Qamishlo – With the massive wave of displacement and the strain of economic blockade, women have moved to the forefront of community life in the city of Qamishlo in Rojava. From organizing shelters and securing daily necessities to supporting the local economy, their strength has become a key driver in sustaining life and mitigating the impact of the crisis on the city.

In every wave of displacement, losses are not measured only by the number of empty homes, but by the scale of the disruption that affects both the social and economic balance. With the arrival of thousands of displaced families from the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh neighborhoods to the city of Qamishlo, the city has turned into an open space of living pressure. Women have emerged on the front lines of the daily struggle to maintain the continuity of life and prevent its collapse.

Ghalia Mahmoud Al-Najjar, a member of the Women’s Economy Committee of Kongra Star in Qamishlo canton, confirmed that the regions of North and East Syria have witnessed a large wave of displacement of Afrin residents from the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh neighborhoods as a result of the military escalation launched by the jihadists of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham. This forced large numbers of civilians to head toward the city of Qamishlo, placing exceptional burdens on the region’s living and economic infrastructure.

She explained that the heavy influx of people coincided with the closure of major roads and crossings:

“Supply chains were severely disrupted, which was directly reflected in the availability of basic commodities, especially bread, heating materials, and cooking oils. This paralyzed market movement and increased economic pressure, effectively pushing the city into a suffocating living blockade.”

The supply, economy, and agriculture institutions, in cooperation with the local community, have tried to regulate the limited resources and prevent the crisis from worsening. However, the biggest challenge has been securing shelter and essential needs for the displaced.

“Many were forced to stay in schools, places of worship, or unfinished buildings, amid bitter cold and a severe shortage of heating means.”

Women, as shown, have borne the greatest burden of displacement. Their responsibilities in family care and meeting children’s needs have doubled under harsh psychological and economic conditions for which they were not prepared. Nevertheless, they have played a central role in social cohesion.

“They have helped organize shelter centers, protect children, support the community, participate in guarding and logistical support for fighters, prepare food, and maintain an active presence in community-based economic activities.”

Al-Najjar pointed out that this experience has revealed women’s ability to transform into an effective economic force. Women’s institutions are working to empower women—especially the displaced—through small projects that ensure independent income and reduce the impact of displacement. A large percentage of local economic activity is now led by women despite scarce resources.

She also noted that social solidarity has partially alleviated the severity of the crisis. Bakeries have continued operating, and traders have provided facilities as much as possible, in a collective attempt to prevent the collapse of living conditions.

“The current phase requires broad cooperation to overcome political, social, and economic challenges.”

Ghalia Al-Najjar concluded by stressing that the primary goal is for people to return to their homes:

“The land is not merely a place to live; it is the foundation of economic and social stability. The resilience and solidarity of society are the real guarantee for overcoming this phase with the least possible losses.”

Zirgan (Abu Rasin)- Women have rebuilt their life in solidarity with each other in Zirgan, a village in the Jazira Canton of North and East Syria, revitalizing their neighborhoods and streets despite all the challenges.

In the village, old women are leaders of their society. Women sitting in front of houses share their experiences and discuss many issues such as economy, politics and the challenges faced by women due to the patriarchal mindset. Despite the ongoing Turkish attacks on their village, they are in solidarity with each other to empower each other.

The Turkish state and Turkish-backed factions launched their occupying attacks on Serêkaniyê (Ras al-Ayn) and Girê Spî (Tell Abyad) and Zirgan on October 9, 2019, displacing thousands of people. Süriya Aziz was one of the women displaced from Zirgan in 2019. She returned to the village to build her life again.

“I am very happy because the displaced people of our village have been returning,” said Süriya Aziz. “As women, we gather in front of a house to discuss the current situation in Syria. We benefit from the experiences of the elders. We also discuss the problems faced by women and how we can solve them.”

‘Women have changed the views of men and society’

Women used to be criticized when they gathered, Süriya Aziz stressed. “Now, women gather without being criticized. Women have changed the views of men and society.” Süriya Aziz thinks that the use of cell phones kills social life. “I always tell my children and my family members not to use cell phones when we come together. We must discuss issues that will benefit our society when we come together. It is important to have quality time for yourself and your family.”

Süriya Aziz also talked about the social life of those living in tall buildings. “Living in tall buildings isolates women and causes social alienation. No one sees each other or talks to each other. When I have a conversation with women, I feel happy.”

The term Fez’a is an Arabic word that, when translated directly, means “help and solidarity.” In the Deir ez-Zor Canton, the roots of Fez’a culture lie deep within traditional tribal customs. This practice, which emphasizes mutual aid during times of mourning, celebration, agricultural work, or home construction, forms the foundation of communal life in the region. Fez’a not only fosters cooperation among neighbors but also activates a sense of collective conscience by encouraging humanitarian support for those in need, particularly poor and vulnerable families.

Acts of assistance and solidarity are carried out spontaneously, without invitation or formal planning. For this reason, the people of the region preserve and uphold Fez’a as a legacy of an ethical and political society.

Women and youth play an active role

In the Fez’a tradition, women and young people play an active role in all forms of communal life, from building and repairing homes to organizing social campaigns and participating in harvesting and planting.

Elders also have a significant place in this culture. Drawing on their long life experiences, they offer guidance and wisdom through advice and storytelling.

Khalid al-Ibed, a resident of Hajin (Hecîn) in Deir ez-Zor Canton and a leading participant in preserving the Fez’a tradition, told ANHA News Agency: “We help each other because we see ourselves as responsible for our land and our people. Fez’a is still a living and beloved tradition in our society. What we practice is not short-term or temporary aid. It is a symbol of solidarity between families, relatives, and neighbors. Since childhood, we have witnessed people coming together during the harvest season, while picking cotton, or in many other tasks that require collective effort.”

As an example of this tradition in action, al-Ibed added, “Today, a group of young people from Hajin gathered to harvest barley by hand in a neighbor’s field.”

He emphasized that they do not wait for help from outside sources: “We offer assistance to our neighbors, relatives, and community as a humanitarian duty. And those we help return the favor with the same sense of responsibility. This is not a new tradition, it is a valuable legacy passed down from our ancestors, and we want to preserve it.”

Anas Abdullatif, another community member living in accordance with the Fez’a tradition, expressed similar views: “We do not see helping others as a simple or temporary obligation. This tradition, which prevails across our society, is based on the principle of living together that we inherited from our elders and our tribal heritage. We want to pass it on to our children. We are a people who sustain this tradition as a living history, without distinction between old and young, men and women, everyone participates according to their ability.”

‘Like a flowing river…’

Anas Abdullatif likened the act of helping others to a flowing river and stated, “If the river stops flowing, it dries up. That’s why we try to raise our children, the next generation, in accordance with the Fez’a tradition. We are working to build awareness among them based on solidarity and our principle of living together. For us, abandoning the Fez’a culture means abandoning our roots.”

He also expressed hope that the Fez’a tradition, as a model of communal life, would remain relevant within society and that the humanitarian values it fosters would extend beyond the region. He said, “Fez’a should not be seen as an ordinary tradition. For us, it is a school where we learn the values of humanity and the meaning of communal life through solidarity.”

36 families in Raqqa established a cooperative with the support of the Cooperatives Committee under the Council of Agriculture and Economy. Through their cooperative, the families brought to life a bakery project called ‘Life Bakery Cooperative‘. The bakery will serve many families in the canton.

The bakery officially opened on Monday, 4 August, with a ceremony attended by co-chairs of the Cooperatives and Raqqa Economy Committees as well as local residents.

The bakery will operate daily from 6:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., and 8.2 tons of flour have been allocated for its use. It will produce 8,750 loaves of bread per day, which will be distributed to all neighborhoods in the canton and to areas where displaced people from Afrin live.

The opening ceremony began with a moment of silence, as the news agency ANHA reported. The co-chair of the Cooperatives Committee, Ebdulxefûr Romî, welcomed the participants and emphasized the importance of the cooperative.

Romî said: “The Life Bread Cooperative is the fourth bakery cooperative to be established. Similar cooperatives were previously launched on 23 February in Ferdos and Selhebi. These bakery cooperatives produce a total of 25,400 loaves of bread daily, which reach thousands of families through designated representatives.”

He added that about 90 families are currently employed in bakery cooperatives. Romî also noted that the Cooperatives Committee is active not only in baking but also in agriculture, livestock, and small trades. They also provide support in seasonal production, olive production, and poultry farm management.

Romî added that the “Xeyrat Cizre Mills Cooperative”, which produces 30 tons of flour daily, is also operational. He concluded by thanking the Council of Agriculture and Economy and wished success to the newly opened cooperative.

For years, the village, under Syrian government control, suffered from official neglect after water pumping stations stopped operating in 2011. With no response to repeated appeals, residents were forced to drink untreated water directly from the Euphrates River—a source increasingly polluted and linked to widespread illnesses, including kidney disease, gastrointestinal infections, and skin disorders.

Jassem Khalifa al-Hussein, 40, a resident of the village, told North Press that they had no other choice. They did not drink the water because it was clean, but because they had to.  

“Since 2011, water has not reached our area, despite appeals and pleas for help, and despite the illnesses that have spread,” Khalifa said. “No one has responded to our requests or offered an initiative. This is a community-led initiative, an idea born among the villagers so we could rely on ourselves.”

The initiative, supported by contributions from local residents, community leaders, and expatriates, is the first of its kind in the area to be entirely self-funded. The Water Authority in Deir ez-Zor is providing technical oversight, while villagers cover the costs. Construction of the sedimentation basin alone has reached about one billion Syrian pounds (approximately $100,000), with work ongoing and no final budget yet set.

In acts of solidarity, one resident donated the land for the station, while another gave part of his property to open an access road for transporting construction materials. Once completed, the station is expected to provide clean drinking water to around 1,500 homes—serving roughly 7,000 people—and end years of reliance on unsafe sources.

Neighboring villages, such as al-Kharita, face similar shortages. “We depend on the Shumaytiyah Station, but it only supplies water one day a week,” said local resident Abdulkarim al-Shaibi. This forces many to either draw directly from the river or buy costly tanker water—a reality common across much of western Deir ez-Zor’s countryside.

Residents hope their project will inspire similar community-driven initiatives across the region, improving infrastructure and basic services so that local communities are no longer left vulnerable to recurring crises.

Living solidarity through art means socialising art not only through its content but also through the way it is produced and shared. This begins when the artist is no longer a distant individual but becomes part of collective life. One of the clearest examples of this is the cultural and artistic work in Rojava. What makes it powerful is its ability to reconstruct the sociological bond between the audience and the artist, breaking the fourth wall in the process. Art becomes freer when it belongs and when it draws closer to people.

Imagine a neighbourhood workshop today: creating a mural with children, building a stage in the countryside through collective effort, or playing music in the streets without seeking profit. All are practical forms of solidarity in art. In this approach, the sociological reality that art transforms into is no longer an aesthetic game of the elite but becomes the labour, voice, and imagination of the people.

In a system where art is commodified and sacrificed to competition, socialist art becomes the justice of collective creation and shared thinking. To live solidarity in art is to make art life itself. The real issue lies not in the absence of production, but in the disconnection of our art from life. This disconnection prevents the emergence of a strong aesthetic attitude and fails to foster an ethical stance. It stems from the growing dominance of individualism. This path only gains meaning when walked together.

