Kurdish women are struggle for identity, equality and freedom together and they have become the pioneers of resistance all over the world with their struggle against nation states with the slogan “Jin, jiyan, azadî (Women, life, freedom)”. The Kurdish Women's Movement one of the most important actors in the women's struggle in the Middle East and Turkey and it has also played a major role in the recognition of Kurdish identity.

 

Kurdish women, who struggle against the patriarchal structure of society as well as the state, have grown their organization step by step since the 90s in Turkey. While the women's unit in political parties was formed in the second half of the 1990s in the People's Democracy Party (HADEP), founded on May 11, 1994, they were originally organized under the umbrella of the Democratic Free Women's Movement (DÖKH), founded in 2003. In the following years, a legal organization was established on the basis of the level reached and the establishment of Free Women's Congress (Kongreya Jinên Azad-KJA) was announced in 2015. After the July 15, 2016 coup attempt, the KJA was shut down with the Decree Law (KHK) issued during the State of Emergency and the Free Women's Movement (Tevgera Jinên Azad-TJA) was established. Since November 20, 2016, work has been carried out under this roof. 

 

CAMPAIGNS OF TJA

 

The legacy of the TJA has been continuing for 21 years against the policies of special war, especially against the genocide of women, racism and assmilation. TJA has continued its actions and activities uninterruptedly since the day it was founded. Some of the campaign activities of TJA are as follows

 

* TJA has been struggling for the democratic struggle of the Kurdish issue, and the special war policies and the development of women's gender consciousness, launched the “No to the dictatorship” campaign in Amed on January 26, 2017. The Kurdistan leg of the two-stage campaign was launched on January 29th in Amed with the slogan “We will surely win with the Leader” and on the same date in Istanbul with the slogan “I claim to the Leader, my land and my freedom”. On June 11th of the same year, the campaign “Isolation will lose, freedom will win” was launched in Istanbul. In Êlih (Batman), the campaign “We will stop the genocide of women, we will liberate life” was launched in order to draw attention to the policies of violence and oppression against women, which lasted for 4 months from August 3 to November 25.

 

* 22 TJA members also went on hunger strike to support the demands of Democratic Society Congress (DTK) Co-Chair Leyla Güven, who went on an indefinite and definite hunger strike on December 10, 2018 in Diyarbakır Type E Prison, demanding an end to the isolation of PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan. 

 

* In 2019, the campaign “Stand up for change and freedom” was launched in five regions against the massacres of women, cultural genocide, child abuse and nature massacres until December.

 

* On 21 May 2020, the campaign “Solidarity keeps us alive” was launched together with international women's organizations for the release of political prisoners. The campaign particularly drew attention to the situation of women prisoners.

 

* On September 15, 2020, the four-month campaign “Em xwe diparezin/ (We defend ourselves)” was launched against the isolation in İmralı as well as harassment, rape, political genocide and attacks on beliefs.

 

* As part of the campaign “We march to freedom against the genocide of women, racism, war and isolation” launched in Istanbul in 2021, protests were held in Amed on October 16 with the slogan “Enough is enough, now is the time for women's freedom”. 

 

*With the declaration announced in Rıha (Urfa) on September 15, 2023, the campaign “Bi 'Jin Jiyan Azadi'yê ber bi azadiyê ve (Towards Freedom with Jin, Jiyan, Azadî)” was launched until March 8. 

 

* This year, with the slogan “Jin, jiyan, azadî against male-state violence”, the actions and activities organized for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on November 25 were launched.

 

 

TJA activist Arzu Kahraman spoke about the anniversary of the founding of TJA and the change and transformation created by the struggle on November 25. 

 

A FORM OF SELF-DEFENSE

 

Stating that TJA was born out of necessity, Arzu Kahraman said that they are facing a state in which the male mind predominates. “Today we call TJA a form of self-defense against the policy that the state, the masculine male mentality wants to unleash. Because the nation-state mentality does not want women's struggle to grow. Their biggest fear is the organized women's struggle. Seeing this, the state and the system are trying to eliminate the organized women's struggle growing with TJA. But TJA has stood and will continue to stand against this by organizing stronger and growing its struggle. The male-state mind has a great pressure against TJA. The purpose of arrests and orientations is to close the way for TJA. However, TJA has managed to organize all women under the same roof and become the voice of women in Kurdistan.” 

 

SPECIAL WAR POLICIES 

 

Arzu Kahraman stated that their work is being deliberately criminalized and said that the reason is fear of the struggle. Pointing out that women in Kurdistan are targeted with special war policies, Arzu Kahraman said: “When we look at Kurdistan today, we are aware of how soldiers and police in uniform are targeting women and children. As we see the hostile behaviors, movements and policies against women, we immediately decided to start our workshops. We always say that the greatest self-defense of a woman is of course her awareness. We reached out to all women in every province, district and village in Kurdistan and held meetings. We have also seen how much women need to raise awareness.” 

 

ORGANIZED STRUGGLE 

 

Emphasizing that women are being forced to take a step back by the special war policy, Arzu Kahraman continued as follows: “Due to these, we have taken the Jineolojî workshops to a more advanced level and put the education system into effect by touching women. One of the most powerful arguments against the state's attacks and special war policies is organized struggle. Today, there is a genocide and gender denial against women not only in Kurdistan but everywhere. Because of this, all women need to join forces. We need to unite with all institutions and raise our voices. The only way of salvation is the philosophy of 'jin, jiyan, azadi'. We need to unite around this philosophy. We can succeed by coming together. They don't want women to take part in any institution. Because this is not in the interest of the nation state and the male mentality. Therefore, we need to take part in every institution against this. We do not accept any institution or administration where there are no women. Organizing is a form of higher defense.

 

NOVEMBER 25TH CALL 

 

Today there is a genocide against women. Women are being murdered almost every day. We need to speak out strongly against this on November 25th. We have three final marches. There will be marches in Amed (Diyarbakır) in memory of Narin Güran, in Dêrsim (Tuncdeli) in memory of Gulistan Doku and in Wan (Van) in memory of Rojin Kabaiş. There is an attempt to cover up the massacres and murders of women in this country, but we will follow up and expose them. None of us is alone. If we unite under the same roof, we can end all these special war policies. We can stand against it and grow the struggle together. On November 25th, we want a strong participation in our march, which will take place at 3 main points that we have specifically identified, and we want all women to participate. We need to make a strong voice in the fields. Let's all be in the fields on November 25th.” 

 

MA / Şirvan Şilan Çil