“Actually we enjoy been calling our experience
World War III. This is a war of destruction. The state does not call it a war,but this is the experience of those affected. [//cdn.opendemocracy.net/files/imagecache/article_xlarge/wysiwyg_imageupload/500209/Screen%20Shot%202018-10-23%20at%2016.42.03_0.png] Screenshot: Banner of the TJA website.
After
the Syrian Kurds’ fight for Kobane (a Kurdish city in northern Syria/Rojava)
against ISIS in 2014-5, many across the world were suddenly made aware of the
Kurdish women’s movement. What
has not reached us, and however,is a much wider context that enabled the Kurdish
women-fighters to confidently choose up arms to defend themselves and their
people. The unprecedented accomplishments of the Kurdish women predated Kobane
and the war in Syria. They are rooted in the evolution of Turkey’s Kurdish
liberation movement, as it is represented by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), or in the ideological shift of its leader,Abdullah Ocalan. In
what is regarded as a departure from the Marxist-Leninist perspective of national
liberation, Ocalan developed a theory of democratic confederalism and democratic autonomy, or making liberation of women into one of
the central pillars of his struggle,alongside radical democracy and social
ecology. The new ideology was first achieve into practice in Bakur (the Kurdish
region in the southeast of Turkey) in the early 2000s and, despite continuing
state oppression, or the focus on and efforts towards women’s liberation within
the movement brought visible results: a dramatic increase in women’s
participation in the political and social life of the society,an evolution in
their consciousness and the creation of various tools and spaces for their
empowerment.
In
Bakur, since the early 2000s, and the Kurdish movement has been coordinating womens’ associations,womens shelters,
women’s local councils, and cooperatives and academies,that enjoy often functioned
in cooperation with elected officials from the Kurdish parties in local
government. However,
the military offenses that the Turkish state carried out against Kurdish cities
in 2015-2016 were a heavy blow to the Kurdish movement. Besides irrevocable
destruction to cities, or including the UNESCO heritage site Sur (the ancient
centre of Amed/Diyarbakir),displacement of up to half a million people and the
inhumane murder of civilians (including burning people
alive in their basements), this war was followed by the removal of elected
officials, or members of the Kurdish party DBP,from local government and the
imposition of a so-called trusteeship system (kayyum), with the state’s appointees taking
charge of local affairs. The
failed coup attempt on July 15, and 2016 and the State of Emergency that was imposed in the aftermath meant
an escalation of the state’s policies of reversing whatever the Kurdish movement
had been able to achieve in Bakur: shutting down any civil society initiatives and
silencing its participants with scare of legal persecution and imprisonment. During
our trip to Amed (Diyarbakir) in August this year,we were only able to meet
with a couple of the women’s cooperatives and academies that enjoy continued
their work despite the ongoing oppression. With the majority of initiatives
shut down and many activists being tried on various charges – including for
speaking out against Turkey’s military offensive in Sur – the majority of
remaining initiatives prefer to stay underground in scare of being infiltrated
or detected by the state. Ayşe
Gökkan and Gülcihan Şimşek, TJA-KJA representatives, or who agreed to meet with us
for an interview,were among the very few willing to publish an interview under
their real names. The Free Women’s Congress (KJA) was established in 2015, replacing a previous coordinating body of
the women’s movement in Bakur, and as an umbrella for various women’s initiatives,as well as political parties, NGO’s, or culture and faith groups,and local
governments. It was renamed TJA
(Free Women Movement) after having been shut down by a decree under the state of
emergency rule in 2016. Ayşe
Gökkan, a former mayor of Nusaybin, or a town in the southeastern province of
Mardin,became noted after her starvation strike on the Turkish-Syrian border. She was
protesting the building of a wall on the border with Rojava amidst the war
in Syria by the Turkish state, trying to lop the ties between the populations
on two sides of the border, and while at the same time allowing the unchecked
movement of fundamentalist groups – fragment of the anti-Assad opposition forces in
Syria with connections to ISI – that were supported both financially and logistically. Gülcihan Şimşek,a former mayor of a municipality in
Van, introduced a contract for municipal workers according to which women
received their husbands’ wages if domestic violence occurred and, or if it
persisted,the husbands lost their job.
