LIFE IS FREEDOM IN WOMEN’S TIME!

Dem Dema Jin Jiyan Azadiyê ye!

The resisting women of 1910, who bequeathed March 8 to the history of women’s struggle against male-dominated fascist powers, have brought the awareness that international solidarity has the power to overthrow fascist powers by multiplying it until today. As the milestone of women’s rebellion against thousands of years of oppression, we say “We are here, we will continue our struggle with the legacy of the past and the responsibility of the future” by raising our voices every March 8 in all areas of life, worthy of its historical truth. As TJA, we welcome March 8, which is one of our areas of struggle against the male-dominated statist mentality, in all areas of life in a manner worthy of its historical truth and with our belief that the 21st century will be the Century of Women.

As TJA, pledging to amplify this voice that echoes “Jin, Jiyan, Azadî” all over the world today, we salute the freedom struggle of all women, from the 129 women murdered in New York to Rosa Luxemburg and Clara Zetkin, from Leyla Qasim to Saras and Sêvês, from Aysel Doğan to Nagihans, Jîna Aminîs and Evîn Goyis, against the male-state dominant ideology!

On February 6, in the Maraş-based earthquakes that affected Kurdistan, Turkey and Syria, we once again saw that the main phenomenon that reveals and deepens social problems is the male-dominated statist system. While earthquakes cannot be prevented due to their nature, their negative consequences and the destruction they cause can be prevented with the right policies. However, the government, which is based on plunder and rent, is not only preventing the consequences of earthquakes, but is also the main responsible for these devastations. Male-dominated governments’ attack on ecological life, failure to build safe living spaces, unplanned urbanization and practices such as zoning amnesty are among the main causes of these destructions. On the other hand, we have witnessed that this rotten and outdated government, which did not and could not take any measures to prevent the consequences of the earthquake; instead of responding to the needs of society, especially women, we witnessed that from the very first hours, it mobilized to protect its own survival by creating a perception operation through the partisan media.

The state’s lack of solution in the face of the earthquake has once again shown us the importance of local governments and organized society. While women, youth and peoples from Kurdistan to Turkey and Europe were building social organization and solidarity in the face of the earthquake, the government, which turned the earthquake zone into a mass murder, a mass grave, tried to break this social solidarity and hide its crimes by declaring a state of emergency.

Not enough, it has once again usurped our solidarity and will by appointing trustees to solidarity centers. Just like the usurpation and plunder of HDP municipalities, the will of the peoples and women’s libertarian HDP, by the government… The same government is once again trying to occupy the geography of Kurds and Alevis and change their demography.

It leaves children who lost their families in the earthquake defenseless and open to the abuse of militarist forces, sects and gangs. But it should be well known that we, with our belief in the self-governance, self-power and power of the localities, have not and will not allow this rotten and cumbersome government to turn the earthquake into an opportunity and a tool for the destruction of society!

The only reason why the consequences of the earthquake are so grave is the reality of the ongoing war. The resources belonging to society and stolen from society are used in wars waged against society. These wars in Kurdistan, the Middle East and many parts of the world bring with them huge problems such as exploitation, destruction, poverty, refugees, ecological destruction and displacement. The most painful of these wars was waged in Southern Kurdistan, using chemical weapons and committing crimes against humanity.

The ecological and sociological destruction caused by chemical weapons is enormous…These war policies, which have their ideological source in misogyny, are an attack on the Kurdish people’s struggle for freedom. On the occasion of March 8, we once again call on all democratic public opinion and international organizations to say “stop” to this war. We also know that all attacks on Rojava are an attack on the rising women’s revolution and we call on all women to fight against war and occupation.

While the male-dominated colonialist system plunders the geography of Kurdistan through security policies, it has also turned every corner of Turkey into a rent-seeking area. The fires and deforestation policies in Dersim and Cudi are the continuation of these attacks. Again, as in Kazdağları and İkizdere, the appropriation of the living spaces of women and peoples for capital is the product of the same mentality. This mentality is the main cause of the destruction and loss in Maraş and all the provinces affected by the earthquake. For this reason, we state once again that the women’s liberation struggle that we are waging as TJA undoubtedly includes protecting our plundered nature and defending our land.

