Çay at the Women's Front

In the heart of Europe, in the so called city of love, a feminicide against Kurdish revolutionaries happened for the second time. On Dec. 23rd 2022, three Kurdish friends have been shot in Paris and lost their lives. One of them was Evin, who has been a vanguard in the Kurdish women’s movement for decades. This massacre reminds everyone immediatly of the killing that happened exactly 10 years ago, also in Paris. At that time three women of the Kurdish women's movement had been shot, who played a leading role in the women's freedom struggle.

Who were these women and why were they targeted? What is the connection between these two murders? And who is responsible for the killings? These questions and more we discuss in this last episode of the third season on our podcast. Arjîn, a kurdish young women who is active in the women's movement in Europe and Anja, who has known Evin personally, are answering all our questions!

What is going on in the free mountains of Kurdistan? Kurdistan and it's people are going through the most difficult time in their history right now. In eastern Kurdistan the people, led by brave young women, are relentlessly fighting in the streets against the Iranian Regime. West-Kurdistan, Rojava is continuously under military attack by the Turkish state. But what is actually happening in the mountains of north and south Kurdistan is not widely known.

Horrible photos are circling in the internet. The mountains in which the Kurdish Guerilla is living and fighting for freedom, are under the heaviest attacks. The Turkish army is bombing the freedom fighters with chemical and other internationally banned weapons.

But why is no one intervening? Who are the Guerilla, these young women and men, that are resisting so fearlessly? And what do they have to do with the Rojava-Revolution? These questions and all facts about the current chemical attacks, are the topics of this new episode "In The Free Mountains".

Here in Rojava we are currently facing the biggest military attack since a long time! Turkey is attacking the region with war planes, drones and artillery. How this new war started, what happened so far, how we experience these attacks and our predictions on how it will continue we share in this new episode. Please share this episode with your friends. Nobody should stay silent about this, but stop the war! Defending the women's revolution of Rojava means defending the hope of humanity!

"If anyone in Iran hears my voice, I tell them to close their wounds and continue until they reach freedom.
 And if someone outside of Iran hears my voice, I request you to be the voice of the Iranian people, because the Islamic Republic of Iran is trying to silence the    
 voice of the Iranian people." - Ala from Kirmaşan

More then 40 days passed since the feminicide on the Kurdish woman Jîna Mahsa Amini (16.09.2022) by the Iranian Regime. From this day on the people of Eastern Kurdistan, Iran and Balochistan are rising up and demanding their freedom.
We had the chance to talk to Ala, a young Kurdish woman from Kirmaşan, who is right now witnessing and taking part in the revolution of Rojhelat and Iran. In this episode she is sharing her beautiful and powerful message on this current situation with the world.  

We as the young internationalist women in Rojava made this song mashup of a soranî, a farsî and a kurmancî song in memory of Jîna Amini and Nagihan Akarsel and in solidarity with the uprisings in Rojhilat and Iran and all women who take action in all places of the world. Women's revolution is an international revolution and this is how we have to live it. Jin Jiyan Azadî!

Watch our video clip to the song on: https://vimeo.com/761097301

JIN JIYAN AZADI is being shouted on the streets of Rojhelat and Iran by young women and all the other parts of society and it’s echoing all over the world. What is the real meaning of this slogan? What is the current situation? How are the uprisings in Rojhelat and Iran connected to the revolution in Rojava? What is the meaning of Kurdish identity in this context and in the events taking place right now? These are some of the questions we are discussing in this episode with Beri - who is from Rojhelat and living in diaspora.

“It’s this friction between how people are born and the ideas and thoughts they have inherited from their ancestors and then this system that is put upon them. And they are so far apart, that’s why it will never work.” - Beri

Our guest: Beri Shalmashi @berishalmashi from Rojhelat, living in Netherlands

What makes the revolution in Rojava so successful and growing for over 10 years now, is the power of the society, the power of the people. But what does that actually mean? What is the strategy behind and how does this look like in the reality here in Rojava?
A woman friend joined our 4th cay break to talk about the concept of revolutionary people's war and what it means for a revolutionary movement that aims to liberate the society. As it is becoming very clear in the light of the increasing attacks of the Turkish state right now,  the revolution is based on defending and fighting for itself which is going further then professionally organized military structures like YPG and YPJ.
Each person has a responsibility in defending the society and the land of their home, as real freedom can only be created by the people standing up for themselves. This means taking the responsibility in the shape of all kinds of different roles, from giving space in your house to the fighters to the armed struggle itself. In that way society creates a power as a whole. 

We all need to stop relying on the states that oppress us! We need to relearn how to defend and fight for ourselves and communities!

The access to water in Rojava and NE Syria is becoming more and more limited. The severe drought that has been lasting for over two years is connected to the global ecological situation and the Turkish state cutting the water supply to the region. Water is a source of life and as such it is one of the most direct ways to attack the society. The water is being used as a method of war. Afriend joined us to talk about Heyva sor, the Kurdish Red moon structure and her current project on assessing and improving water infrastructures, access to water and the quality of water.

We need to change our relations to nature and stop capitalist exploitation and destruction of it. Rojava is an ecological revolution as ecology is one fundamental principle of the movement that aims to change how we live with each other and nature. It gets clear that to protect the fundament of life for the people in this revolution, we need to rise up and take a stand against the Turkish fascist regime everywhere where people feel the hope that is arising from the Rojava revolution. To protect nature is to protect life!