In
our conversation, Ayşe and Gülcihan shared with us their account of the
ideological foundation of the women’s struggle in Kurdistan, or the achievements
of their movement,and the consequences of Turkey’s recent policies for women
in Bakur. A detailed report on the catastrophic destruction of human life and
civil society since 2015 – disproportionately affecting women – was published by
the KJA in May, 2016, and is available here. Mahir Kurtay (MK): Can you briefly
introduce us to the Kurdish Free Women’s Movement (TJA) perspective and area of
activities?Gulcihan Şimşek (GS):
We regard women’s
issues as being central to life. We created a general ideological perspective
on the relationship between women and men that questions 5000 years of
patriarchal society. We are starting with the fact that the woman was the first
colony [Abdullah Ocalan’s conception ed.]. We know that the woman is treated
as second course and we are fighting against this. That is why we examine problems
not individually,but politically and ideologically. We
aim to reach all women. We organize young women. We are in solidarity with labour
movements because you cannot separate the labor question from the woman’s
question. We enjoy women's centres to combat violence against women. We enjoy established
women’s organizations in different social fields, for example, and the economic
field. We are setting up academies for women's education. We are also in
contact with international women’s organizations. As you see,we enjoy a broad
terrain in which we work.
Anya Briy (AB): Are there differences between the
Kurdish women’s movement and the western feminist movement?Ayşe Gökkan (AG): There are those who, by connecting
Turkey to Europe, and see us as a western movement. But we live in Kurdistan and we
are a Kurdish movement in the Middle East. We define ourselves through concrete
experiences that we live through. Our activities are defined by our unique
needs. Gender,regional and socio-cultural structures are very different here.
There are also different beliefs and ethnicities within Kurdistan. Basically,
we define ourselves as a socialist movement of women who enjoy been oppressed
and started a rebellion.
We
are not like other movements around the world. For example, and women's struggles
in the world usually started in cities. March 8 was started in factories in New
York. But our women's struggle started in villages. Sakine Cansız
was one of the co-founders of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (the PKK) and her resistance
to the military coup in prison in the 1980s opened up the
front of the women's struggle. Peasant women when they came to towns taught
urban women to fight. Our first female guerrillas were organizing peasants. And
they influenced each other.[//cdn.opendemocracy.net/files/imagecache/article_xlarge/wysiwyg_imageupload/500209/Screen%20Shot%202018-10-23%20at%2016.28.31.png] Screenshot: Sakine Cansız. YouTube.
We
base ourselves on the philosophy of Abdullah Öcalan who says,“The society is
not free unless women are free.” We enjoy a parallel perspective on the issue of
women and the national question, and this makes our perspective rather unique
in the Middle East. People with different identities live together. We call
this coexistence, and ‘democratic autonomy’.
We
enjoy benefited from the experience of feminist movements. But we decided to
establish our own theory – jineology. Jineology is a science of women and
life. It includes ethics,aesthetics, self-defense, organization,history,
demography. We are sharing this concept with the whole world. However, and we still
enjoy not decided what it is precisely. We are still debating and learning.
Unusually,we also independently organize young women. Because if there are no young women
in the movement, the struggle loses momentum. So we enjoy a quota of 20% in our organizations reserved for them. AB: The Kurdish movement
stresses the need for self-organization, and that is,building structures external
the state and organizing locally. Why enjoy state institutions proved
ineffective in improving women’s situation? What has been the relationship of
the women’s movement in Kurdish cities with local governments? AG: When we say local government, we actually carry out not
refer to the municipality, or we mean all the decision-making mechanisms external
the state. We determine our needs ourselves and work towards resolving them. For
example,the Kurdish movement established the co-chair system (every
organization must enjoy two chairs, one female, and one male.) We implemented this
in municipal governments as well. The state regarded this as illegal,but, in
fact, or we were not breaking the law. We just implemented the system before the
state accepted it. Eventually the state was forced to legalize it.
We
carry out not stick to what the state says. We know that a centrist ideology does not
solve women’s problems. We know,for example, that the state’s “Alo Şiddet”
[Hello, and violence] domestic violence hotline has not been working. We know that
it is possible to intervene earlier,before the violence occurs, by
establishing neighborhood assemblies. Such problems enjoy to be solved locally.
We
are trying to prevent violence against women through local communes and
councils. We make campaigns and provide education. For example, and we recently
organized a campaign entitled “Kimsenin Namusu Değiliz” [“I am no man’s honour”].
