NEWS CENTER - Abdullah Ocalan said: "No movement for social freedom that does not place women’s freedom at its center can be a real revolution."

 

Abdullah Öcalan sent a message to mark 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

 

Öcalan's message reads as follows:

 

"Society is not a single-layered class structure but a multi-layered, historical, gender-based battlefield. Humanity’s first and greatest problem is the counter-revolution that began with the enslavement of women and has targeted the sociality formed around women. The domestic violence, femicides and patriarchal oppression experienced today are all contemporary reflections of this historical attack. The caste-like structure that attacked women’s sociality and communalism later transformed into the assembly of gods in Mesopotamia, then into Sumerian priests, and from there into pharaohs and kings, making patriarchal oppression over society continuous.

 

Today, the woman is the most valuable raw material of capitalism. Her body is marketed, her personality is turned into an object of marketing. Even her spirit has been invaded—invaded by men. Woman lives with the dagger of bondage that patriarchal mentality has driven into her back. The male-dominated social hierarchy created by thousands of years of civilizational struggle produces hierarchy, violence and conflict. The state-based male civilization has taken away women’s language, production, bodies, and then the entire society. Without seeing this reality, no step toward freedom can be taken.

 

The problems imposed on women by the male-dominated system must be understood and resolved. Considering femicides, domestic violence, violence against women, discrimination and exploitation, the level of enslavement is far deeper than imagined. Woman has been completely degraded. Her reality has been distorted. The well-known anklets women wear as ornaments, the nose rings—these are all signs and traces of slavery passed down from history to today. In capitalist modernity, women’s bondage has been further deepened; the system has turned women into objects of decoration and marketing. To break free from this systematized enslavement and attain liberation, deep reflection and organization are needed.

 

No movement for social freedom that does not place women’s freedom at its center can be a real revolution. I find current male-female relations horrifying. We addressed relations by placing women’s freedom at the center. A large part of our work consists of women’s work. Resolving the relationships and contradictions between men and women is important. We have thoroughly analyzed male domination, which blocks women’s freedom and enslaves women in every way. We developed a sociology of freedom. It is clear that being a woman is difficult and liberation is not easy, but women must dare. They must take the lead in removing the dagger of male domination embedded in humanity’s back and in building an equal, free and democratic life.

 

Abdullah Öcalan