JINHA

EFRÎN - Every night, you can find Nazlî Bedîr, 75, out on the streets with her rifle. Her goal: to defend the advances of the Rojava revolution.

Nazlî Bedîr lives in Efrîn canton, the westernmost of the three cantons that make up the Rojava autonomous region in Syria. When residents of the Şerqî neighborhood of the town of Cindirêsê organized their neighborhood into a local commune, Nazlî joined in.

Nazlî takes an active part in the activities of the commune, as well as serving in the commune's self-defense activity. Every night, Nazlî--who has eight children--is out protecting the streets of Serqî from 11 p.m. until morning.

Nazlî, who maintains that her advanced age is no obstacle to carrying out the duty of self-defense, noted that the people of Rojava have built a revolution with great effort and loss of life. She is committed to protecting the gains that the people of Rojava have been become a reality over the last few years.

"So children, youth, women, men, everyone--we can't allow anyone to overcome our willpower and we have to organize everywhere," said Nazlî. Self-defense, she said, is necessary to prevent a repeat of the attacks on the Rojava revolution that took place in Kobanê and Cizîrê.

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