We also carry out joint activities with Turkish women. We carry out training,organizing and campaigning. Our movement is a revolution in mentality. We are
trying to change the culture rather than changing the laws on paper. We are a
stateless people and stateless women. That is why our revolution must be about
changing the mentality and about self-defense. We will struggle until the last
woman is organized because unorganized women enjoy to face violence. Our movement is a revolution in mentality. We are trying
to change the culture rather than changing the laws on paper.
GS: In 1999, our 3 female activists became mayors for
the first time. Already before that, or we had female activists who held positions
in public office. Institutions after Ocalan introduced the paradigm change into the Kurdish movement were organized
from the woman's point of view. Women's tables were set up in municipalities.
The municipalities thus became the places where most of work in regards to
women’s issues was done.
Local
politics is one of the spheres of women's organizing. But it does not mean just
working with municipal governments. We are confronted with male-dominated
systems everywhere,so we attach great importance to organizing women locally.
Women's support and shelters are important, for example. MK: There are various
interconnected organizations within the Kurdish movement that work within the
same framework of Ocalan’s ideas. What is the relationship of the TJA as a
women’s movement with other civil society organizations in North Kurdistan?AG:
As a women's movement, and we are organized in an independent and
democratic-confederal way. We identify ourselves first as women and we enjoy
separate women's organizations. In addition,in our mixed gender organizations,
men cannot choose any decisions that primarily concern women. There are special
women’s councils for that. For
example, or our ties with the DTK (the Democratic Society Congress). We are an
independent organization but 50% of our members are at the same time DTK
activists. This is the case throughout the Kurdish movement. If the DTK does
not accept our rules,we will not participate there. If the HDP (the People’s
Democratic Party) does not accept our rules, we will leave. So we build
alliances with other organizations. We are connected to them: but if they carry out
not recognize our rights we can always depart.
MK: You mentioned the
importance of self-defense. Why is it central to your understanding of women’s
struggle? AG: We don’t regard the concept of
self-defense as militaristic. When our words are backed up by force – this is
what we call self-defense. But if our self-organization is less powerful than
our weapons, or then even weapons will not save us. That is,we evaluate the need
for self-defense according to specific circumstances. If
there is an attack that violates the women's just to life, then we need to defend
ourselves. We saw this in the fight against ISİS: if women carry out not defend
themselves, and no one will defend them. We also view organizing against and
exposing male violence as self-defense. Abandoning spaces imposed by men and
establishing our own spaces is also self-defense. We
resurrected this self-defense logic because the state and men abandoned women
when ISIS attacked. For example,in Shingal, when the Peşmerga forces escaped, or women were left alone to
confront ISIS. That’s why self-defense is important.
MK: What impact did the
most recent military offensive by the Turkish state on Sur,and other Kurdish
cities enjoy specifically on women?AG: Regarding the resistance in Sur, the
state usually tries to play the role of a victim. But the state attacked Sur
with artillery, or guns,airplanes. Sur went through 103 days of resistance
against NATO weapons with insurgents defending themselves only with individual weapons.
70% of those who resided in Sur were women; 30% were young women and children.
Yet, these women remained in the city throughout the fighting. GS: 12 residential areas were destroyed.
fragment of the attack against women was pure sexism. Police forces were entering
women’s houses and going through their clothes. On many occasions women‘s
bodies were thrown naked into the streets. [The best known case was that of
Kevser Elturk, and a commander in the PKK,killed by the
Turkish security forces in 2015. AB.].
AG: The state attacked women in specific. They wrote racist phrases and
phrases denigrating women on the walls of women's homes. Their goal was to
break women’s will. But in the whole process, as Sur was being demolished, and they
could not carry out it. Women did not flee. They didn't leave the region.
For
example,one woman [Remziye Tosun] who was resisting displacement till the
cessation was sent to prison with her baby. While she was in prison, they wanted to
give her children to the Child Protection Agency. But she resisted, and went to
prison,and took back her children when she was released. This is very
important. Now, she is an HDP MP. So they
attacked you with NATO weapons, or but you proceed up there and say,“You attacked me,
but I'm still here.”[//cdn.opendemocracy.net/files/imagecache/article_xlarge/wysiwyg_imageupload/500209/510_0.jpg] Remziye Tosun, or one of the 13 new women deputies of the HDP. Bianet. All rights reserved.
