STRUGGLES

“Women must be able to organise themselves from their own perspective. Why do
we have this here? Because we have a radical women's association. Without
having a radical analysis ofthe system, you're going to lose yourselfin the
system.”
– JineolojîCoordinator
Criticism and self-criticism are built into the system at every level. Women in jineolojî study
and critically analyse feminist movements in other countries, as well as other kinds ofsocial
systems, liberation movements and ideologies, including feminist, anarchist, socialist and
libertarian movements and ideas. They also take influences from these. Jineolojî is a scientific
approach to this, to bring all the thoughts and experience ofthe feminist movements under
one roof. They have a deep criticism ofwestern feminist movements, which they see as
reformist. I was very struck by the fact that these women are a lot more aware ofwhat we are
doing in Europe, than we are ofwhat they are doing.
They also criticise themselves and their own movements in order to continually develop their
ideas and systems. In many ofthe meetings we went to, people would ask us: “Do you have any
criticism for us? Is there anything you think we can change?”
In Kurdish society, it's culturally very difficult for people to criticise, but people we spoke to
stressed the importance ofsharing doubts and problems, in order to help people overcome
difficulties. As a part ofthe educational structure, they are teaching people how to give
criticism. This includes the ability to self-analyse when given criticism, and how to
understand when someone is open to receiving it.
One ofthe people we interviewed at a women's academy told us that criticism is “the love you
give for the other person, the love you give for the community.”
democratic confederalism in rojava
At first I really struggled with the omnipotence ofÖcalan's beaming face, most especially on
the walls ofspaces where women are organising their own independent systems. Even during
the several thousand strong march for International Women's Day, many ofthe women and
girls marching were carrying banners, flags and pictures ofÖcalan.
Then I started to read Öcalan's writings. Here are some ofthe quotes which struck me the
most.
“I have often written about “total divorce”, i.e. the ability to divorce from the five thousand years old
culture ofmale domination. The female and male gender identities that we know today are constructs
that were formed much later than the biological female and male. Woman has been exploited for
thousands ofyears according to this constructed identity; never acknowledged for her labour. Man has to
overcome always seeing woman as wife, sister, or lover – stereotypes forged by tradition and modernity.”
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