Moreover, it is not enough for an artist to merely reflect this understanding by changing the subject of their work. Addressing social issues is not sufficient—the act of creation itself must become collective. In staging a play, it is not only the director but also the lighting technician, the set designer, and the audience who must have a voice. Any art that is not created through collective intellect and shared effort inevitably falls back into the grip of individual production.

Today, many young art collectives and aspiring artists are exploring new paths in line with this approach. By producing works independently of both power structures and market relations, they transform the audience from mere consumers into active participants. Communities converting empty shops into theatres in the outskirts of European cities, open-air cinemas in rural areas, or volunteers painting the walls of village schools. These are not just artistic activities, but the seeds of a new network of social relations. We are not bound to use the fixed forms of art that have been handed down to us.

The songs sung by Martyr Delila for her people and the newsreels of Dziga Vertov in Soviet cinema reflect the same tradition. Both responded sincerely to the questions of “what for” and “for whom” in art. Keeping this legacy alive today requires more than remembrance; it demands reconstruction. Art is not only a means of expression, it can become a comrade in the social struggle.

Collective art does not deliver pre-packaged messages to its audience; it invites them to think, question, and even create. This is why Bertolt Brecht transformed theatre into a space of action. Today, new forms of art must be developed where the audience steps onto the stage, and the boundaries become blurred. Our traditional dengbêj (Kurdish oral storytellers and bards) singers, who brought together communities and society, fulfilled this same function. In those times, art held a more democratic and socially rooted form and purpose.

The democratisation of art begins with remembering that it is a right for all. Therefore, solidarity in art is not only about the artist’s intention but also about the way society is organised. As long as cultural policies surrender artistic production to the sponsorship of major capital groups instead of supporting the creators themselves, art becomes commercialised. In such a system, if we sing, we run to stages; if we paint, we are confined to galleries, practicing an art that is closed within four walls, devoid of faces and of life.

In today’s realities, a solidarity-based art can survive only through alternative structures and networks of mutual support. Grants and funds are not what sustain the artist; it is the solidarity of the people that nourishes, strengthens, and gives soul to the work. What ultimately emerges from this process is a deeply social system. For those of us who create, our understanding of what is new and transformative must be rooted in connecting art with the people, including them in its process, and focusing on the artistic growth and collective creativity of society.

Organising music tours through communal effort, printing fanzines through mutual support, or creating free, open workshops, all of these represent this living spirit. These acts show that solidarity in art is not a nostalgic ideal from the past, but a vibrant and ongoing practice.

Living togetherness in art means embracing unlimited creativity, an enduring desire to produce together, and a sincere bond with the people. Social art stands where the aesthetic and the ethical converge. It is not limited to what is merely beautiful or what is simply right; it brings to the stage the living tension that is born from the clash between the two. Rather than fleeing from contradictions, social art moves forward by making them visible.

Art and artists can walk side by side, deepening each other through mutual support and shared purpose. In a world where art is increasingly individualised, collective creation remains both an act of resistance and a source of hope. As long as we continue seeking ways to understand one another rather than merely express ourselves, collective art will remain with us. And this search does not belong only to the stage or the canvas, it lives in the streets, in schools, in our institutions, and everywhere people gather.

Jinwar was officially opened on 25th November 2018, but the process of its establishment was a longer journey. The idea of building a women’s village was inspired by proposals of Abdullah Öcalan and discussed for a long time by the Kurdish Women’s Movement. With the 2012 Rojava Revolution, including the establishment of the self-administration and the withdrawal of the Baath regime from most areas these ideas became more realizable. Concrete plans started in 2016 by an initiative of different women organizations – Kongra Star, the Free Women’s Foundation, the Jineolojî Academy and the Martyr Families Council. The land, which had once been confiscated by the state, was initially cultivated after the revolution by an agricultural cooperative of Aboriya Jin (women’s economy committee) and then donated to the project.

In 2017 the construction of the village started. The houses of the village were built in a traditional way by forming bricks out of earth, water and straw. Some of the buildings were decorated with murals showing the spirit and the message of the women’s village. For example the image of Şahmaran as the bearer of an ancient knowledge symbolizes women’s struggle, strength of transformation and wisdom. The building process of this village connects to a long history of women’s struggle in Kurdistan, to the efforts and sacrifices of many women.

“Women are strongly connected with society – they are the ones organizing the basis of life, inventing methods and tools to solve problems in society and creating bonds of solidarity and mutual support. We are getting connected to this role again, organizing our life together, supporting each other and sharing our knowledge with each other.” says Sirîn, a woman currently living in the village. She came as a language teacher to the village. Previously she lived in Qamishlo where she was a school teacher, first under the rule of the Baath regime and then as part of establishing the new education system in the Kurdish mother-language in the system self-administration. Now she is teaching reading and writing, as well as other subjects, to the mothers and children in Jinwar in their own mother-tongues, both Arabic and Kurdish.

The life in Jinwar is based on communal values and principles such as ecology, democratic self-organization, women’s economy, women’s health, education and the building up of a common future. The women share their knowledge about gardening and ecological ways of growing fruits and vegetables. At the same time, their aim is to build a self-sustainable life that offers independence on an economic level. The women of Jinwar are building up a communal economy by working hand in hand with other cooperatives in the region. Furthermore, they run a bakery, a small village store and dry vegetables for the winter which are also sold. All decisions concerning the daily life, activities, new ideas and the village economy are discussed and made in the village council assemblies. The children and the youth have their own assemblies and spokespersons in order to participate in democratic decision making processes.

Connected to the village, is also the health center ŞifaJin (Healing of Women). The natural healing and health center opened in 2020 and has rooms for treatments, consultations, educational work, and the production of natural remedies. The project also includes a garden where medicinal herbs are cultivated. ŞifaJin’s ambulance ensures mobility in urgent cases and the cooperation with women from surrounding villages to collect and share traditional natural healing knowledge in connection with modern knowledge and treatment methods.

“The life in Jinwar is an example for women living and organizing together and finding their strength together. It is a place that shines around the world. Being here and talking to the women here, I really feel freer and hopeful. It is clear, we need more places all around the world like this village. It is our task as internationalists to build up these places everywhere and establish a network of connection between them”, concludes Julia after her visit at Jinwar.

More information and impressions about Jinwar, you can find here or here.

Dêrik, a city in northeastern Syria, is inhabited by Kurds, Syriacs, Arabs and Armenians. The city offers a peaceful life with its calm nature, clean air, mountains and valleys and cultural diversity.

Despite all the challenges, the city has become one of the symbols of peace in the region controlled by the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES). The coexistence of different ethnic communities in the city reinforces strong solidarity and mutual respect among people.

The Vîtariya Commune built by Kurds, Syriacs, Arabs and Armenians in the city aims to strengthen solidarity among different ethnic identities in the city.

“Every ethnic group in the city is known for its own culture and language,” said Ayşa Ubêd, a Kurdish woman living in Dêrik. “The Kurdish, Syriac, Arab and Armenians have lived together in the city for years. When the revolution started in Rojava led by women, we began to play our active role in our society. The Autonomous Administration strengthened social relations without discrimination. The people in Dêrik have built peace in solidarity with each other.”

‘We celebrate each other’s holidays’

Vîtariya Commune is a neighborhood of Dêrik inhabited by Kurds, Syriacs, Arabs and Armenians. “The Vitariya Commune is mostly inhabited by Syriac people. As the Kurdish people, we respect them. We celebrate each other’s holidays and visit each other. They also celebrate the holidays of Muslims. During the rule of the Baathist regime, we faced discrimination; however, the Kurdish, Syriac, Arab and Armenian people built a strong relationship after the revolution in Rojava.”

‘We live together in Dêrik’

“Life is beautiful in Dêrik,” Corcêt Gorgîs, a Syriac woman living in Dêrik, told NuJINHA. “People from different ethnic groups live together in the city. As the Syriac people, we used to work with the Kurdish people, especially in the agriculture sector. Since the revolution in Rojava, solidarity among people has become stronger.”

Speaking about the Vîtariya Commune in Dêrik, Corcêt Gorgîs said, “The Syriac, Kurdish, Arab and Armenian people live together in the commune. Everyone respects each other. During our holidays, our Kurdish, Arab and Armenian neighbors visit us to celebrate our holidays with us. We also visit them during their holidays. There are about 200 houses in our neighborhood. The commune has various committees such as health, education and security committees. Each committee makes great efforts to fulfil its responsibilities. We will keep working to build a democratic and peaceful life and fraternity among people.”

Til Temir – Farmers begin to harvest barley when it is gold in color. Barely is a strategic crop and one of the cornerstones of global food security. Barely can grow under different climatic conditions in many countries, playing an important economic role.

The sickle, one of the most ancient of harvesting tools, consists of a metal blade, usually curved, attached to a short wooden handle. It is still used all around the world because of its simple design and low cost.

In the village of Fiwêda, located on the foothills of Mount Kizwanan (Mount Abdulaziz), people still use the sickle as a harvesting tool.

‘Insufficient rainfall negatively impact crop growth and yields’

Henan Ebdullah, a resident of the village, plants barley every year with her daughters and grandchildren. “Insufficient rainfall negatively impacts crop growth and yields,” she told us while harvesting barley in her agricultural land.

“We usually use modern machines to plant barley; however, we planted barley this year by hoeing barley because of insufficient rainfall.”

Henan Ebdullah also talked about the solidarity of the villagers. “We are always in solidarity with each other to preserve our culture and traditions. Thanks to this solidarity, our grandparents planted and grew crops and now we plant and grow crops.

We wake up early every morning and when we go out to work, we see a group of men, women, neighbors, relatives and friends, who want to support us. This solidarity shows the strong bonds among the people.”

Harvesting barley together also strengthens social and women’s relations, Henan Ebdullah emphasized. “We sing together while harvesting barley by using the sickle. Even though we are tired of working, we laugh and work with joy. It is time for harvesting barley and we have to harvest them as soon as possible.”

Aleppo- Nûdem for Care and Support for People with Disabilities, an organization carrying out various activities to be in solidarity with people with disabilities and assist them overcome the difficulties in their lives, has started carrying out activities in Aleppo, northern Syria’s largest city. The organization aims to reach people with disabilities in all cities.

‘We have recorded 425 people with disabilities in two neighborhoods’

Meryem Şêx Qamber, Spokesperson of Nûdem and a person with a disability, told NuJINHA that the organization first started its activities in two neighborhoods of Aleppo. “We have already started carrying out our activities in Aleppo’s Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh neighborhoods. We have recorded 425 people with disabilities in these two neighborhoods. We have already started determining their needs. We have provided both music and painting courses to them.”

‘The number of people with physical disabilities is on the rise’

The organization also supports the people with disabilities displaced from Shahba. “We work to determine their number. The number of people with physical disabilities is on the rise. As the organization, we also collect clothes and deliver them to displaced people with disabilities in the neighborhoods.’

‘Our aim is to support all people with disabilities across Aleppo’

Nûdem also aims to be in solidarity with women and children with disabilities. “Today, we carry out our activities for people with disabilities in the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh neighborhoods,” said Meryem Şêx Qamber. “Our aim is to support all people with disabilities across Aleppo.”

Nûdem has supported more than 100 families in Aleppo’s Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh neighborhoods.

