Women's leadership in revolution since 2012

JINHA

NEWS CENTER - As Rojava prepares to celebrate three years of revolution, the events there have long since earned their moniker: a woman's revolution. This series by JINHA explores the model of women-led revolution pioneered in Rojava.

Women's participation in every aspect of life in Rojava started with the very first sparks of revolution, when local forces bloodlessly wrested control of the region from the Ba'ath regime. Since the revolution began on July 19, 2012, women have taken leadership roles in every area of life in the autonomous region--politics, diplomacy, organizing, culture, education, self-defense.

The women's self-defense force in Rojava, the YPJ, has gained the world's attention for fighting back against the patriarchal gang of Daesh. Behind this resistance lies women's everyday effort to defend themselves against second-class status under the patriarchal capitalist system. When Asya Abdullah, co-chair of the ruling PYD, and YPJ Commander Nesrîn Abdullah met with French President François Hollande, they went as representatives of a society transformed by women's leadership.

Key to women's participation in the revolution has been the women's organization Yekîtiya Star. Yekîtiya Star's main organizing drive over the last three years: organizing women into communes. In the women's communes, participants organize their communities, autonomously from male interference. Commune committees focus on economic life, education, self-defense and other activities.

While women have built autonomous spaces for themselves in countless city neighborhoods and cities across Rojava, they have also ensured gender parity in other parts of life as well. Under the co-chair system, women and men share important positions in the Rojava political system and in other institutions. The cantons and cities of Rojava are all governed by male and female co-presidents and co-mayors.

Through on-the-ground efforts, women's groups organize against all forms of violence against women. These include femicides and suicides, physical abuse and trade in women. In addition, Yekîtiya Star has opened academies to provide education for women. Women have also taken part in efforts to revitalize the Kurdish language after years of assimilation politics by the Ba'ath regime.

The slogan "however different the nation, belief or race, women are one," has summed up the revolution's approach to the women of Syria--and indeed, the world. While the leading countries of the world make baseless claims to gender equality, since the 2012 revolution, the women of Rojava have been busy turning a new page in history for women.

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