we understand today that the concept of “woman’s liberation after the revolution” does not work. But this pattern of thought often haunts us in our political daily lives. For example, we quickly abandon our autonomous projects and organizational work to prioritize the general political topics. We think that once the general political work in the city or village goes well, we will have the capacity to think about the structures of women. But then we often encounter aggression and sexist behaviours. We see women whose opinions are not taken seriously, who do not dare to speak their mind in meetings and discussions. Women who work all the time, but whose hard work is hardly respected. If we look closely, sexism is at the root of all power mentalities. That is why fighting it, is the foundation of all other political struggles. In our political daily life we should therefore see our women’s structures as the basis of our organization and always give priority to women’s work. Following the principle that “liberating a woman from the clutches of patriarchy is a revolution in itself”, we should give great importance to each of our steps, and never let men tell us that there are more important things than autonomous work.
Autonomy begins in the way we approach life
Once a young woman visited an experienced Kurdish woman guerrilla fighter. She lived at that time, because circumstances did not allow it otherwise, as a woman alone with a group of male guerilla in an academy. The young woman observed the fighter and saw that she sometimes sat with the male comrades and told stories, and sometimes stayed on her own. Sometimes, she discussed and laughed with the men, but against wrong attitudes of the male comrades she gave them strong answers and drew her boundaries. She was alone as a woman, but still never made herself dependent on the attention of the men. The young woman asked: ‘How can you live alone with these men?’ The guerrilla fighter laughed and said: “I’m not alone, I have a whole army of women behind me”. What we can learn from this story is that autonomy begins in our thoughts and feelings and can be developed and strengthened with the organization. A strong organization of women builds in ourselves the courage to stand on our own feet and have a strong stance towards men wrong behaviours, even when we are physically not together with other woman comrades. Women’s autonomy is not something just physical. It is about feeling each other as woman and always feeling the strength of other women in everything we do. We can quickly get past any uncertainty, react confidently towards sexist behaviour in everyday life and give strong responses. We do not always have to wait for the next autonomous meeting or the next autonomous education to express and defend our identity as women. Even if the possibilities do not always allow it, we should always see ourselves as a united front and always stick together and trust each others.
More important than ever, self-organization
Dear revolutionary young women,
Whether we are socialists, Marxists, anarchists, ecologists, democrats, class fighters, cultural defenders, we are women! What blocks us in our political work most of the time are the internal patriarchal attacks. That is why an autonomous women’s structure is never an extra job, or a double burden, but the solution to the fight against patriarchy. Of course women organization cannot stand for its own. This is why it always has to give a strong perspective to the outside. Autonomy can never be an escape from confrontation with men. That approach would alienate us from reality. Autonomous spaces are spaces of struggle. They are the places where we as women get to know ourselves and expand our strengths. In which we see women as pioneers. Places where we can find solutions to all the different social and political problems. Here in Rojava, women are building their autonomy everywhere. From women’s communes, young women’s councils, women’s cultural movements, women’s economic committees, women’s cooperatives, from women’s self-defence units to women’s universities, women’s sports associations. That is why women in all spheres of life, in all political bodies, have their own power and bring their own colour. Here they get to know themselves, build strong bonds with each other, and give each other what they need to develop strong personalities: mutual respect, love and a strong common struggle.