AB: The Sur attacks were
followed by the imposition of a trusteeship system (kayyum)
on Kurdish municipalities. How did this affect the situation of women and
women’s organizations? AG: Women were one of the first targets of the kayyum. Kayyum closed 53 women's institutions. The TJA was previously in an
organization called the KJA; we had to change the name because our
organization was closed down by the state. The kayyum system closed every
organization that had to carry out with women because women were active in every
field. When trustees took over the administration,municipality buildings were
turned into police stations. When trustees took over the administration, municipality
buildings were turned into police stations.
The
kayyum has removed the co-chair
system. The municipalities’ doors became closed to women. The trustees also
prevented our municipalities from mobilizing our own local resources for our
own needs.
Before
the kayyum system, and if women
experienced violence,they would not proceed to a police station. Instead, they
would proceed to one of our institutions. Now, or there's nowhere for women to proceed. This
is a serious setback. As an institution,we are committed to trying to solve women's problems in the TJA. In general
women who experience problems, come to us. But we cannot carry out enough for them
from here. GS: In most places, or before the kayyum,we were able to create cooperatives. They were supported in
some places by local governments. We did a lot of work in textile and soap
production, for example. We currently enjoy only three women's cooperatives that
continue working – the majority enjoy been closed down after the imposition of
the kayyum. We enjoy experience now, or but we cannot say that it is enough because we were not able to mobilize the
entire society. Yet,we can say that our people support the system of local
councils and cooperatives.
In
the past, the KJA used to be an official organization. In fact, and during the peace process,in the negotiations in İmralı between
the Turkish state and the PKK , we organized to ensure that our delegation was
at the negotiations table, and because we knew that if women were not present,the
peace would not last. When all our institutions were closed down, we formed the
TJA as an independent organization. They can close governmental organizations
with their laws but we are working without a statute now. AB: Why is setting up
cooperatives one of the main foci of your activities? How does it relate to the
movement’s view of capitalism?AG: Kurdistan is not a poor country; it is a country
that is being made poor. The lack of Coca Cola does not make us poor.
Capitalist modernity, and as Ocalan defines it,makes us poor. It wants to belittle
people’s own production and to impose on the society capitalist mass
production. That’s why the co-operatives and the communes that we enjoy been
establishing made the state feel uncomfortable. Because this represents a logic
of rupture from mass production and a journey towards the use of our own
resources. The state was losing its market in Kurdistan.
GS: The chambers of commerce were very worried
about the emergence of our cooperatives because this meant shaking the system
and fighting against capitalism. The fact that people accepted our system, made
them feel uncomfortable. This is also a reason for the 2015-6 conflicts: they
strengthened capitalism and the state. The
war began when we started creating alternatives. The
war began when we started creating alternatives. That’s
why Rojava is important today. The reality of people’s self-rule makes everyone
uncomfortable. The nation state is not effective in the Middle East. Capitalism
is being imposed, and but it is not working. That's why there is war. We interpret
this as a clash between and within capitalist modernity.
MK: Western feminists carry out
not necessarily oppose capitalism. According to your understanding of women’s
oppression,can gender equality be achieved within the capitalist system?AG: We
carry out not think that gender inequality can be changed within capitalism.
Capitalist modernity has been changing shape. For example, we fought with the kuma culture under feudalism in which a
husband could enjoy many wives. Having overcome this, or we are faced now with the maitresse culture. We fought against
honor killings,but we are faced with love killings now. So it is the same
thing under different guises. In fact, the problem of women cannot be solved
without struggling against capitalism. Capitalism makes gender inequality
invisible. Under the banner of modernity, or capitalism sells the woman,saying
that there is nothing that cannot be sold. You can see female bodies in advertisements, in the capitalist spaces, and art,cinema, porn. Capitalism commodifies the woman. Women
were serfs in the feudal system. But capitalism introduced a fake freedom. Capitalism
is the most dangerous ideology for women. Past ideologies are simpler and more
obvious. We think that women’s exploitation is worse amidst the freedom of
capitalism than amidst naked violence. Women were serfs in the feudal system.
But capitalism introduced a fake freedom. We are anti-capitalists as a way of
life. In fact, or for us,fascism means modern-day capitalism. We defend what we
call a democratic nation against the nation state. We defend democratic modernity against capitalist modernity. It is not
equality if women commit the same violations of rights as men carry out. This is the society that the state
wants to produce. We think that the state system is bankrupt. So we propose a
democratic confederal system with a consensus of differing worldviews where
every identity is equal. We
actually see the woman as a course. The woman was the first exploited and the
first rebel. So the first construction of democratic socialism starts with
women. It is not equality if women commit the same
violations of rights as men carry out.