On the other hand, we are witnessing a rebellion that started in Rojhilatê Kurdistan and spread all over the world. The “Jin-Jiyan-Azadî” philosophy raised by Kurdish women against the male-dominated genocidal system that murdered the Kurdish woman Jîna Mahsa Aminî has become the greatest hope not only for Kurds, but also for all peoples and women of the world. This hope has once again paved the way for defending and resisting a women’s libertarian life. This rebellion, which has turned into a women’s liberation struggle, will shake the foundation of fascist governments, the wreckage they have created and all kinds of violence against women, and will rebuild a free society.

The male-dominated genocidal mentality and its embodiment, the nation-state, are trying to break the social resistance by specifically targeting the women pioneers of the revolution. This mind thinks that by assassinating Evîn Goyî in Paris and Nagihan Akarsel in Sulaymaniyah with a treacherous assassination, it will set back the women’s liberation struggle in the person of resisting Kurdish women. But he is wrong! Because we all know that the nation-state mind does not have even the slightest courage to face resisting women.  In the 21st century, women have expressed their determination and anger in many parts of the world against this total war against the Kurdish Women’s Movement and its freedom struggle, which pioneered the world women’s revolution. As TJA, we salute this glorious resistance of all women who did not leave the fields for a moment!

The fascist, colonialist government’s reckless attack on women, Kurds, peoples, press laborers, Kurdish women, Kurds, peoples, press laborers, without saying children, young and old, with political genocide operations, is also an indication of its desperation and collapse.

By illegalizing the TJA, arresting and punishing hundreds of women, this collapsing government has actually become the biggest representative of fascism.  On the occasion of March 8, we promise once again that we will fight until we bring all the women in resistance, especially the sick prisoners, who are held in prisons with hostile policies and who continue to resist both inside and outside despite all kinds of unlawfulness, out of those places of confinement. On this basis, we salute the search for truth of Emine Şenyaşar’s mother, who has become a symbol of women’s resistance with her justice vigil, who does not give in and insists on resistance against all the oppression and intimidation policies of the male-state.

The capitalist system, built on the denial and exploitation of women’s labor, is the root cause of poverty. The only way out of this women’s poverty we face is the power of organized women’s struggle to build a democratic communal economy. This order of exploitation, which feeds on women’s poverty, hits women the hardest. As all kinds of abuse of children, especially rape, violence against women, massacres and labor exploitation increase; society and life as a whole are being decimated. In the person of women who are harassed, raped and murdered every day, the target is in fact the whole humanity. On this basis, we state once again; Meryem Sevim, Emine Bulut, Bahar Hezer, Şule Çet, Fatma Altınmakas, Ceren Damar and all women murdered with male-state collaboration are our reason for struggle!

On the other hand, the male-dominated system, which is the destroyer of women, targets the social fabric with dirty and insidious policies. With the special war policies launched against women’s existence, women are wanted to be left without will and self-defense. Special war policies are imposed on all social dynamics, especially on spying, drugs and prostitution, and society is sought to be subjected to moral degradation. We state once again against the special war policies; Against the planned and systematic attack of uniformed violence against young Kurdish women in the person of İpek Er, Firdevs Babat, Gülistan Doku; As women’s consciousness awakens and women organize, the rapist, sexist and fascist male-dominated system will be defeated! We are of course aware that this organized power of women is the nightmare of the male-dominated system.

Our Kurdish and women’s identity, from our mother tongue to our culture, is being ignored and assimilated by the monist and rejectionist policies of the nation-state ideology. Against this prohibitionist and colonialist ideology that imposes “either slavery or death”, the most important thing we can do is to protect our language and culture more than ever and make “Xwebûn” a social claim. One of the aims of our struggle for truth is to oppose the “truth” that is put in front of us. And we know that truth is a whole. Culture and language are a mirror of understanding and the struggle to uncover the truth. The most functional element of society and culture is our mother tongue. Truth is our identity. Our mother tongue, which is one of our reasons for existence, has been banned by nation-state policies for centuries, tried to be separated from its identity and essence, assimilated and ignored. As women against the mentality that is hostile to Kurdish and Kurdish language, we will continue to lead the way for our mother tongue to come to life in all areas of life. On this occasion, we promise to make our mother tongue and culture vital in all social areas and we want it to be known that we will fight for all spoken languages, especially Kurdish, to be constitutionally guaranteed and to be the language of education.

