Join Southall Black Sisters on the march to show solidarity with the women’s revolution in Rojava NE Syria
On 9th October, as the US retreated, Turkey invaded Syria, specifically the area where the Kurds have set up an autonomous region which now stretches across more than 25% of Syria’s land mass having liberated some of it from ISIS in February 2019. In order to avoid genocide by Turkey, the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (Rojava) invited Assad and Russia to support them, which provided Assad with his much desired opportunity to reclaim all his territory. Despite the fact that the Kurds have acquiesced to Turkey’s demands to vacate a 20 mile deep stretch of land to create a so-called safe zone, Turkey has continued its attack.
The Americans, along with their European allies which includes the UK, had relied heavily on the Kurdish boots on the ground to achieve victory over ISIS. Although the threat has not gone away as thousands of ISIS prisoners in Kurdish camps are reportedly regrouping, Trump in his ‘matchless wisdom’ has vacated the air-space and given Turkey carte blanche to do what they will. Erdogan of Turkey has vowed to obliterate the Kurds of Syria because he believes they are connected to the Kurds of Turkey who he has labelled ‘terrorists’ for campaigning for their right to self-determination.
Why should this be important to us? Because in the middle of war-torn Syria, behind the frontlines, they have been setting up an ecologically sustainable, multi-ethnic, truly democratic society with women in the driving seat, heading up every institution in a co-presidentship arrangement with men. It is the only part of Syria where sharia councils have been abolished and religion has been consigned to the private sphere. Child marriage, forced marriage, dowry and polygamy have been banned; honour killings, violence and discrimination against women have been criminalised.
Under the most difficult circumstances, they have shown that another world is possible! This is what all of us are working towards. We cannot let Turkey destroy this template for the future. We cannot betray the Kurds, 11, 000 of whom have been killed in the battle with ISIS.
We support the following demands: