Stateless Democracy

eratives were achieved in this context. Under the motto
“Women’s liberation is the liberation of society,” the women’s
movement focused on ideological, philosophical, and
intellectual work. Within the frame of the unity between
theory and practice, it worked towards a transformation in
the thinking and consciousness of women and society. It
was seeking answers to questions such as: Who is woman?
Where does she come from? Where does she go? How has
she lived until today? How should women live and in what
kind of society? In this way, the women’s movement developed
a critique of the prevailing scientific field.
As you all know from history, rulers and power holders establish
their systems first in thought. As an extension of the
patriarchal system, the field of social sciences — male, classspecific,
and sexist in character — was created. This field
was in turn broken up into different parts that were divorced
from each other. The implementation of isolated interpretations
of these sciences has led to devastating results for nature,
society, and human beings in general, as demonstrated
by the normalization of militarism and violence; the deepening
of sexism and nationalism; the unrestrained development
of technology, especially weapon technology for the
control of society and individuals; the destruction of nature
fueled by nuclear energy, cancerous urbanization, and antiecological
industrialism; Gordian knots of social issues and
demographic problems; extreme individualization; the rise
of sexist policies and practices against women; and rights
and freedoms that only exist on paper.
At this point, we propose jineology as a necessary
strategy towards overcoming the prevailing, dominant
system of the field of science and constructing an alternative
system of science liberated from sexism. Jineology was
first concretely articulated by the Kurdish people’s representative
Abdullah Öcalan in his 2003 work The Sociology
of Freedom. In it, Öcalan expressed that women and all
individuals, societies, and peoples that are not carriers of
power or heirs to the state need to develop their own and
free social sciences — that these sciences could be called
“the sociology of freedom.” He proposed that this sociology
of freedom could in turn be based on jineology, because
movements that aim at a free, equal, and democratic communal
society have a strong need for jineology.
The term jineology means “women’s science.” Jin is the
Kurdish word for “woman” and logy is derived from the
Greek term logos [knowledge]. Moreover, jin comes from
the Kurdish term jiyan, which means “life.” In the Indo-European
language group and in the Middle East, the words
jin, zin, or zen — all of which mean “woman” — are often
synonymous with life and vitality.
In the history of humanity, woman is evaluated as the
first organism that attained knowledge about her own self.
Life and sociality coalesced on the basis of moral and political
principles, with woman at its center. Natural society,
with its moral and political values, was built by women.
There is an unbreakable bond between women and life.
The woman represents an important part of social nature
with her body and meaning. This is why woman is often
associated with life: woman represents life, life symbolizes
woman. For this reason, jineology as a women’s science is
also referred to as the science of life.
Upon closer examination of the stages of the patriarchal
system, beginning with Sumerian civilization, it is clear
that rulers have established their power positions initially
in thought. The distinction between subject and object in
social structures, for example, was first established by the
modern sciences. This fiction imposed on society the notion
that man is subject and woman is object — Mr. Subject
vs. Mrs. Object, master subject vs. slave object, state subject
vs. society object. This logic of power has made both
women and society believe in this distinction of oppres-
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