Revolution In Rojava: Democratic Autonomy And W...
Sharing a long struggle for autonomy with the neighboring regions of Turkish and Iraqi Kurdistan, the three cantons of Rojava, Afrîn, Kobanî and Cizîrê decided to implement an autonomous politics when the Syrian civil war began in 2012. It was decided that Rojava "would side neither with the regime nor with the opposition. Would it defend itself? Yes. Would it participate in the civil war? No" (50). The local idea of defense is expressed through the metaphor of the rose, which does not sting to kill its enemies, but to keep them at a distance. Rojava cantons first had to defend themselves from the so-called "Syrian opposition," which were increasingly Islamisized and included groups like Al-Nusra (close to Al-Qaeda), and then from the so-called Islamic State, which targeted Rojava as one of its main enemies, in part to destroy the social experiments that were ongoing there. Rojava had to defend itself, not only from the Jihadists, but also from the Turkish state, which was accused of helping ISIS in its efforts to take Kobanî (229). Turkey is now trying to create a "buffer zone" beyond the Syrian border to impede the territorial unification of Afrîn and Kobanî at all costs (241). The Rojava defenders also face hostility from some of the Kurdish parties in Northern Iraq that were not interested in their revolution and were keen to collaborate with the Turkish government.
Revolution in Rojava: Democratic Autonomy and W...
The region does not state to pursue full independence but rather autonomy within a federal and democratic Syria.[39] In July 2016, Constituent Assembly co-chair Hediya Yousef formulated the region's approach towards Syria as follows:[citation needed]
to express the desire for self-management and revolution, their daily lives being punctuated by embargoes and blockades on both sides of the Rojava border 4, at the heart of ethnic and religious conflicts. However, we can observe a paradigm shift after the beginning of the war in Syria with the declaration of self-determination of the Rojava cantons in Syrian Kurdistan. The Kurdish movement began to claim the name Rojava, which refers to the Kurdish memory. Thus, during all the Kurdish revolts since the beginning of the century, the Rojava has remained a home for Kurdish opponents, fighters and revolutionaries. The Rojava has become a place of accumulated memory of the Kurdish resistance, the place of an alternative economy 5 against capitalism as well as the territory where utopias such as the libertarian democratic municipality concretely develop.
So what can we learn from the democratic feminist mobilisation in Rojava? The collective struggle in Rojava decolonises our ways of seeing the world as it provides us with new vocabularies, institutions and alternative visions of rights and freedom. The women of Rojava have inspired feminists globally as they have been the key actors in constituting a new society and the development of a rights-framework as part of a pioneering experiment in democratic autonomy (democratic self-organisation without a state) (Jongerden and Knapp, 2016).
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A: There are several ways that our international supporters can help. (1) Organize conferences around the world that display the pivotal role that Rojava and its revolution has played in defeating ISIS terrorism and creating gender equality. (2) Support the security and stability of the Autonomous Administration by pushing for all sanctions on the Syrian Regime to be lifted from our areas and encourage nations to form direct economic partnerships with us. (3) Increase the representation of internationals in our region by travelling here and joining in the cultural, civil, and economic work of our project. (4) Putting pressure on Turkey to end its brutal occupation and stop threatening our region. (5) Putting pressure on the Assad Regime to accept a serious dialogue to fully end the war in Syria and establish autonomy in our areas. 041b061a72