Afrin-Shehba Canton Municipality continued the practices by the municipality in Afrin in Shehba in order to respond to the needs of the people of Afrin who migrated to Shehba after the Turkish occupation of Afrin. Everything was plundered, and the institutions and organizations were closed down, while people fled their homes. In 2023, water was delivered to the people in Afrin-Shehba Canton. In addition to the camps, the construction needs (tiles, cement, etc.) of all the districts and villages of Shehba were met. The houses damaged in the earthquake were repaired, and 243 tents were set up in Berxwedan and Serdem Camp for the families whose houses were damaged (families coming from Aleppo). With the expansion of the camps, work was carried out to improve the sewage system. On the occasion of 4 April, a park dedicated to Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan was opened, and road work was carried out.

New water wells were opened in the villages, while water wells in the village of Aqîbê in Til Rifet, Ehres and Ehdas districts were converted into solar energy systems, and 2,666,620 litres of diesel oil were distributed. In the canton, which has 75 generators, the electricity needs of 20,605 families were met.

Elif Mihemed, co-mayor of Afrin-Shehba Canton Municipality, spoke to ANF about the municipal system established in the canton, the difficulties experienced and the year’s activities.

No more traces of mercenaries left

Shehba has been subjected to attacks by the Damascus government, ISIS and the Turkish state for many years, and the municipality is trying to create a living space for the people who came there after the invasion of Afrin. Elîf Mihemed said: “Underground and surface resources have been plundered. Water, electricity, medical intervention centers, food production and sales areas, and even a shelter roof had been destroyed.

The people of Afrin were forced to reside in Shehba, the newly liberated lands from occupation. The first work we carried out was to erase the traces left by the occupying forces and mercenaries.”

Mihemed added: “The bad air that permeated Shehba, its polluted streets turned into a cemetery, its quarries were cleaned up with much difficulty. And if the already existing impossibility was not enough, the attacks by the Turkish state and the embargo of the Damascus government were making our job even more difficult. In this process, the municipality had a great responsibility.”

Mihemed said that “there were no materials to make the city liveable again. Yet, we are trying to create these materials, but there are many obstacles frustrating this effort. The policy of the Damascus government was deepening the problems. The people were aware of this. This naturally developed responsibility and participation. The people supported their municipality. We were experiencing the full reward of public municipalism. Despite the financial and moral support of the people, the municipality had limited opportunities. We had the team and equipment to work with. Work began to quickly deliver water and electricity to people. Generators were activated to solve people’s electricity problem. Electricity was delivered to villages where it didn’t arrive. The lack of water wells and the fact that the existing ones were destroyed and rendered unusable by ISIS was also creating a serious crisis. First, we checked the quality of the water through analysis and purification. The destroyed wells were repaired and put back into service. Water tanks were installed at critical points. Efficiency was achieved by delivering water to all the people.”

‘A massacre policy is being implemented’

Mihemed continued: “Although we have a limited number of tools, we strive to get the best efficiency from the available facilities. We need big vehicles. Both the municipality and the people have experienced huge difficulties in the past six years. In particular, according to the decision taken by UNICEF on 15 February, water will not be supplied to the camps. UNICEF’s decision to cut off water, the Damascus government’s embargo, the Turkish state’s attacks not only leave people hungry and thirsty, but also mean the implementation of a policy of massacre.”

Mihemed said: “We have accelerated the work to create the infrastructure and sewerage works of the 5 camps we run. We strive to prevent our people from experiencing health problems due to cold and heat. UNICEF has been meeting the water needs of the camps for 6 years. The sudden decision to cut off water caused serious problems in the camps. It has been determined that bacteria and viruses spread rapidly. We approach this issue very carefully, and we take care not to reflect this crisis on our people. We work together with our municipality and the people of the camp to create a more livable and peaceful environment in the camp. Seminars are given on the importance and saving of water. We are also developing an understanding in order to use energy resources on the right basis, get good efficiency and protect the opportunities.”

Municipality is based on ecology

The basic policy and projects of 2023 are water-centred, said Elîf Mihemed, adding: “There are 30 water wells in the canton. Too few compared to our needs. The number of water wells that can be used in the summer months decreases to 20. That’s why some wells were made deeper. The number of water tanks was increased as a precaution. Environmental maintenance and park construction activities continue. We put special attention to areas where our people, especially our children, can be alone with nature and develop their social activities. A backup generator was provided. Our municipality also undertook the repair of the houses of our earthquake-affected families and the renovations were carried out. A solar energy system has also been activated in some neighborhoods, institutions and martyrs’ cemeteries.”

Towards a stronger municipality

Elîf Mihemed said that the projects that were planned for but could not be completed in 2023 will continue in 2024 and added: “We will implement our waste disposal project in 2024. We will continue our road asphalting project. We will create an ecological society by launching a joint medical waste project with Heyva Sor. The lighting system of the district streets will be made with solar energy. New water wells will be dug in Ehdes, Fafîn district and Berxwedan Camp. We will continue to plant saplings in villages and districts and continue the unfinished asphalt work in 2023.”

More than 6,500 families live in the Qudurbeq district of Qamishlo. There are seven municipalities, eight bakeries and a school in the district. Electricity and water supplies have collapsed since Turkey’s last wave of attacks. ANF spoke to two women from Qudurbeq about their current living conditions.

Suheyla Şukri is a member of the PYD party and said that the Turkish state’s attacks are not only directed against one people, but against the entire population of the autonomous region of Northern and Eastern Syria. She said: “The infrastructure for electricity, water and fuel was attacked. There is neither electricity nor water in the houses. Hospitals and schools were bombed. Massacres are being carried out. People should be displaced, but we have thwarted this policy. Our people will never leave the land in which they were born and raised. Our living conditions may be difficult, and people are aware that things can become even more difficult. But their will is strong. After the attacks, we no longer have any water, but the local government supplies the population with water tankers. We will not give up our country even without water and bread. After the occupation of Afrin, Girê Spî and Serêkaniye, we will not allow another city to be occupied. Our people have created a basis for their existence with their own resources and have gone through difficult processes to this day. The Turkish state is bombing the population’s livelihoods.”

Ill and scared children

Suheyla Şukri pointed out that there are children and the elderly in every family: “Water and fuel are a very serious problem. The cold weather is particularly difficult for children and older people. Many fell ill. The children are scared. School classes had to be suspended because schools are constantly being attacked. The children stay behind at school. Our old people already have more than one health problem. How will they live without a stove in this cold weather?”

The international powers are silent

Şukri added: “The Autonomous Administration has always supported the population. People also help each other. The peoples of Northern and Eastern Syria have seen through the policies of the Turkish state. People protect each other, they don’t leave anyone alone in difficult days. The international powers are silent because they are partners in the attacks carried out by the Turkish state. Institutions and organizations that supposedly defend human rights remain silent about the massacres of the population. The region’s infrastructure is the basis of people’s livelihoods. If the states present here remain silent, they should withdraw from our country. Our people do no harm to anyone. The people here just got their rights and want to live freely. Anyone who remains silent about this is no different from ISIS and is on their side. Our people must be united and fight on as one fist, with one voice.”

Behiye Hesen, who also lives in Qudurbeq, asked: “What damage have electricity, water, diesel oil, printing houses and bakeries caused to the Turkish state? The places that were attacked were the people’s livelihood. Now there is no electricity or water. Turkey calls itself muslim, but how is that compatible with Islam? Our neighbours are very old. We put in a new power line for them. This will stop when the diesel runs out. Our apartment gets electricity via a line from other neighbours. If they hadn’t shared their electricity with us, our lives would be much more difficult now. If Turkey was muslim, it would not attack people and leave them without food and water. How are people supposed to survive in cold weather without diesel? Anyone who still has diesel will use it all and will no longer be able to find fuel.”
Without diesel, there is no electricity and no well water

Hesen continued: “If we don’t keep our home clean and don’t shower, we get ill. Water is a source of life. Our neighbours have a well. To get water from the well, we rely on a generator. If the diesel runs out, things get very bad. There are many ill people. People who need dialysis treatment are in mortal danger. These people need clean water, and then the dialysis center was bombed. They cannot be treated. Our people are being killed.”

Either we die together or we live free together

Hesen added: “Shops are closed because they have no electricity. The tailor shops cannot work because of the electricity problem. Children cannot go to school. How are children supposed to know what war is? They constantly ask about school and don’t make any progress in their learning. They are scared because we basically live in the dark. They want to watch TV, but we can’t turn it on. The attacks have had a negative impact on children in every way. The Turkish state is targeting the entire population, children and the elderly. The Arab, Kurdish, Assyrian, Armenian and Circassian people will overcome these difficult days together. Our slogan is: Either we die together or we live free together. We have come together, we will not leave our country, even if we are thirsty or hungry, until we free our country from the mercenaries.”

The homes of al-Shahba district were severely damaged as a result of the earthquakes that struck areas in Bakur Kurdistan and areas of northern Syria during February of this year.

To remedy the matter, the local administration authority in Afrin and al-Shahba canton formed a committee to uncover the extent of the damage, and provided tents to families whose homes had become uninhabitable, in addition to demolishing homes that pose a threat to the lives of the people.

The Autonomous Administration of Afrin and al-Shahba canton then submitted the file for a project to build housing units for the Kurdish Red Crescent, to approve the construction of 130 housing units from donations from the people of Sulaymaniyah Governorate in Southern Kurdistan, as part of the “We Keep You Comfortable” campaign.

Work on preparing 50 units began since the beginning of last August, in the town of Babnis. Each unit is equipped with two rooms and utilities (kitchen and bathroom), and according to the civil engineer supervising the project, Shorshavan Ali, 50 units will also be built in the village of Tel-Qurah and 30 in the village of Tal Susin.

Shorshavan pointed out the difficulties they face, “When the budget for building this project was set, the prices were completely different from the current situation, due to the high exchange rate of the dollar against the Syrian pound.”

It was expected that the 5 units would be completed within 6 months from the start of work, but the continuing attacks of the Turkish occupation army and its mercenaries, as well as the siege imposed on the district by the Damascus government, prevented this, according to Shorshavan Ali.

In conjunction with the construction of housing units in the town of Babnis, work is currently underway to prepare the ground for building the units in the village of Tal Qarah.

The “We Keep You” campaign was launched in February of this year in the city of Sulaymaniyah, as a community initiative by the people of the city and its countryside, to support the people of NE Syria, against the backdrop of the earthquakes that affected several regions in NE Syria.

During the earthquake in Kurdistan (Bakur and Rojava), Turkey and Syria, at least 51,000 people lost their lives, many more were wounded and lost their homes and beloved. With this article, with warm greetings from the Andrea Wolf Institute, we want to share our tenderness and strength to all the people affected by the earthquake. Our hearts and minds are with all of them.

When we follow the mainstream news, we see that the earthquake is projected as a “natural tragedy”. They transmit the idea that nature is an external and dangerous entity. An entity that is against us and therefore one which we need to be protected from. If we rise our eyes and expand our gaze, we will realize that the earthquake is not about cold numbers and individual stories detached from political and social reality. We would see that the people most affected by it are those who live in big cities; especially in impoverished neighborhoods, accumulated in high and unstable buildings, lacking resources and infrastructure. We would realize that many of them have been previously evicted, forced to leave their land and losing the possibility to live there.

