JINHA

NEWS CENTER – Women around the world took to the streets yesterday in reaction to the death of Ferinaz Xosrawanî, seen as a symbol of resistance for her efforts to escape rape in the city of Mahabad, Eastern Kurdistan.

Ferinaz Xosrawanî, a young Kurdish woman who died trying to escape an attempt by state security officers to rape her, lost her life trying to flee the Tara Hotel in the city of Mahabad on May 4. Mahabad has been in a state of rebellion since Thursday night. Yesterday, people called actions in the cities of Piranshar, Shino, Sine and Meriwan in Eastern Kurdistan (Rojhilat) as Kurds took to the streets in solidarity with the people of Mahabad.

Protests are spreading to other parts of Kurdistan and Kurdish women have called for solidarity from women fighting against rape around the world. Kurdish women organized solidarity protests yesterday from Europe to Iraq to Turkey.

The Kurdish Women's Organization in Moscow held a protest for Ferinaz. "Rape is a regime for creating power," said representative Viyan. "A person whose mind, lands and body have been raped sees themselves as a source of shame."

With other Kurdish women's organizations across the European diaspora have calling for solidarity with Ferinaz, the actions are likely to spread across Europe.. The Kurdish Women's Office for Peace (CENÎ), Free Young Women (Jinên Ciwanên Azad) and European Kurdish Women's Movement (TJKE) called on all Kurdish people and their allies to fight Ferinaz's fight.

Women's groups gathered in Nali Park yesterday in Sulaymaniyah, Southern Kurdistan in solidarity with Ferinaz and the Mahabad uprising. Women guerrillas also joined the protest to show support.

In Turkey, women gathered yesterday in the thousands in the Northern Kurdistan cities of Diyarbakır, Batman, Siirt and Doğubayazıt. Thousands took to the streets in Hakkari, near the Turkey-Iran border. Demonstrators pointed out that the brutality the Kurdish people faced in Mahabad and Meriwan was the same as the savagery they faced in Kobanê and Shengal from Daesh gangs.

Armed women's liberation groups across Kurdistan have been calling on women to stand up against rape and femicide and to rebel.

"In the face of the hope for freedom that Kurdish women have created in the people of the Middle East and the world, the Iranian state is trying to take its revenge with these types of savage and dirty tactics [of war]," said the KJK (Communities of Women of Kurdistan).

(mg/zd/fk/nt/cm)