WE ARE AT WAR and the revolution in Rojava and it’s people are being attacked every day economically, ecologically and psychologically. But also military attacks of the Turkish state, which have always been part of the warfare against the revolution here, are becoming more and more common and intense. The cities til Rifaat, Ain Issa, and the Region Shehba are targeted by artillery and drone attacks on a regular basis. During the last days the Turkish state is escalating it’s attacks intensively and expanding the target area. In  the cities Tirbespi, Qamishlo, Amude and Dirbesiye already several civilians have been killed and dozens have been injured.

Today we are joined by a Kurdish friend who explained and analyzed the current situation. She explains the different methods that the Turkish state is using to terrorize the society on an everyday basis. The people here in north-east Syria are being attacked, because they are building up the alternative to an oppressive system, which is giving hope and inspiration to the people of Turkey, Syria and many other places in the world. People are feeling encouraged to put their utopias into practice. This is a threat to the oppressive states, that try to suffocate the revolution of the people.

We, people form all over the world, need the revolution in Rojava and the revolution needs us!

Getting to know ourselves – "Xwebûn" (kurdish - being yourself), is a concept of the Kurdish Women's movement aiming at getting to know yourself. It means entering a process with ourselves and our surroundings in which we start to answer questions of who we really are and how we want to live. We were joined by two women friends, Bruna and Zeryan, who talked about their own process, struggles and  their perspectives of putting it into practice.  Becoming your actual self means  decrypting and  overcoming capitalist influences in your own personality. Knowing and becoming ourselves brings us closer to our truth  as human beings, it makes us stronger and more determined on our revolutionary path, brings clearness, deeper understanding and love for ourselves, our friends, society and the whole universe.

This year the 19th of July marks the 10th anniversary of the Rojava Revolution! For this special occasion we were joined by Kurdish and internationalist women to discuss the challenges and achievements of the revolution so far. Why this revolution is a women's revolution and many other topics are covered in this last episode of the second season.

We are dedicating this episodes to all the friends that have given love, effort, dedication and their lives to build up this revolution, which makes it possible today, for us to learn from it, get hope and inspired for a free life and be part of the internationalist revolution of this decade.

Our special guests: Zîn from Kurdistan, Amara from Europe

Most of us already saw lots of pictures of the women fighters of YPJ portrayed in the media all around the world. But what is behind these pictures? What is YPJ, the all-women-army in Rojava? There is much more to it than just armed women! We are discussing this and more with an internationalist women who joined the YPJ. She shares insights into everyday life in the YPJ,  talks about her motivation to join the force, the ideology behind women's armed resistance and the importance of education within the YPJ.

Guest: Berçem from Czech Republic, member of YPJ International

The success of the revolutionary women in Rojava is linked a lot to their determination and militancy. Reaching this means fighting liberalism. The term liberalism seems to be confused a lot. After many discussions with friends here in Rojava we started to get a deeper understanding of what it is and how it is connected to every single one of us. How we think, how we struggle, how we approach revolution is all connected to how much we are influenced by liberalism. With Ruken and Berwar we are discussing how we are personally affected by liberalism and how we struggle against it.

Our guests: Ruken and Berwar from Germany, members of the Internationalist Youth Commune of Rojava.

Every revolution's engine is the youth with it's spirit to radically change things. We realized that giving importance to the vanguard role of the youth, is one of the secrets of the Rojava Revolution. But the youth identity is rarely talked about. Who is young? What is the role of the youth in society and revolution?And what is special about being a woman and being young at the same time? These and other questions we are discussing with the young women from the Internationalist Youth Commune.

Our guests: Bruna from Catalonia and Helin from England - members of the Internationalist Youth Commune of Rojava

We have met a very talented young woman who dedicated her life to music as well as to the revolution. Maddalena from Italy talks to us about how she connects both of her passions with each other, how she experiences art in Rojava and of course she is also singing a song for us!

In this episode we are talking about the paradox of getting to know your own culture in the revolution of a foreign country, funny situations that happened to us in Rojava because of not knowing the local culture and what revolutionary culture is. Controversial discussion about culture, identity and post-modern colonialism…

Our guests: Lara who is working in the women’s movement and Gulan from the Internationalist Commune

In this episode we are talking about the reality of living in a region that is constantly confronted with war. Even though none of us has activley participated in war, living in north-eastern Syria involves being confronted with different war situations. Low-intensity war, warm war, special warfare and many other kinds of war. What this makes with us and the people we have met, is in the focus of our discussions. 

- The aesthetics of resistance -

In the middle of a newly discussed invasion against the revolution in  Rojava, we want to address the issue of war. War is not only associated  with life and death, but also with resistance, great emotions and the  struggle for life. While the front is coloured with great resistances,  there is the story of heroic friends who play a central and important  role with their work. 

Today we are talking to internationalist women  working in medical combat about the current threats against Rojava and  what its like to work between life and death.

In this episode, we discuss how Rojava is preparing for a new invasion.

In our first episode we are talking about why we came to Rojava, what our first impressions were and what we are struggling with... join the cay break!