After the earthquake. the states are pretending to solve the problems that they created in the first place. To understand this, the states need to be considered as part of the current dominant system, Capitalist Modernity. In this system, as defined by Abdullah Öcalan, the capitalist market system has become the dominant system in our societies. This system has spread worldwide and into almost all areas of life, measuring everything by its economical rather than by its ethical values. The companies and states – from Turkey, Syria, other states in the region, until Europe and the USA – are using the earthquake to strengthen their power and make profit. The earthquake has dismantled this problem of money-oriented projects and policies. During years, the corruption in the construction industry has led to fast construction and unstable buildings. This corruption is not an abnormal, but an integrated part of the system where money becomes more important than lives. A reality that becomes explicit with the collapse of those buildings. Another example are the new companies of cement that have been created to re-build the cities. Capital is always flowing to where it can extract the biggest profit.

With a face of humanitarian aid the states try to hide their bloody policies. Under these masks they rearrange the region according to their own interests. The Turkish state intensified the establishment of settlements in its occupied areas in Rojava, the northern part of current Syria. A clear and perverse example is the Turkish – Qatar agreement to create the so-called “City of Dignity” in Janders district. Under the excuse of rebuilding destroyed areas, they use the earthquake as an opportunity to continue expanding their occupation. They are uprooting the indigenous Kurdish and Alevis populations and let displaced people from other areas settle there. Furthermore, they are preventing help for people on the ground; pushing division and fragmentation by creating distrust and accusations of thieves; beating those who try to help and those who are crossing the borders; blocking every help coming from society; preventing the support from the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES). These are just few examples of how the racist and fascist policies and practices manifest.¹

Once more, women and children are the ones who are suffering most from the devastating consequences of the earthquake. Acknowledging that many children have lost their parents is heartbreaking. It is even worse when we get to know the intervention of the state. In many occasions the Turkish state allied with fundamental Islamic organizations to take the custody of the children. Following their interests they send them to orphanages where they will be raised under their control. An example are the Ismael Aga organization’s residences that has been publicly denounced to insult and abuse the children. Apart from the inhuman conditions, the indoctrination of Islamic fundamentalist mindset is also highly concerning. The lack of values and caring is also seen in neglecting the women and their necessities. In the news we can see very few women taking decisions or responsibilities. But when we step on the ground, women are more than present. From the woman baking bread, women organizing the donations to the woman that has opened her house to give shelter to those in need.

These images of people supporting – especially women – show that not everything has been lies and destruction. Among the dramatic situation, gestures of empathy, care and love have been present. Mutual support has expanded: from the families, the neighborhoods, friends in the region to all around the world. People self-organizing have proved once more the strength that we, the people, have. This proves the necessity to recover the trust in our capacities; the ability to reflect, overcome and solve problems together; the awareness of our interconnections; the relations and actions that put them into practice; the questioning of our real necessities and aims connected to life.

How do we want to live? What to we want to rebuild? Do we want to live a life according to nature around us and remember that we are a part of it? Or do we want to live a life against nature forcing damage and alienation? How were our ancestors living in balance with their surrounding? What are current examples? Why are so many people pushed to live in big cities? Are big cities a solution? How can cities be in harmony with nature? How can we organize in a real democratic way?

Instead of looking just at the moment, we need a long, historical and wide perspective to answer these questions. Namely, to go back thousands of years and look at the emergence of the state and its mentality. This allows us, on one hand, to not see it as a peculiar problem of some single men in position of power. On the other hand, it becomes clearer that talking about a “natural catastrophe” killing people hides the cruelty of the state and its mentality. When we dig deeper we find that the roots of the problem lies in the distinction between human and nature. A separation that lead to the establishment of power and a ruling class.

One of the oldest examples can be seen in the Gilgamesh epic written in the 2^nd millennium BCE. Around that time Gilgamesh was probably the ruler of Uruk, one of the first cities in the Middle East. In the epic, Gilgamesh is described as a hero, who has performed many heroic deeds. He is described as an impetuous man. The citizens are forced to build the wall around the city and to realize other exhausting works. Concerning the women, Gilgamesh takes the “lord right” to rape brides on their wedding night. The inhabitants of Uruk finally call upon the Mother of all Goddesses to create a rival for Gilgamesh. When she hears the aim of the people, she creates Enkidu. This character lives freely in the forest among the animals, plants and all living beings. Enkidu is tamed by a prostitute woman, Shamat. They spend six days and seven nights and at the end Enkidu becomes a different man. She teaches him how to be “civil” and the ways of “civilization”. After this, the wild animals are afraid of him. From that moment onward, he will not live as part of nature anymore. Later on, Gilgamesh and Enkidu fight against each other. At the end, Enkidu acknowledges Gilgamesh’s superior strength and they become friends. Gilgamesh wants to continue having more fame and reputation. That’s why he proposes to his new friend to go and kill Chumbaba, the giant of the cedar forest. They end up killing the giant and many other gods of the forest. The goddess Ishtar wants to stop them but she does not succeed. At the end, Enkidu dies. In his last breathes he curses the woman that triggered the path of destruction. He is convinced that he should rather be grateful for everything. Gilgamesh, on his side, gets more afraid of his own death and continues his search for immortality. This epic is more than just a story, as mythologies are more than just stories. As much as today we use science to explain the world, in the time around 2,000 BCE, people used to give sense of the world through mythologies. In the figure of Enkidu we see how nature, and people living as part of nature, were either assimilated, in the ruling system, or destroyed. Gilgamesh on the other side, represents the “superior”, the “master”, the mentality of domination that does not only dis-attach from nature but also places itself above it. The Mother Goddess is also an other important character. During all the story she tries to defend and protect the nature and its creatures without a big success. All the attacks that she suffer represent the dis-valuation of nurture and care.

The story was written while the first cities, organized in an hierarchical way, appeared in the Middle East. The harmony of nature had been preserved through an animists belief. The consideration of our surroundings as sacred and alive entities, with soul, were in balance with life. As time passed, the cities started to arise. They were not determined to lead to power, but still little by little they favoured a life disconnected from nature. In the cities, the sacred started to be enclosed and limited to an elite in its temples. Nature turned into an entity separated from humans. The land, animals, plants and resources, became objects to conquer and posses. This was the base of the destruction of nature.

In this story we can find keys to understand the problem of the earthquake and beyond. It helps not only to understand the problem but also to look for solutions. Although money and material help is still needed, it is not enough. Neither is it enough to change our approach to nature in a superficial way. When we go deeper, we face and acknowledge the profound wounds that this earthquake has opened. There are grief processes lying in front of us. There is rage and sadness in all of us: the dead, the lack of support, the precarious living conditions, the hypocrisy and manipulation…

We also acknowledge and remark that the tragedy hasn’t been provoked by chance. And neither will this situation change by chance. That there is help to alleviate the earthquake damage is good. And it’s important that it is coming from all around the world. It reflects the international solidarity and humanity. But the question is – who and what are we going to support? Where are the help and the donations arriving? And as soon as the news are not focusing on the earthquake, what will we care about? If we do not pose these questions, we will perpetuate what is already happening. A large part of the donations are manipulated. The Turkish and Syrian state have continuously retained and appropriated the popular support. They have used a large variety of dirty mechanisms. One of them is the exchange of the popular organizations’ names on the trucks transporting aid goods with the names of radical Islamic groups. It is neither an insignificant nor a naive act. They attempt to give the image that self-organisation does not exist. There they strengthen the belief in the state and Islamic fundamentalism as if they were the ones protecting and helping.

That’s why we are willing to know and understand below the surface. To dismantle the state and the dominant mentality that suppress people and their lands.

Despite the continuous attempts, the states cannot erase popular self-organisation. We have seen – once more – that self-determination of the people works better than the existing state. That if we are willing and determined, we can create realities of our own beyond the states. This by itself is a big aim. The question is: who do we address for help and whom are we helping? We do not ask for a state to help, we are asking for the people to self-organise.

To step forward, we call for a deep reflection on how we live our lives. While remembering us as part of nature, together we can find real and practical solutions.

There will always be earthquakes, but we can make sure that in the future the damage will be less tragic. For this, it is not about building more and more high concrete buildings. Contrary, it is about building a life where we are connected with our surroundings and beyond. We don’t know the exact form of this path. But in history and the present, there are concrete examples that represent the horizon to walk through.

Indeed, we are writing this text from Jinwar, the women’s village in the AANES. A village, that is part of the women’s revolution. It was built up from below following the traditional way of building houses and being aware of the materials used. All the houses are facing each other in a circle, materializing the communal life. Next to the houses, there is a bakery, a vegetable garden, trees and medical plants. There is also ShifaJin, the healing center of women and children, which guarantees that the villagers can care about their own wellbeing. Jinwar is one example of building a self-sustainable life. It rises in a specific place, a specific moment and is embedded in a revolutionary process.

The earthquake calls for the emergency to find answers for the question all around the world: How and what do we want to build to walk through a communal and free life. To answer this question and revert the current situation, those silenced and undermined have to take the lead. The oppressed, especially women, who reserve, defend, and create values of freedom and community need to organize and combat the current destruction and dominance. Looking into the past, and looking to the future, we want to remind to collective courage to take the lead in our own hands.

1For further detail and development we reference to the statement from the Internationalist Commune of Rojava on the earthquake in Kurdistan, Syria and Turkey.

The Maras-centered earthquakes destroyed more than a hundred buildings in Syria and Rojava. 3,581 people lost their lives and 5,348 were injured. Thousands are still under the rubble in the Turkish-occupied areas as the death toll is not disclosed.

The 7.8 and 7.7 magnitude quakes, centred in the Pazarcik and Elbistan districts of North Kurdistan’s Maras province, were strongly felt in Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq as well. The earthquakes caused great destruction in the Syrian provinces of Idlib, Aleppo, Hama, Latakia and Tartus, as well as in the cities of Shehba, Kobanê, Manbij and Raqqa controlled by the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, and in occupied Afrin.

The latest situation in Syria and North and East Syria is as follows:

OCCUPIED REGIONS

The cities of Afrin and Idlib, occupied by the Turkish state, are among the places devastated by the earthquakes. While hundreds of buildings were destroyed, the death toll and the scale of the destruction in these regions are not disclosed. According to information obtained from the Afrin Human Rights Organization, there is a humanitarian disaster in Afrin, where hundreds of people were trapped under the rubble.

Afrin: Turkish-occupied Afrin is the most affected city by the earthquake which inflicted serious damage to the city centre and the districts of Jindires and Mabata. The number of casualties in the city is not revealed. 257 buildings were destroyed completely in Jindires district, which is 20 kilometres away from the city centre. Reports say that at least 756 people lost their lives under these buildings and thousands of people are still under the rubble. 70 percent of the Kaxırê village in the southwest of Mabata was also destroyed. It is reported that hundreds of people are still under the rubble as no reliable information can be obtained from the village.

Idlib: The regions of Atarib, Sarmada, Harim, Bisnia, Salqim, Azmarin and Keferhom in the city of Idlib, which remains under the occupation of Turkey-backed Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), were also damaged by the earthquakes. It is reported that 718 buildings were destroyed in the city where 195 towns and villages were affected by the earthquakes. The Al-Tilol village was flooded as the Asian Dam on the Turkey-Syria border was partially damaged. The number of deaths and injuries remains unknown, like other occupied territories.

REGIONS HELD BY DAMASCUS GOVERNMENT

The provinces of Aleppo, Hama, Latakia and Tartus held by the Damascus government were significantly damaged. The Ministry of Health reported that 1,408 people lost their lives and 2,341 were injured in the areas under their control due to the earthquakes.

