NEWS CENTER – The 2nd International Women’s Conference, organized by the Women Are Knitting Their Future Network in Berlin, the capital of Germany, continues with the participation of hundreds of delegates. Colorful flyers with the names of female guerrillas who were martyred by chemical weapons were distributed to the delegates.
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In the first session of the conference, Kurdish National Congress (KNK) member Nilüfer Koç, Representative of the Revolutionary Women’s Union of Afghanistan Mariam Rawi, Lolita Chavez, a women’s rights activist from Guatemala and leading the struggle to protect natural resources, Ariel Saleh, a sociologist and eco-feminist from Australia, Italy. Peace activist and feminist Genevieve Vaughan and Feminist-Activist Kavita Krishnan delivered speeches on behalf of the All India Progressive Women’s Association.
‘WE CAN GET THE ENEMIES OF WOMEN BY ORGANIZED’
Nilüfer Koç, who took the first floor in the first episode titled “Society and state violence against women, and the sovereign-male whip”, talked about how an alternative line of struggle can be built against the patriarchal system’s policies aimed at systematizing women’s struggle.
Stating that they are at the right time for the spread of women’s resistance, Nilüfer Koç drew attention to the following:
“There is an unnamed 3rd World War going on right now. This war is waged by NATO member states, especially the USA and England. The biggest victims of the war are women. We know who started the wars. Since the beginning of the patriarchal system, there has been a war on women. Women have been subjected to violence for years by the male-dominated mentality of 5,000 years, and this violence still continues.
Today, we witnessed how domestic violence and state violence deepened, especially during the pandemic. In order to defeat patriarchal ideology in the 21st century, we need to develop women’s struggle more. In this period, when the capitalist system has maximized violence against women, it is actually experiencing its biggest crisis. Chemical weapons are used against Kurdish female fighters. Why? Because Kurdish women are establishing an alternative system against the dominant system. The philosophy of the Kurdish women’s movement is not just the Jin Jiyan Azadi slogan. This slogan is the result of the philosophy that Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan has created in the last 40 years. All over the world, women are uniting around this slogan and resisting the dominant system. With Abdullah Öcalan’s analysis, we learned how to live freely as Kurdish women.”
‘NO ONE GIVES FREEDOM, WE CAN WIN IT’
Mariam Rawi, on the other hand, talked about how imperialist powers’ search for power and power accumulation, hot wars and occupations in Afghanistan, Ukraine-Russia, Libya, Azerbaijan-Armenia, Northern and Eastern Syria affected women.
Sharing her thoughts on the possibility of women building a third way against these war policies, Mariam Rawi said: “Our lands are in the grip of these medieval savages. Women in Afghanistan are victims of religious crimes. The mentality and ideology of the Taliban is what makes women more children, not people. Sees ‘as a machine that does business. What is going on in our devastated country is due to the existence of a few reactionary parties. When the USA, Pakistan and their allies failed to establish mono-religious countries, they began to establish organizations such as the Taliban and ISIS. NATO and the USA surrendered our country to a murderous organization like the Taliban after 20 years of war. The US has supported drug lords and warlords for 20 years, empowering the Taliban for future use.
The Taliban have killed, maimed and tortured thousands of people since they came to power in Afghanistan. He committed thousands of crimes against humanity that the world media did not give. How can change be expected from such a terrorist group… The country is in collapse right now. The Afghan people are of no value to the regional forces. China, Russia, Pakistan, Iran and all western regimes are trying to establish relations with the Taliban. Western governments are ready to make any deal with the Taliban for their interests. The people of Afghanistan know very well that justice, freedom and democracy will not be given by these forces, but will be achieved through struggle. As the Afghanistan Revolutionary Women’s Union, we have a duty to organize and raise awareness among women. This year the Sakine Cansız award was given to RAWA. This is very meaningful to us. Rojava and Iran We stand with all women who resist. All the women who were martyred are a part of our struggle. Because they wrote the history of this century. Women will continue to make history with the slogan Jin Jiyan Azadi.”
‘WE DECIDE HOW WE LIVE ON OUR LAND’
Lolita Chavez, a women’s rights activist who attended the conference from Guatemala and led the struggle to protect natural resources, started her speech by greeting all revolutionary women from Abya Yala to Kurdistan.
Lolita Chavez, who said that the Latin American peoples will oppose the war and the use of chemical weapons in Kurdistan until the end, continued: “We are the children and protectors of the land. Our country is not America, which is named by the invaders, it is Abya Yala. Our land is occupied by bloodsuckers. These invaders are helped by Europe. Europe, you are also a part of this criminal system. We do not accept this invasion and Europe’s support for the invaders. Those who help plunder are against our struggle. We defend our freedom.
Like our sisters struggling in Kurdistan, we are crossing all borders. We are also taking part in this struggle for our existence and to create a free society. We will decide for ourselves how we will live on our land. That’s why we’re here. There is a very serious militarism on our borders. I was blamed for fighting, I was tortured, but I am here and I will continue to fight. As Abya Yala feminists, we know that the invaders fear us, but we are not afraid of them.”
‘THEY DESTROY THE FUTURE’
Sociologist and eco-feminist Ariel Saleh, who attended the conference from Australia, also gave a speech on Eco-Feminism. Ariel Saleh, who said that breaking women’s ties with nature leads to colonization, drew attention to child marriages, women’s abuse and violence against women. Stating that women are most exposed to oppression and exploitation, Ariel Saleh emphasized that with the destruction of the ecological system, the future of their children is also destroyed.
Peace activist-feminist Genevieve Vaughan from Italy and Feminist-Activist Kavita Krishnan from India on behalf of the All India Progressive Women’s Association made assessments on how women’s labor is exploited by the capitalist system and the class struggle based on the principle of women’s liberation.
The second session of the conference, which continues with questions and answers, will continue in the afternoon as workshops.
