Women’s Defense Units is an all-women mainly Kurdish organisation which has enemies against their existence – as well as supporters. Many members left their families to join their cause all around the world. While the brave women of Rojava defend their people from their aggressors and the women of the Middle East from the Islamic Regime, we need to know certain elements about their purpose and influence to understand why a special organisation such as themselves are misunderstood and hated.
It could be that their enemies hate seeing women free and their corrupted misogynistic culture lost. Kurdish women in Kurdistan secured their freedom for centuries based on their women-oriented ecological democracy. Their actions are inspired by the idea that “a country can’t be free unless the women are free,”, which is based on the Kurdish science of jineology, meaning “the study of women.” Therefore, they want to bring this revolution to all women of the Middle East.
When 18-year-old Wafaa Ali Abbas was rescued by YPJ fighters, “she was scared, shocked and unable to believe she was free.” She was only 9 years old when ISIS abducted her. No children and women should go through this cruelty and the only solution for women of the Middle East to be free – as we witnessed from Iranian women in 2022 – is to rebel.
While women in Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan still fight for their basic human rights and freedom, the last thing Islamic terrorist organisations want to see is armed women who are there to save defenceless people, as one of the fearless women fighters of YPJ says: “Islamic state are afraid to see women with guns.” Therefore, armed women who believe that “removing patriarchal mentality is freeing all of humanity” is the biggest fear of men who see women as inferior creatures.
Perhaps, it is the fact that we, the Kurdish people, have been oppressed for all our lives because of our ethnicity. We have been struggling to embrace our culture, speak our language and at least live in decent conditions in Turkey.
The systematic racism we have been facing as Kurdish people forces us to defend ourselves at some point. Our struggle has been their topic as “the Kurdish problem” as if we are the ones who are causing trouble. I remember growing up being ashamed of my identity, language and culture because of the years of assimilation process against minorities in Turkey. The ones like myself, who managed to come to big cities like Istanbul, would have to lose their culture and adapt to the Turkish people to survive while the Kurdish people in the Southeast have to make a living in poor conditions.
As Kurdish women in Turkey, we can’t benefit from the “azadî” that brave Kurdish women fought to earn for us due to racism and misogyny.
These circumstances lead us, the Kurdish people, to unite and save ourselves from the years of oppression. While Kurdish people in the Southeast complain about the lack of investment in means of education, health and housing in the region, we have every right to bring justice for the future generations of Kurds.
This issue resembles the situation of African-Americans in the US and Romani people in European countries which leads us to a bigger and more complex problem: the systematic racism against Kurdish people. Therefore, solving a deeply rooted issue like this creates a situation where more than protesting is needed to address the problem.
The media also plays an important role in understanding the hatred against the Women’s Defense Units. While numerous fearless women from a variety of backgrounds and experiences left their families and loved ones to participate in the revolution to save the people, the opposites spread the false propaganda that these women are forced to participate. Yet, Women’s Defense Units is mainly a Kurdish women’s organization that also involves women volunteering all around the world and can even support survivors who want to gain closure taken by their abusers. For us Kurdish women, and for the women of the Middle East, justice won’t be enough since our struggle is unimaginable.
There are countless reasons which tie to deeper problems in order to understand why an all-women Kurdish militia whose purpose is to fight for gender liberation, democracy and human rights is a threat to certain people. Although, understanding the Kurdish experience and being a woman in the Middle East might give you a clue.
Words by Birgül Daş
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