Aleppo: Theneighbourhoods of Al Shaar, Musharaqa, Paradise, Salahaddin, Al Kelasa and Aziziye in the east of Aleppo were devastated by the earthquakes. Damascus government officials reported that about 4,000 people lost their lives and around 7,000 people were injured or unaccounted for.

Latakia: The town of Jabla and the neighbourhood of Ramla Janubi are the most affected areas. 102 buildings in central and rural Latakia were destroyed. While 506 people lost their lives, 792 others were injured.

Hama: The Erbain region in the north of the city is the most affected area. 47 people lost their lives, and 75 others were injured in Hama.

AUTONOMOUS ADMINISTRATION OF NORTH AND EAST SYRIA

The Health Committee of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) announced that 6 people lost their lives and 57 people were injured in the areas under their control. In the Sheikh Maqsoud (Şêx Meqsud) and Ashrafiyah (Eşrefiye) neighbourhoods of Aleppo, 6 people lost their lives and 47 people were injured. 5 people were injured in Shehba, 3 in Kobanê and 2 in Manbij.

6 people lost their lives in Babinis and Til Qerah villages of Shehba Canton and in the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiyah neighbourhoods where Kurds predominantly live.

2,000-YEAR-OLD CASTLE DAMAGED

The Najim Castle, located on the Euphrates River and 115 kilometres from Aleppo, was also affected by the earthquake in North and East Syria. A part of the eastern wall of the castle, which dates back to 68 AD, was demolished.

BAB AL-HAWA BORDER CROSSING AFFECTED

The Bab Al-Hawa Border Gate between Turkey and Syria under Turkish occupation in the city of Idlib was also affected by the earthquake. The roads leading to the border crossing were damaged. Aid to earthquake victims in Syria is delivered through the Bab Al-Hawa Border Gate.

625 SCHOOLS DAMAGED

Many schools run by the AANES and the Damascus government were also damaged by the earthquakes. According to the data collected by the North and East Syrian Education Committee, 15 schools in Ayn Issa, Kobanê and Sirin in the Euphrates Region were damaged, and education has been suspended for 7 days. 138 schools were damaged, and 6 schools were closed in Manbij. 9 schools were damaged in Deir ez-Zor. In Raqqa, 115 schools were damaged, and 36 of them were closed. 41 schools were damaged in Tabqa, but schools will continue education once engineers finish the repair work. In Shehba Region, 15 schools were damaged, and 5 schools became unusable. In the Cizre Region, 39 schools were damaged.

According to official data released by the Damascus government, 248 schools were damaged in the areas under their control.

MUNICIPALITY STEPS INTO ACTION

The Local Administrations and Environmental Management Committee of North and East Syria provided the following information to ANF:

Afrin-Shehba Region: Shehba People’s Municipality cooperated with the assembly and commune organizations in the region to help earthquake victims. Construction materials such as cement, soil and gravel were provided for the local people for the repair of the damaged structures.

Euphrates Region: A joint committee was established in cooperation with the Euphrates Region Chamber of Engineers. People in the Euphrates region applied to the municipality for the repair of 68 buildings. Municipal teams checked 88 buildings and reported that 15 buildings, including petrol stations and schools, were damaged. The wreckage of 31 damaged structures was removed.

Tabqa: The Emergency Teams and firefighters affiliated with the Tabqa Local Administration Committee assessed the extent of the damage caused by the earthquakes. An emergency committee was established under the Local Administration Committee. Moreover, a committee was formed to identify and examine the damaged buildings and to take the necessary measures. A damaged earth-sheltered house was demolished, and 7 houses were repaired. Two buildings in the city centre were evacuated as a precaution.

Part Two

There were no serious regulations and countermeasures for earthquakes in North-East Syria as in the whole of Syria, since earthquakes and natural disasters have almost never been experienced.

What are the laws concerning earthquake countermeasures of the Autonomous Administration and the Damascus government? How do they deal with zoning plans, illegal structures and countermeasures?

During the period when Rojava was under the control of the Damascus government, almost nothing was done about earthquakes in the region. After its establishment, the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) focused more on development plans, the fight against illegal structures, and the construction of stronger structures. Before the earthquake, no serious activity was carried out to deal with earthquakes in North-East Syria. Geological and civil engineers conducted investigations in the region and the type of structures to be built according to the regions were determined. After the recent earthquakes in the region, the Autonomous Administration institutions have introduced many countermeasures for future earthquakes. Discussions are currently being held to inspect the existing zoning plans in detail, to identify illegal structures and to take the necessary precautions.

Şîlan Ehmed, a member of the North-East Syrian Local Administrations and Environment Committee, answered ANF’s questions about their aid efforts for the last 8 days and countermeasures against new disasters and illegal structures.

Sadly the videos in this post do not contain English subtitles.

400 DAMAGED BUILDINGS IDENTIFIED

Ehmed said: “Six of our citizens lost their lives in the Autonomous Administration region in North-East Syria. 57 citizens were injured. In the city of Aleppo, 216 buildings were damaged and 813 families living in them were affected. 52 buildings were damaged in Kobanê and necessary work is being carried out concerning these buildings. In the city of Manbij, 125 buildings were damaged. Damaged and cracked buildings in our region have been evacuated and residents have been provided shelter. Assessment of damaged structures is done by the Chamber of Engineers and municipal teams under the umbrella of the Democratic Society Movement (TEV-DEM). After the assessments, the structures that need to be demolished are pulled down by taking the necessary precautions. Repair and strengthening of columns are carried out for partially damaged buildings. After a one-week assessment, we saw that around 400 more buildings need to be demolished or repaired. Our teams in Aleppo, Manbij and Kobanê are working without interruption for 24 hours.”

BUILDING CONTROL WAS DISCUSSED ONE MONTH BEFORE EARTHQUAKES

Recalling that a workshop was held for the construction of stronger structures before the earthquake, Ehmed said: “A month before the earthquake, a workshop was held with the participation of all engineers in North-East Syria. There were participants from many countries, such as France and Italy. The issues that concern construction of safer buildings were discussed in detail.”

ZONING PLANS AND ILLEGAL BUILDINGS

Ehmed also gave information about the zoning plans and their work against illegal structures in the region. She said: “In line with the research carried out in the region before the earthquake, a law was introduced concerning the maximum number of floors to be allowed according to the regions. In some places, three-storey buildings can be built, in others four-storey buildings. In some places, tall buildings should not be allowed at all. We have projects and criminal sanctions over this issue. Buildings built without paying attention to the necessary rules and the municipal laws are the biggest problem in the region. Last year, fines were imposed against more than 4,000 buildings in the Cizîre Region alone. 99 unsafe structures were demolished. The situation is almost the same in Manbij, Kobanê and other regions. We do not opt for demolition, but we are working for safer and stronger buildings. Our Kobanê Municipality has now started to demolish all the storeys that were built illegally. Some special machines are needed to prevent demolition and strengthen the columns. Millions of dollars should be funded for earthquake-related studies. Due to our limited resources, we allow the construction of buildings with fewer storeys. New disasters will emerge if the necessary measures are not taken.”

STRONGER MEASURES

“Previously, the Damascus government did not introduce any law for earthquakes. There is no strong draft law against earthquakes and natural disasters in North-East Syria. There is a law that mostly concerns the construction of buildings and zoning plans. We have failed to be effective in this regard, therefore we self-criticize. But we organize our work to prevent further disasters.”

Part Three

The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) responded to the earthquake in a very short time and is now helping other parts of the country despite limited means.

The Autonomous Administration rushed to the aid of the earthquake victims in the cities of North and East Syria the fastest way possible thanks to strong solidarity. This successful solidarity was made possible through the communes and assemblies, which are the backbone of the autonomous system based on self-government. Heyva Sor a Kurd (Kurdish Red Crescent), which was established in Rojava in 2012, is one of the organizations working successfully in solidarity with the earthquake victims. After the earthquake victims in North and East Syria were taken care of, the people living in the region and their self-government expressed that they were ready to help other parts of Syria as well. In a short time, hundreds of aid trucks and fuel tankers containing basic needs, food and medical equipment were delivered to other parts of Syria.

SDF AND AUTONOMOUS ADMINISTRATION WENT INTO ACTION

In a statement on February 6, when the earthquake occurred, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said: “We share the painful suffering of our people in all Syrian territories caused by the devastating earthquake that struck the region, and we ask Allah Almighty to console the victims with His infinite mercy, grant speedy recovery for the injured and protect our people from any harm. Our forces stand ready to provide immediate assistance to overcome the earthquake aftermath in all Syrian territories, including providing relief support and sending rescue teams to the disaster-stricken areas. Our forces also offer their condolences to the people in the cities of Maraş and Antep and all areas in northern Kurdistan that were stricken by the earthquake, and we express our solidarity with them at this difficult time.”

ALL BORDER CROSSINGS OPENED

The Autonomous Administration Executive Council Co-Presidency made a statement after its meeting on February 8 and said: “All the border crossings in the Autonomous Administration regions will remain open to enable the delivery of humanitarian aid from outside to all regions affected by the earthquake in Syria.”

AID CAMPAIGNS

On February 9, the Autonomous Administration of the Cizre Region and on February 12, the Autonomous Administration of the Euphrates Region launched aid campaigns to help the earthquake victims in North Kurdistan and North-East Syria. The aid organized by the people and organizations in all cities of North and East Syria was delivered to the border crossings in Umm al-Julud (between Manbij and Jarablus), Al-Tayha (between Manbij and Aleppo) and Awn Al-Dadat (between Manbij and Jarablus).

AID FOR OCCUPIED REGIONS

An aid campaign organized by the AANES regions was introduced not only for the regions of the Damascus government, but also for the earthquake victims in the regions occupied by the Turkish state and allied mercenary groups. The first aid convoy entered the occupied regions in the north and east of Syria on February 13 via Doctors Without Borders through the border crossings between Manbij and Jarablus. After the first aid convoy consisting of 53 trucks and vehicles, a second convoy consisting of 66 trucks containing food and medical supplies departed.

Sozdar Ehmed from Heyva Sor a Kurd in North and East Syria answered ANF’s questions regarding their institutional solidarity.

COLLECTIVE WORK

Ehmed said: “The earthquake in our region created fear among people. The public had high expectations from Heyva Sor a Kurd following the earthquake. An extraordinary meeting was held with the participation of the Autonomous Administration, the People’s Municipality, the Internal Security Forces, the Self-Defense Forces and the Health Committee. A collective work was carried out in solidarity. After this meeting, we decided to set up tents for the survivors who were staying in their cars.”

“We started a humanitarian aid for our people from Dêrîk to Manbij. Following the earthquake, citizens began to take shelter in their cars. Those who did not have vehicles remained on the streets. In a short time, we set up tents for the people in all cities from Dêrîk to Manbij. Blankets were distributed to the citizens. We dispatched emergency teams to 10 cities according to their populations. A medical team was tasked to transport the seriously ill patients to hospitals.”