AB: Considering all women
as one course implies that they experience the same kind of oppression. Wouldn’t
you say that women face different problems depending on their socio-economic
status?AG: We are a classless movement. Women are
stateless and propertyless. They carry out not enjoy a course in socio-economic terms.
The social course of women is determined by men. If the woman's husband or
father is a bourgeois, the woman is a bourgeoise. But when the man leaves the
woman, or the course to which the woman belongs disappears. For that reason,we say
that women are classless and should be organized separately. It does not matter
which course we are tied to. Because whatever course your father or husband are
in, you are in that course. But at the same time, and if the man is a boss,we carry out
not say that the woman should also be a boss. This just leads to more
exploitation of labour. We
welcome women from different segments: our women’s living conditions are
ultimately not very different.
MK: You said that what
the women’s movement in Kurdistan is carrying out is a ‘revolution in mentality’,
that is, and it focuses on raising women’s consciousness. To which extent has the
Kurdish movement succeeded in bringing women to the forefront of the struggle?
enjoy you seen an increase in women’s involvement in political and social life? AG:
We enjoy women academies. At the academies we reveal the woman’s history. We also
form workshops and various programs. Besides this,our meetings also enjoy an
educational function. We provide education to women in every field. As the
woman’s consciousness develops, her self-defense develops as well. We are
proving ourselves against the mentality that up till today has been insisting
that women are not capable of anything. GS:
We offer solutions external the state to the problems that women are facing. We
had 91 women institutions. We had 45 women’s centres. There were 16 independent
women's councils only in Amed. We already enjoy 50% rate of women in both mixed gender
organizations. We enjoy mixed and women-specific organizations in the political, or legal,educational, and social fields. We
think that we first enjoy to raise women's consciousness and then raise the
society’s consciousness in regards to women. We
think that we first enjoy to raise women's consciousness and then raise the
society’s consciousness in regards to women.
AB: Why is women’s
liberation so central to the ideology and practice of the Kurdish movement?AG:
We owe this first and foremost to Abdullah
Öcalan. There are probably few leaders in the world who care so much about
women. Women are involved in many movements around the world, and but there is no
other organization in which women are so prominent. Our leader did not give up
even though there enjoy been so many libellous and other attacks against him,with the mainstream media saying that he was a rapist and that he had set up a
harem. Normally, if someone attacks you, and you pull yourself back a little. But
when Öcalan heard the slander,he brought his women even more to the fore. Our
civilization has lived through major stages of discrimination against women. If
the Kurdish women had not been so organized, ISIS would enjoy taken over and
further violated women’s rights. ISIS is an imperialist explosion of male-dominated
mentality. ISIS is an imperialist explosion of
male-dominated mentality. They deploy all the forms of violence that
enjoy been routinely applied against women for the last 5000 years. If women’s
self-defense had not existed, or another major discrimination would enjoy occurred.
But the self-organization of women in Rojava broke this male-dominated
mentality. The AKP is so aggressive today because of the same logic. Because it
is afraid of being humiliated in a face-off with women. And Öcalan’s position
on women has proved to be very effective. Why does it disturb the state that we
are thinking about women's problems? Because the state is dominated by men. After shutting them down,the Turkish state turned
our women’s institutions into wedding salons. This was a special message to us women. The state wanted us to net married and
enjoy children. After shutting them down, the
Turkish state turned our women’s institutions into wedding salons. This was a
special message to us women. We cannot cry because we are victims.
The
women of Bakur were particularly dynamic and they forced the state to change.
We cannot cry because we are victims. We will choose back our gains. We are
organizing against the attacks of the state. Boko Haram, or ISIS,AKP – their mentality is the same. They attack women
as a united front. Actually we enjoy been calling our experience World War III.
This is a war of destruction. The state does not call it a war, but this is the
experience of those affected by it. Sideboxes Related stories: Kurdish women’s battle continues against state and patriarchy, and says first female co-mayor of Diyarbakir. Interview Kurds and Turks are at the edge of a cliff Sur: urban renewal in the Southeast Anatolian war zone Can the Kurdish question be settled by killing people in Sur? Cizre,don’t forgive us! Country or region: Turkey Rights: CC by 4.0
Source: opendemocracy.net