The Kurdistan Communities of Women (KJK) issued a declaration against masculine violence and femicide in the run-up to 25 November, ‘International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women’. The KJK called upon all women worldwide to engage in self-defence and organize against the masculine, patriarchal system.
The KJK stated: “We live under an era of unnamed ‘system wars’. There is an undeclared and unnamed war against women. We are in a period where the patriarchal system has been exposed. Hundreds of women are massacred by men everyday. Numerous women are subjected to sexual abuse and rape every minute. There is a colonialist-patriarchal mindset which considers women as property and it is the source of violence against women. That mindset, which organizes itself into a universal system, always creates structural violence in its physical, sexual, psychological, economic, digital forms against women in all fields of life. For that reason, we can prevent such violence against women only through a radical struggle against the patriarchial mindset and social sexualism. We cannot live anymore under that violence that has increasingly strangled us and left us breathless for five thousand years. Enough! It is time to eradicate masculine violence!”
Referring to the Mirabel sisters, who were murdered in the Dominican Republic due to their struggle 60 years ago, the KJK’s declaration stated that 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, should be also considered as a day of struggle against fascism. Stating that women resist against masculine rule across the globe – including Northern Kurdistan (eastern Turkey), Turkey, the Philippines, Brazil and Hungary – and lead the struggle for a free life, the declaration pointed out that women were targeted at the same time, from Kobanê to the US, by fascist regimes aiming to break their social resistence. The declaration stated that the reason fascism has been strengthened has been due to its ontological relations with capitalist modernity.
‘We salute all women’
The declaration drew attention to ongoing struggles of women across the world and stated: “As the Kurdistan Women’s Freedom Movement, we salute all women who resist against masculine violence, who participate and lead the struggle against fascism and occupation, shake and frighten the patriarchal system and make it retreat, and threaten it! We salute Kurdish women and our friends who strengthen their self-defence and participate in our campaign: ‘It is time to defend free women and society against femicide’. We salute women prisoners who resist against isolation, torture and execution in the prisons of the Iranian regime and in all other countries as well as women who defend their lands from North East Syria to Palestine, who ensure that murderers are tried by saying ‘Ni Una Menos’ against femicides, who lead the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States! Your struggle is our struggle, ours is yours! All is ours! Let unite!”
KJK drew attention to the soaring femicides that have taken place during the Covid-19 pandemic and stated that femicide was the real pandemic of our era. KJK stated that the patriarchal mindset and its system have increased femicides all over the world.
AKP-MHP’s special war policy
Pointing to the Justice and Development Party’s (AKP’s) and Nationalist Movement Party’s (MHP’s) ruling attitude with regard to women, the KJK declaration underlined that the AKP-MHP ruling coalition in Turkey implemented a special war policy in Turkey as well as beyond its borders: “They detain and arrest politicians and activist women; women are raped and massacred; women are turned into slaves and sold in North East Syria; they assassinate leading Kurdish women”.
A joint struggle
KJK called upon women to resist and organize against the patriarchial system and stated that constituting a joint struggle across the world was an urgent need: “As KJK, we call upon all women struggling against fascism and occupation conditions across the world to join our struggles on the occasion of 25 November. We can succeed and defeat fascist-masculine rule only by means of a joint struggle. It is time to defend free women and society against femicide” and it is time to socialize the struggle, it noted.
Self-defence for freedom
Drawing attention to the importance of self-defence and getting organized, the KJK stated that every woman should not be defenseless or remain unorganized: “On that basis, on the occasion of 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, we, the Kurdistan Women’s Freedom Movement call upon our sisters and comrades across the world to organize the resistance front of women against all types of masculine violence, especially fascism. We call it ‘Democratic Women’s Confederalism’. We need to create liberated living spaces against masculine violence that has spread even in the air we breathe and on land. Moreover, the biggest women’s self-defence is to create liberated living spaces. Let us defend free women and free society against femicide and construct free life! From Kurdistan to Mexico, Palestine to Poland, America to India and beyond, let us shout: ‘Jin Jiyan Azadî’ (‘Women, Life, Freedom!’).