AID FOR SHEHBA AND ALEPPO

Ehmed stated that they could send aid to Shehba and Aleppo on February 7 due to the embargo policy of the Damascus government. When they wanted to go to the region themselves, the obstacles stopped them. “We delivered many tents and blankets to Shehba and Aleppo within 24 hours. Aid activities for these regions were carried out jointly with non-governmental organizations. We also donated a small amount of money. As Heyva Sor a Kurd, we mobilized all our means available. With our team, we decided to move to Shehba and Aleppo to provide food, tents, blankets, medical supplies and fuel. We have been waiting at the border gates for 6 days, but the Damascus government does not allow us to cross into the region. We have constantly stated that our health teams are ready to meet the needs of the Syrian peoples. Despite our calls to all concerned institutions and organizations, the gates have not been opened. We expressed our readiness to deliver aid from Afrin to Damascus, but the Damascus government does not open the gates. We are now waiting at the al-Tayha gate between Manbij and Aleppo. We will not take a step back; our steps will always be forward-looking.”

6-MONTH PROJECT FOR EARTHQUAKE-HIT AREAS

Remarking that a six-month project for the earthquake-hit areas has been introduced, Ehmed said: “A team of doctors from Heyva Sor a Kurdistan will come to the region on the 20th of this month. A three-month project has been introduced for the Euphrates Region, a 15-day project for the Cizre Region, and a six-month project for Aleppo and Shehba. The priority of the projects is to provide nutritional requirements, heating and basic necessities. The second stage concerns the restoration of the damaged areas. We have also asked for help from international institutions and organizations for these urgent needs, yet their aid is limited.”

Part Four

Although the international embargo against Syria has been lifted, the Damascus government maintains the embargo against Shehba and Aleppo.

Bedran Çiya Kurd, Co-Chair of the Foreign Relations Department of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), spoke to ANF about the mobilization declared by the Autonomous Administration following the earthquake and the ongoing embargo against the region.

Bedran Çiya Kurd said that Rojava still has not received any help and added that the Autonomous Administration is ready to help the earthquake victims.

‘AID OVERSHADOWED BY POLITICAL MOTIVES’

Bedran Çiya Kurd remarked that the earthquake disaster caused great pain and humanitarian situations in Turkey, Syria and North and East Syria. “This pain continues. It also has economic and political implications. Political motives overshadow the humanitarian aid delivery to the regions controlled by the regime, the occupied regions, Şêxmeqsud (Sheikh Maqsoud) and Eşrefiye (Ashrafiyah) neighbourhoods of Aleppo and even North Kurdistan.

AID CAMPAIGNS OF THE AUTONOMOUS ADMINISTRATION BLOCKED

“There are serious obstacles to our aid campaigns. If political motives become decisive to deal with the humanitarian situation, the suffering of the earthquake survivors will deepen. These wounds will not heal easily. It would lead to very bad results. Thousands of people could have been saved if the intervention had been made on time. Because of the regime’s policy, thousands of people could not be rescued and died under the rubble.

The Autonomous Administration stated that it was ready to help any place or anyone who was harmed, regardless of their identity. It has delivered aid to the earthquake-hit areas. Neither the Syrian regime nor the Turkey-backed armed groups adopted a helpful attitude towards us to deliver aid. Nor do they allow the aid organized by us to reach the earthquake victims. This is not right, and it constitutes a crime against humanity. If humanitarian aid is considered a matter of negotiation based on political stances, it would be a crime against humanity. In fact, the regime should have acted and asked for help. However, unfortunately, the regime wants to use the aid delivered from outside for its own political interests. The US administration and many other countries are putting their problems with the Syrian regime aside because of the current humanitarian situation. Certain sanctions have been suspended temporarily to allow victims access to humanitarian aid. However, we are afraid that the regime could take advantage of it as it did before. What has been done so far confirms our suspicion.”

‘AID SENT TO ALEPPO AND SHEHBA PREVENTED’

“Şêxmeqsud, Eşrefiye and Shehba are now facing huge problems because of the embargo. The regime is preventing aid delivery to these regions. The hostile attitude of the regime is visible. We have concerns that this policy of the regime will prevail. For this reason, the government of Damascus and the Turkish regime and its mercenary groups should stop their discriminatory policies. They should not turn humanitarian aid into a political issue. They should open the border gates and let aid materials reach the earthquake victims. If this is not done, the lives of thousands of people will remain in jeopardy.”

NO HELP DELIVERED TO THE REGION YET

Kurd reminded that the Autonomous Administration remained in close contact with many countries, including those in the international coalition and Europe during the times of humanitarian chaos. He continued: “The current situation here has been reported to public opinion. We have revealed our stance on how to help the victims. All our institutions stated expressed their readiness to help Syria and Turkey. They also stated that they are ready to help North and East Syria. Our dialogue and diplomatic activities to deal with the issue continue. The issue of aid delivery is being discussed in detail. However, as far as we know, no aid has reached the survivors in North and East Syria, the regions controlled by the regime and even North Kurdistan. Concerned institutions should take urgent intervention, help people and save their lives.”

The village of Teanê is located in the Shehba Canton, north of the city of Aleppo. It was formerly a Kurdish village; however, the population of the village changed due to the assimilation policies of the Syrian regime. After the Democratic Nation project began to spread across North and East Syria, the village regained its originality and returned to its essence. In the village, where communal life is practiced, the women participate in all spheres of life. They revive life in the village by raising animals, planting trees and making bread. Women are always in solidarity with each other.

The history of Teanê

The villagers say that the village is originally a Kurdish village and the people living in the village came from the north of Kobanê Canton. Due to the attacks, some people left Kobanê and settled in the north of Aleppo. The village named after an Arabic word “ṭaḥīna (طحينة)”, which means “to grind”. In time, the name of the village changed and became Teanê. The villagers told us that the village is a very ancient village and no one knows when the village was formed. The village is located on an area 10 kilometers long and it surrounds the village of Şêx Kêf in the south and the village of Ebil in the north. The villagers say that the merchants, who came from northern Turkey to the city of Aleppo stayed in the village.

Historic houses in the village show its history

When we visited the village, we saw many historic houses. There is an old water well in the village and all the villagers used to get their water from this well. Then, many water wells were dug in the village because the old water well is far from the village. The villagers used to grind wheat or other grains with a stone called, “cirnik” in the village. After the emergence of mills, the grinding method with stone disappeared in the village. But you can still see these stones in the village. There are very known families in the village. These families are the Abas family, the Remê family, the Qedûrê gilî family and the Hemkêrî family.

The village has a different tradition

The village of Teanê is well known as an agricultural village in the region. Most of the villagers are engaged in agriculture and earn their living in this way. The villagers plant vegetables in both summer and winter. The village has a different tradition; the villagers share their vegetables with everyone in the village. The village is also known with its Aleppo pistachio trees and olive trees. The villagers plant wheat, corn and lentils in summer.

The conflicts in Syria also affect the village

When the conflicts broke out in Syria, the village was also affected by them like other villages. The members of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and ISIS entered the village. The villagers left the village in order not to live under the control of ISIS. After the establishment of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, the villagers returned to their home and they rebuilt their communal life. “We returned to our village and now live in peace thanks to the Autonomous Administration and defense forces,” the villagers say.

Metbexa El-Firdews (El-Firdews’s Kitchen) is a charity organization founded in 2018 in the city of Raqqa to provide free meals to orphans and poor families with the motto, “We distribute meals”.

In the beginning, the organization distributed only bulgur, rice, and oil to orphans and poor families but then, it began to distribute meals due to worsening economic conditions in the city. The number of families receiving meals from the organization was 40 but now the organization distributes meals to more than one thousand families every Monday and Thursday. During Ramadan, the organization distributes meals every day. The organization has built a new kitchen to support the displaced people in the city. The kitchen has been run only by women. 27 women work in the kitchen; 18 of them work full-time while nine of them work part-time.

“All women working in the kitchen are volunteers”

Maha El-Hesen, the manager of the El-Firdews’s Kitchen, told us that they continue to work for the people of Raqqa and forcibly displaced people. “I have worked in the kitchen since 2018. 18 women working in the kitchen are volunteers. We work from 6.30 in the morning to 16.00. We cook meals and distribute them every Monday and Thursday. But now we distribute meals every day due to the month of Ramadan. During Ramadan, we work until 17.00.

No one returns empty-handed

Stating that their organization has distributed meals to about two thousand families, Maha El-Hesen said that they distribute different meals every day. “Today, our menu is meat, bread, fruits, and dates. Our aim is to help orphans and poor families. Sometimes, we give money to the families to support them. We support everyone coming to our kitchen.”

Fatima El-Ehmed is the chef of the kitchen. “The kitchen has two parts. One is for the forcibly displaced people living in Raqqa and the other is for the people of Raqqa. No one returns from our kitchen empty-handed,” she told us.

She has received free meals from the kitchen for three years

Zehraa El-Mohammed has received free meals from the kitchen for three years. “For about three years, I have been receiving free meals from this kitchen every Monday and Thursday for my family. I have six daughters and a son. We live in a house without a roof,” she told us.

Jineology literally means “women’s science or the science of women”. The word derives from jin, ‘woman’ in Kurdish. Jineology was first mentioned by Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Ocalan in 2008 in his book entitled, “Sociology of Freedom”. Jineology, which aims to analyze the exploitation system based on the patriarchal system, the power-centered perspective of life, began to be discussed by women in 2011. In 2015, the Jineology Committee decided to spread this science after holding its first conference with the participation of 140 delegates. During the conference, women decided to spread this science all around the world.

Why Jineology?

Jineology is a positive science against the patriarchal mindset. It adds a new perspective to life and therefore it focuses on a wide area and interprets science to enrich it. The patriarchal mindset is about destroying societies but the current situation can be fundamentally reorganized by Jineology and transformed into a system of coexistence of societies. The ideology of Jineology, claiming to be a “science of life”, is based on “science of women”, “science of social life” and “science of free co-life.” It also reveals the true face of the occupiers against gender-based violence. Its aim is to struggle against the ideology of humiliation, denial, annihilation, and killing of women.

To develop the research methods according to women’s reality

Jineology serves to develop research methods, ideas, and actions for freedom according to women’s perspectives. The values that build societies are built around women and women have taken part in every part of life. Jineology carries out research on history, politics, society, ecology, demography, health, education, and economy. It also carries out research on religions, mythologies, philosophy, science, and their usage methods.

Economy-Ecology

Jineology sees the economy as one of its working areas; it carries out works on it and develops projects accordingly. A society cannot survive without an economy, what the capitalist system wants to do today is to completely disconnect the societies from the economy [because it disconnects us from the things we need to live]. Jineology evaluates this area theoretically, organizationally, and operationally in order to develop this area. Ecology is the natural biology and physical aspect of society. Jineology focuses on ecological problems with a scientific aspect.

Education- Politics

For Jineology, education is important to build a free society, so it always focuses on education. Jineology establishes the educational institutions of society and develops all kinds of theoretical and academic studies. It also develops comprehensive education programs for its members to improve other areas of Jineology. For Jineology, women and mothers are the architects of the art of politics and thus it conducts research and examinations in this field. Politics is about the freedom and durability of society. For Jineology, there is a connection with ethics, science, and politics and it provides solutions in the field of social science.

Read the first introductory post in this series in full.

Faculty of Jineology is the success of all women

The Faculty of Jineology was established at Rojava University in 2017, Dicle Kulilk, academic, and spokesperson of the Faculty of Jineology, says that the establishment of the faculty is the second revolution after the Revolution in Rojava.