As TJA, we once again state with the loudest voice that the main addressee of all social problems, especially the Kurdish problem, is İmralı, and we put the unconditional physical freedom of Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan at the center of our line of struggle. As the isolation policies on Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan, which have lasted for a quarter of a century, deepen, political, social, economic and ecological problems, especially the oppression of women, deepen at the same rate and society as a whole is oppressed. On this occasion, we emphasize once again that the achievement of social freedom, especially women’s freedom, and the construction of a democratic and peaceful life is only possible with the freedom of Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan. The greatest power that will break the absolute isolation regime and torture system in İmralı, which is reflected in every particle of social life, will again be the organized struggle of women.

Conventions and constitutions created with the mind of the male-state do not ensure women’s freedom and cannot bring social peace. We have seen and see that our legal gains within the nation-state regimes, especially the Istanbul Convention, are between the two lips of the governments. On this basis, as women, we see it as a responsibility today to strengthen the will of women by ensuring the broadest women’s alliances and women’s solidarity for a just, equal and free life. We believe that the construction of a “Democratic, Ecological, Women’s Liberationist” society with a new social contract based on women’s freedom against monist, nationalist and sexist constitutions that target women’s bodies will take on a new meaning on March 8.

In 2023, with March 8, we firmly believe that the women’s struggle for freedom will overthrow the fascist AKP-MHP government and will be the biggest winner of the election. The co-presidency model woven by Kurdish women against male domination and the democratic political understanding based on women’s freedom will end this government. Women will rebuild a new life together with a great victory against this government, which was buried under the rubble in the Maraş-centered earthquakes.

This women-led struggle for democracy will not only liberate the peoples of Kurdistan and Turkey, but all the peoples of the Middle East and pave the way for democratization in the Middle East. Because democracy is not just a form of bureaucratic functioning but a way of life. In this respect, we call on all women in Turkey, especially Kurdish women, to raise the struggle against the AKP-MHP fascist bloc, which is the biggest obstacle to women’s freedom, and to build social liberation by defeating this women-nature-human enemy power. Because it is time for women’s freedom!

Today, the uprising of the oldest colony has turned into a revolution all over the world, especially in Kurdistan and the Middle East, with Evîn Goyî’s spirit of resistance. For a free life and a free world, the women’s liberation struggle that develops on the basis of Jineolojî, represented by Nagihan as the science of this revolution, will liberate the whole society together with women. As TJA, with the heritage we have inherited from the culture of women’s resistance, we promise to increase our struggle on the basis of the philosophy of “Jin, Jiyan Azadî” in every field and moment we are in. In addition, in this earthquake process in which tens of thousands of people have lost their lives and millions of people have been traumatized, we are raising social solidarity under the leadership of women against the “one man” regime, which is the biggest disaster that has ever befallen us, and against the fascist-sexist government that has been buried under the rubble, and we celebrate March 8, the day of unity, solidarity and struggle of the women of the world!

March 8th Program:

– Our March 8 central start will be on March 1st; in Şırnak.

– Between March 1-8, we will continue to stand in solidarity with women in all regions affected by the earthquake.

– On March 8, there will be marches and statements in Batman, Siirt, Şırnak, Van and Mardin, and joint statements and marches with women’s platforms in all other provinces.

– Original planning and walks will be carried out in metropolitan areas.

As TJA, we will continue to build a new life together and grow the resistance by building a strong solidarity with all women in the earthquake zone against the wreckage and destruction policies of this fascist government, following the philosophy of “Women’s Solidarity Keeps Alive”.

It’s women’s turn, life is freedom!

Our mourning is the reason for our struggle!

Women’s Solidarity Keeps Us Alive!

Tevgera Jinên Azad (TJA)

25.2.2023 Amed