Bêrîvan Xalid: women are everywhere

JINHA

CIZÎRÊ - According to Bêrîvan Xalid, a director of the Rojava Culture Council, women have taken an active role everywhere in Rojava--from the front to cultural life.

This series by JINHA explores the model of women-led revolution pioneered in the Rojava autonomous region in Syria as the revolution's third anniversary approaches. Bêrîvan Xalid serves on the governing board of the Culture Council for the three cantons of Rojava.

"At this point, the system of democratic autonomy in Rojava is in place and it appears before us as a system in practice," said Bêrîvan. "But before the revolution, women were not supported either by society or by their families. Men's oppression of women was extreme." Since 2012, said Bêrîvan, women have taken on a leading role in many areas of life.

One of these is the Culture Council, where most of the employees are women. Rojava has 10 culture centers, where Arab, Assyrian, Kurdish and other groups promote culture and art. The Culture Council works to give centralized support to these centers and to cultural projects.

"Culture isn't just folk songs, or theatre; culture is a society's way of life as a whole," said Bêrîvan. In Rojava, long under the Ba'ath system, women have played a large role in keeping diverse cultures alive. In the face of what Bêrîvan called cultural genocide, women introduced their children to the culture that had been denied them. Bêrîvan attributes women's high participation in the Culture Council to this history.

"The Rojava revolution is both a cultural and a military revolution," said Bêrîvan. "Our enemy attacked our culture first, so it was necessary that there be a revolution of culture within this revolution."

Next, the Council is preparing to open a number of academies, including a children's culture academy. The goal: to help children understand their own cultures and the philosophy of the Rojava revolution.

(ekip/mg/fk/cm)