The Faculty of Jineology, Social Sciences and Literature was established in Qamishlo city on August 15, 2017. After the construction of Jinwar village started, the Faculty of Jineology was opened at Rojava University. The Revolution in Rojava paves the way for many changes in NE Syria and the establishment of the Faculty of Jineology is one of them. For the first time in the whole world, the idea, science, and existence of women found response in a university.

Before studying at the Jineology Faculty, students study the Kurdish language, computer science, democratic modernity, sociology, and science at high school. At the Faculty of Jineology, Social Sciences, and Literature, the students study history, philosophy, ecology, the role of women in religion and beliefs, sociology of freedom, ethics, aesthetics, research methods, methods to collect data, and pedagogy.

The Faculty of Jineology, Social Sciences and Literature managed to attract the attention of the whole world as soon as it was established. Many foreigners have visited the faculty and attended conferences and seminars to learn more about it. Jineology aims to build a free, equal life model that has aroused great interest all over the world.

Dicle Kulilk, academic, and spokesperson of the Faculty of Jineology, spoke JINHA about the purpose of the establishment of the Faculty of Jineology, Social Sciences and Literature, and its four-year work.

Establishment of the Faculty of Jineology

“The Faculty of Jineology was established at the Rojava University. We faced many difficulties in the establishment process because the sociology of Jineology was not well known in society. We also faced difficulties in finding teachers/academics because no one had studied at the Faculty of Jineology before. To overcome all difficulties, we determined people and provided training to them about the science of Jineology. We began to receive students in 2017 and now many students visit the faculty. We have received applications. All students are interested in the Faculty of Jineology. We first give information about the aims and purposes of the faculty. In the beginning, the number of students was few, because they did not know anything about Jineology, so we distributed brochures to promote it. We also tried to make this science known through the press outlets. Over time, this science has been known by the whole society and we have held many seminars about it. We have also prepared many reports. The first year was an experience for us,” Dicle Kulilk told JINHA.

“Women can reveal their thousands of years of energy”

“The science of Jineology was proposed by Abdullah Öcalan in his book entitled ‘Sociology of Freedom’ in 2008. When the first studies were carried out about this science in Rojava Kurdistan, we asked ourselves, “On which basis will we inform women?” Before our students got to know the science of Jineology, they believed in the ideas of their fathers and brothers. After studying Jineology, they became aware of the patriarchal mindset. Our aim is to reveal women’s thousands of years of energy and their firm stance. We aim to eliminate the ideology that looks down on women and to reveal the reality of women. The Revolution in Rojava is known as a women’s revolution. Women formed their forces in this revolution and revealed their existing power in culture-art, society, economy, diplomacy, military, and politics. I can say that Jineology is the second revolution here after the revolution in Rojava.”

“The Faculty of Jineology has been active for two years”

“The Faculty of Jineology has been active for two years. There are two stages of education. At high school, the students take Jineology courses in order not to have difficulties when they study at the faculty. They study Kurdish language, computer science, and introduction to Jineology, democratic modernity, sociology, and science at high school. At the Faculty of Jineology, Social Sciences, and Literature, the students study history, philosophy, ecology, the role of women in religion and beliefs, sociology of freedom, ethics, aesthetics, research methods, methods to collect data, and pedagogy. The most important course is the theory of equality and liberation of women. This course is both theoretical and practical course.”

“Students work for women’s institutions”

“After they graduate from the faculty, women begin to work for women’s institutions. They also give information about this science at schools and organizations. We always visit them. There are really visible changes in the personalities of those who are interested in Jineology and work on it. Those who study Jineology understand themselves better. So far, none of our students have been unemployed because they share what they learned with society. The first graduates of the faculty have worked for women’s organizations and institutions. The final year undergraduate students of the faculty have studied to graduate from the university. There are second-year students of the faculty. There are also students, who study Jineology at high school. They will study at the faculty after graduating from high school. There are male and female students at the faculty but the number of women is higher than men.  Some Arab organizations also suggested opening an Arabic department in the Faculty of Jineology. Of course, we also take this suggestion into consideration.”

“Equal life in faculty”

“Apart from Rojava Kurdistan, the Faculty of Jineology has also attracted the attention of German institutions. We even held many seminars in partnership with German institutions. We have been working on writing a book about gender-based violence. Many foreigners have visited the faculty and attended conferences and seminars to learn more about it. Foreigners are interested in living in the faculty. We hold seminars to strengthen students’ relationships with each other. Now we can say that there is no difference between teachers and students because we believe in an equal life. Teachers and students learn many things from each other.”

Read the second post in this series in full.

Nûjîn Derya: Jinwar is the place of women’s management

“The first thing that people think about Jinwar is the communal life, the free-equal life,” Nûjin Derya, member of Jineology Academy and one of the founders of Jinwar (women’s village) village, said.

The village of Jinwar is located in the western part of the ed-Derbasiah district in al-Hasakah canton in North Syria. The revolution in Rojava is also known as a women’s revolution. The village of Jinwar is one of the achievements of women. It is based on the principle of free-equal life and aims to give women a safe place to live without violence and oppression. The construction of the houses in the village, also known as the land of women, started on March 10, 2017. It was officially inaugurated on 25 November 2018, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

There is an academy, hospital, supermarket, women’s healing center called, “Şîfa Jin” where patients are treated with herbs, a tailor shop, and a school for children. Women provide the security of the village.

[JINHA] spoke to Nûjin Derya, a member of Jineology Academy and one of the founders of Jinwar, about the village.

“Before speaking about the village, I want to say that I am a member of the Jineology Academy and one of the founders of Jinwar village. We worked hard to found the village. There are all-women’s villages all around the world. For Instance, there is a women’s village in Kenya named Umoja. Women founded the village to protect themselves from male violence. There is also a women’s village in Colombia. The village was built by women who have suffered displacement as a result of Colombia’s fifty-year civil war and domestic violence. There are also women’s villages in Egypt and India. We can see that women had communes and schools in history. In the middle ages, in European countries, women came together as Saints and lived together.  Most of the villages in NE Syria have been named after women because women have played a great role in villages.”

“Jinwar’s construction period was very sacred”

“Before Jinwar was founded, everyone dreamed of founding a women’s village. When women were asked about their dreams for the future, almost all of them said their dream was to build a women’s village. After the Revolution in Rojava, women had an opportunity to realize their dream. Women’s organizations and institutions held many meetings to discuss how we could build the village. After discussion, women decided to form a committee to build the village and the construction of the village was to be completed by November 25, 2018. The reason why we decided to complete the construction of the village was to show that women don’t accept violence, occupation, and attacks against women. The construction of the houses in the village started on March 10, 2017. It was officially inaugurated on 25 November 2018, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. But the construction period continued for two years with the effort of hundreds/thousands of people. For this reason, the construction period of the village was a very sacred period for us. Many men said, “Women cannot live alone in a village.” But then they realized that women managed to build a village on their own. They are convinced that women can live alone.” 

“Jinwar is a part of women’s revolution”

“The first thing that people think about Jinwar is the communal life, the free-equal life of society. Children and women live together in the village. People living in the village express their thoughts and ideas freely. The people of the village can establish relations with their neighbors, nature, the region, and even with the whole world. Jinwar is a part of the women’s revolution. This revolution had a great impact on people of all ages. Jinwar is a space to struggle for freedom and life.”

“Jinwar means communal life”

“The system in Jinwar was set up by women’s experiences. It is based on the ideology of a democratic nation. The society organizes itself freely and consciously in this village. I should say that the construction of the village continues and it will always continue with innovations. No one can live individually in Jinwar because there is a communal life in the village and everyone has a relationship with everyone. The village has an assembly and the assembly holds meetings. At the meeting, women discuss the problems they face and their solutions. There is a self-criticism mechanism in the village. Jinwar is in touch with all regions of NE Syria. There is an academy in the village because education is very important to build a democratic nation system. Education can change a society. There is a school named Mother Uweyş for children. There is also a women’s healing center named ‘Şîfa Jin’.”

“Freedom is the cure of all diseases”

“Health is a very important issue if we want to build a free society. There aren’t only physical diseases. The economy and system cause many diseases. All diseases cannot be treated with medicines. In Jinwar, community health is important for us. First, we must determine our diseases and then change our lives. If we want to have a healthy life, we must first build a healthy and ecological life. Şîfa Jin provides treatment to patients with herbs. The women working for Şîfa Jin produce medicines with herbs by using scientific knowledge. Women receive training on health. The philosophy of the Şîfa Jin is ‘freedom is the cure for all diseases, and freedom heals diseases’.”

“Security is an important issue,” Nûjin Derya said, “Because there is an ongoing war in NE Syria. We have faced the attacks of the enemy and patriarchal mindset. Many men still do not accept the existence of women. In Jıinwar, security doesn’t mean only military, it means the establishment of good relations, knowing each other, establishing good relations with nature and soil. All these are a method of self-defense.”

“We should first understand the reason for problems”

“Although there is a communal life in Jinwar, we sometimes have problems, too. Women often run away from problems they face and they don’t want to see them. But in Jinwar, we discuss problems we have faced and try to solve them together. We should first understand the reasons for problems before solving them. Sometimes, we cannot solve problems by discussing them so we solve these problems in life.”

“Boys grow up as non-violent, democratic and free individuals”

“There are also boys in Jinwar. This village is also their village. If they want to leave the village when they grow up, they can. To have a free-equal life, both sexes should understand each other. The boys in the village grow up as non-violent, democratic, and free individuals. This is great hope for the future.”

“Jinwar is a place for education”

“Jinwar is the place of women’s management. Many committees have been formed in the village. Many families and men have visited the village. Jinwar is not only a place for living but also for education. Jinwar is like an academy and people visiting the village learn many things from the life in the village. The women living in the village have built a free-equal life with their children.”

“Jinwar is based on the principle of communal economy”

“Jinwar is based on the principle of communal economy. It is a self-sufficient village. The women living in the village plant trees, wheat, and barley and raise animals. There is a bakery in the village. Women bake their own bread. We also have vineyards and orchards. The economy of the village is the communal economy.”

“The door of Jinwar is open to all women”

“Jinwar is a very important and meaningful place. For this reason, it is necessary to share the development and experiences in the village with the whole world. The door of the village is open to all women, who want to come or visit the village. All women who want to live free, to improve themselves, to learn and teach new things can visit us.”

Read the third article in this series in full.

“Jineology aims to heal the wounds of society with its research”

“The purpose of opening the Jineology research center is to interpret the situation of women and to find solutions to the problems of our society,” Nur Hawıl, a member of the Jineology Education and Research Center in Cizîr Region, said.

Jineology Education and Research Center was founded on September 14, 2017, to research the problems of society and produce solutions to these problems. Jineology is based on the principle of interpretation. The center has carried out works for both sexes to work for society. It aims to get to know society by interpreting every aspect of society. Jineology reinterprets women’s history with intellectual and correct concepts and keeps women’s intellectuality alive.

Nur Hawıl, a member of the Jineology Education and Research Center in Cizîr Region, spoke to JINHA about the aims and purpose of the center.

“The center’s research is carried out with the colors of women”

“Jineology Research Center is known as a science in society. What is important for us is to explain the color and social method of this center to our society. When the center was first founded in Rojava Kurdistan, we wanted to understand the contradictions in our society and warn our society against them. We wanted to understand the problems of our society as the first step. We also introduced the science of Jineology to our society. And then, we began to open our offices in cities. We opened an office, the most important one, in Qamishlo. We opened our first office in the city of Dêrik on September 14, 2017. In the beginning, the number of members of the center was five. Our aim is to interpret the colors of women and reveal the solutions for the existing problems. The center’s research is carried out with the colors of women. Over time, many offices have been opened in many regions of NE Syria.”

