Listen here to the daily update:
Dear friends, sisters and comrade,
Today is 21st February and here is our daily update from Rojava, from the heart of the women’s revolution, where life is being defended.
In this current phase of change and upheaval, exposed to the patriarchal attacks of the Syrian transitional government, we must resist on all levels. Just like the people here in Rojava. Where the Syrian state tries to break the will of the people, to attack their culture, their language, their achievements, the people only organize themselves all the more strongly.
While the right to education in Kurdish and other mother tongue languages in Syria is still not guaranteed in the integration process.
Over the last week a play in Kurdish, the mother tongue language for children watching, is being performed. It also shows us how just daily life, making art in ones own language, is an act of resistance.
We attended one of the showings this week and would like to tell you about it.
Children’s Theater
This play was developed by a youth group for children. The idea behind the play is to empathise to children to the concept of cleanliness, or more specifically, brushing their teeth. In the play, one actor is disguised as tooth decay, while two others play the roles of toothpaste and toothbrush. Tooth decay hides among the children, and then is chased and brought before a court by the toothbrush and toothpaste. In the end, tooth decay is acquitted, as nothing could be proven against it—but the children receive a warning that they now know how to protect themselves against the now-unleashed tooth decay.
The original plan was to perform the play in schools before the Syrian Transitional governement attacks. Since the schools are currently housing the people who have been forced to flee their homes, plans were changed at short notice.
The play will now be performed for the displaced children. It is especially important to create opportunities for children living in war zones who are unable to attend school. It aims to combine education and theatre for kids.
After the performance, the director told us that art and culture are important pillars of society. They archive history, express the current reality, and, above all, offer critique. He told us that theatre and art are the weapons of society.
Another actor and director, who also attended the performance, told us about his long life as a Kurdish actor in Syria under Assad. Since the Kurdish language was banned under Assad, so was theatre—but that didn’t stop Kurds from performing in Kurdish. In the 1980s, a Kurdish theatre groups began to organize underground, performing in people’s homes or on the street. These performances were often broken up by the police, who then arrested the performers, because they performed in their mother tongue.
We see the issues of that time reflected in our current discussions. The areas of art and culture, and the Kurdish language, are being discussed today in relation with the agreement of January 29th.
This brings us to the next topic.
International Mother Language Day
Today is International Mother Language Day, a very important day, suppression of someone’s mother tongue language is a tool of colonisation used throughout the world.
Yesterday, in Amed, in Northern Kurdistan, a park was renamed Gulîstana Zimanan (Rose Garden of Languages) – in a symbolic, artistic act, ten of its paths were named after endangered languages.
The names Kurmanji, Kirmanji (Zazaki), Armenian, Surayth, Abkhazian, Circassian, Laz, Homshetsi, Romani, and Ossetian can now be found on artfully decorated wooden signs. All of these languages are rarely spoken or are not allowed to be spoken; many are endangered. In Amed, for example, only 30% of Kurdish women speak Kurdish – among children, it’s only 8%.
Many events also took place in Rojava today to mark Mother Language Day.
We have gathered voices from society:
A child said: “Speaking Kurdish means being me. Being myself. I love singing Kurdish songs.”
A woman who spoke at today’s demonstration in Qamishli said: “I am Kurdish. Kurdish is my mother tongue. It is not just a means of communication for me, but my identity, my existence, and my future.”
Syriacs:
The Syriac community in Syria today called for the constitutional recognition of Syriacs in their existence, culture, and language. The Syriacs were among the first communities to embrace Christianity. The Aramaic language holds great historical significance and is spoken today in many dialects.
The struggle for recognition of their own languages is being waged not only by the Kurds, but also by the Syriacs, as well as by many other minorities whose existence is threatened by the Syrian interim government.
The societal model of democratic confederalism, which has been practised now through the autonomous administration, and is based on the philosophy of Abdullah Öcalan, shows a path where all people’s and communities can live together and have the right to their own language and culture.
Afghanistan:
We should understand attacks on women in one place as attacks on women everywhere
We can only live in a liberated society when all women are free.
Therefore, we must unite and work towards the liberation of all women.
Our hearts burn with anger when we hear the news from Afghanistan.
A law was passed there today that allows men to use violence against their wives and children at their own discretion.
The law also stipulates that women who seek refuge with their families can be punished.
Women and Afgan society live under taliban rule. The Taliban is an Islamic fundamentalist violent dictatorship who is close ally with Al-Qadea. Ahmed al-Sharaa the now interim president of Syria built his political power by being a leader of Al-Qadea. The attacks on women in the world, but especially throughout the middle east, are deeply connected with each other, both spiritually and ideologically, but also practically. We share the same enemies, and we share the same goals.
Amed
Today, many angry women took to the streets of Amed. They gathered to mourn and also to protest. In the last 24 hours, six women were murdered in Turkey in feminicides. The women gathered denounced the fascist Turkish state for its patriarchal policies.
Several femicides occur daily worldwide; the killing of women in patriarchal societies is systemic.
Therefore, we are fighting together against femicide. The “We Want to Be Alive” campaign by the Network Against Femicide is a good place to organize against patriarchal violence and anti-femicide work.
Finally, we would like to tell you about the planned demonstrations in Europe.
March 8, Europe
TCK-E, the Kurdish women’s movement in Europe, is calling for actions from March 1st to 10th.
The actions are intended to be creative and powerful, focusing on the attacks in Rojava and the women’s achievements that still need defending. A collective appeal will be made to all democratic forces to increase pressure on international powers. In addition to demonstrations, workshops, theatre performances, film screenings, and discussion events are planned.
And with that, we send you revolutionary greetings!