“Solutions are found with the colors of women”

“Before researching a basic subject, we must first know the griefs of our society well. The center aims to reveal the wound of society with its research to heal them. It has carried out works for both sexes to deepen its research. If it is necessary to interpret the problems of the whole world, first of all, it is necessary to know society well and to identify the problems and troubles they have faced. Our current research works aim to understand the situation of women, and to learn and understand the situation of men and children. As the center, we both criticize and comment on other research works. The center has carried out its own research work and found solutions with the colors of women. In other words, as the Jineology Research Center, we can say that we understand the griefs experienced by our society at first.”

“The research of Jineology is the definition of truth”

“Each researcher aims to understand the problems, but each researcher defines the problems differently. The difference between the research methods of Jineology and modernity is that the research works of Jineology are carried out by women. Women have been enslaved for five thousand years; their voices have been suppressed, so society is surprised to see that women have carried out the research works by themselves. The research methods of Jineology are libertarian methods and analyze the problems of society with these methods. Jineology researches everything far away from the influence of governments and selfishness. It also has a solution-focused perspective. Those working at the Jineology Research Center should have a perspective that foresees the future of their society, not for themselves, but for their society. Our research works may not show their effect today, but we believe that they will definitely show their effect in a few years. Jineology is also based on the principle of love and respect among people.”

“Jineology researches women’s history with women’s perspective”

“So far, the history of women has been left in the dark. The history of women has been defined in connection with darkness, that is, power. For this reason, Jineology has carried out works to reveal the concepts that define women. Each concept defines women differently. And the history of women has been lost in these concepts. We should interpret the concepts about women. For instance, there were many resisting women in history but the patriarchal mindset accused them of being witches and evil women. Jineology aims to reveal the true history of women, to shed light on intellectual women, women philosophers, and women known as goddesses. We research the role of women in every era and age and the important roles they played.”

“Another aim of Jineology is to define justice between both sexes”

“Another aim of Jineology is to define justice between both sexes. Jineology first defines the situation of women and men in society. It also reveals the contradictions experienced by both sexes. Knowing both genders is essential for Jineology. If you know both genders, you naturally get to know your society. Jineology defends social justice.”

Read the fourth post in this series in full.

“Jineology itself is the community education”

“Women form the core of society, and society builds itself around women. For this reason, Jineology first focuses on the education of women,”Gulistan Osman, a member of the Jineology Education and Research Center in the Qamishlo Canton, said.

Mothers are the first teachers of societies. Mothers pass down their customs, traditions, culture, and history to the next generations. For thousands of years, women have has been teaching and forming societies. Many cultures have still survived thanks to mothers. Education is important for morality and politics to become permanent in societies. Education is a must for humanity.

The education department of Jineology was established in all regions of Northern and Eastern Syria in 2017 with the aim of educating society morally and politically. Gulistan Osman, a member of the Jineology Education and Research Center in the Qamishlo Canton, spoke to JINHA about the education department of Jineology.

“Education is the most important part of the science of Jineology”

Gulistan Osman started her talk by underlining the importance of education. We can say that education is the most important part of human society. Education is important in terms of creating next generations and for the continuation of human society and making human society permanent. In this context, education is the most important part of the science of Jineology. We research, focus on topics that are useful and necessary for society, and educate our society. We make sure that the education we provide is useful for the benefit and spirit of our society. Our education programs are based on the principle of creating change and transformation in society. Jineology itself is community education. In this context, we organize education programs for all women’s institutions and organizations at first. Some other organizations also ask us to organize education programs for them. Before we start our education programs, we first hold meetings and then send invitations to organizations.”

“The education programs of Jineology include all areas of society”

“Our education programs include all areas of society. Women form the core of society, and society builds itself around women. For this reason, Jineology first focuses on the education of women. Since Jineology creates a free and equal living space, we have educated both sexes. In addition, we have provided education programs for youth and children and organized many activities for them. Our mothers and grandmothers are our real teachers in Jineology because we get many perspectives and information from them. We take advice from our mothers and grandmothers because they have witnessed and experienced many things.”

“Jineology aims to build a common life against the capitalist system”

“As a field of science, Jineology criticizes the capitalist system. We are in the 21st century and the capitalist system damages societies. In western countries, the capitalist system has worn out many families, corrupted people’s personalities, and controlled people from the distance. The capitalist system has killed people in its routinized form and left no emotion. Capitalism has imposed money and materiality on society and put spirituality under pressure. Against the capitalist system, Jineology Academy aims to build an equal life, a sensitive mind, and a conscious life for people.”

Read the fifth post in this series in full.

Works of Jineology in the regions of NE Syria

Members of Jineology, who have carried out works in NE Syria, emphasized that Jineology opens women’s eyes, “Women should put Jineology in the center of their lives.”

The science of Jineology sheds light on women and society. Jineology organizes in all regions of Northern and Eastern Syria and carries out women’s studies. Jineology aims to build an equal, fair, free-communal life. Women of NE Syria see Jineology as a rebirth of themselves.

Jineology Research Center opened its office in Tabqa on October 26, 2020, in Kobanî on March 6, 2019, in Afrin in 2017, in Shehba in January 2021. The members of Jineology working in the fields spoke to JINHA about the importance of Jineology.

“Jineology illuminates the path of Arab women”

Speaking about her work in Tabqa and Raqqa regions, Jineology Research Center member Mariya Musa said:

“We have carried out the works of Jineology in Raqqa and Tabqa. Jineology is an alternative to the existing sociology. Jineology Research Center opened its office in Tabqa on October 26, 2020. In the beginning, we had many difficulties, but we managed to establish the perspective we wanted to create in society. Our aim is to illuminate the path of Arab women, to stand by them, and to make them struggle against customs and show their will. We publish a magazine on the science of Jineology every month and distribute it to the Arab community. We also give lectures to non-governmental institutions and organizations about Jineology. Jineology also shows its influence among Arab men and we manage to attract their attention because many men try to satisfy their curiosity by asking questions about Jineology. We have launched a campaign against polygamy and child marriage and reached 170 families until now. Our aim is to spread the science of Jineology among Arab women. Jineolgy illuminates the path of women. For this reason, women should put Jineology in the center of their lives. Our demand from the Arab community is to fight against polygamy, child marriage, and gender-based violence.”

“Jineology shows its perspective in Kobanî”

Rima Ehmed is a member of the Jineology Research Center in Kobanî. She said:

“The office of the Jineology Research Center officially opened in Kobanî on March 6, 2019. We focus on education first and then research. We have carried out activities for women and provided many education programs for women. We have also provided education programs for women working for women’s organizations. Our aim is to spread the science of Jineology in society. We have conducted research on many issues such as demographic change, occupation of the regions of NE Syria, migration, and herbal medicine. We also conducted a study on the sociology of Arab women. We have held panels on Jineology in the Euphrates region. The panels are about gender-based violence, femicide, and child marriage. These panels have had a great impact on women and society. Recently, we have conducted research on suicide among women and the reasons that cause women to commit suicide. Since Jineology is a social science, we aim to research everything from the root. We aim to solve the problems of our society by sharing our research results with our society. For this reason, we can say that Jineology shows its perspective in the city of Kobanî.”

“People of Manbij organize themselves with Jineology”

Yasmin Qojo, a member of the Jineology Research Center in Manbij, told us their activities in Manbij:

“Our office was opened in Manbij in 2018. As a first step, we gave information about Jineology to institutions and organizations, and society. Since this science is new in society, it has attracted the attention of the people of Manbij. We have conducted our research on the problems of our society. There is a tribal system in Manbij so we have conducted our research about this system. We have conducted research about the traditions of our society from history to the present to find permanent solutions to the problems. After Manbij was liberated from ISIS, the city needed Jineology to get rid of its black color. We have conducted research about customs, social and economic problems faced by women. After the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, many women have been subjected to domestic violence and we have distributed leaflets to raise awareness of the public about domestic violence. We held the first workshop on business and ethics in Manbij. We have conducted research about the increasing rate of suicide among women, victims of the war. We have launched a campaign to raise awareness of the public about the harms, causes, and negative effects of child marriage on women. We organized a youth camp in order to increase the level of education of young people.”

“Jineology is loved by the people of Afrin and Shehba”

Zahide Memo is a member of the Jineology Research Center in Afrin and Shehba. She told us their activities in these cities:

“Our office was opened in Afrin in 2017. We have kept working in Shehba due to the occupation of Afrin. We began to work on women, society, sociology, and women’s history in Afrin. We first started carrying out our activities in schools of Afrin. We gave information about the science of Jineology to all institutions and organizations of Afrin. After the Turkish state carried out its invasion attack on Afrin, we had to open our office in Shehba in January 2021. We have carried out our activities for Afrin and Shehba regions. In the upcoming days, we will conduct research about the history of Shehba.”

“Jineology finds solutions to problems in Aleppo”

Nujiyan Hisên, a member of the Jineology Research Center in Aleppo, spoke to JINHA about their activities:

“Our office was officially opened in Aleppo on April 3, 2021. Since we opened our office, we have given information about Jineology to our society, institutions, and organizations. We have conducted research on stories and tales of women and society. We have worked coordinately with other institutions and organizations to carry out our activities in Aleppo. Our aim is to reveal the reality of society and women with science. We also aim to identify the problems of society and women correctly and find solutions to them. The science of Jineology aims to research history deeply and accurately. We held workshops in Şêx Meqsud and Eşrefiye for both women and men.”

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One of the achievements of the Revolution in Rojava, also known as the women’s revolution is Jinwar village, which opened on November 25, 2018. Jinwar, which was built to create a free life governed by women, an ecological economy, a healthy society with women’s companionship and love, is located in the west of Dirbesiyê district of Hesekê city, Northern and Eastern Syria. The project of Jinwar was started in the winter of 2016-2017 after long-term discussion with relevant organizations in Northern Syria. The foundation of the village was laid by women on March 10, 2017. The door of the village was opened on November 25, 2018. The village is specific because it is an all-women village, only women can stay there. The village is surrounded by the historical Gebz Hill and the villages of Kerkend, Herba, Etîşan, and Qeyrawan. The village has Arable lands for agriculture and this is one of the reasons why this region was chosen for building the village.

Women have a communal life in the village

When you enter the village, the life built by women fascinates you. You see mud-brick houses and feel communal life in the village. We can say that this village is the women’s paradise on earth. Women work and make decisions in solidarity. If you [want to] see labor, communal life, power, and the existence of women and nature, you should definitely visit Jinwar village.

Harmel is the symbol of the village

While everything in the village is inspired by history, the symbol of the village, Harmel, is the symbol of fertility. Harmel, commonly called wild rue, Syrian rue, is an herb used in the treatment of many diseases, also believed that it removes the negative energy. Kurdish people hang harmel herbs on the walls of their houses to protect them from evil. In this village, women with different ethnic identities have built a common life together. Women from Dirbesiyê, Kobanî, Deir ez-Zur, Shedadê, Shengal, Shehba, Sulaymaniyah and Maxmur live in the village.

All children in the village are raised by all women

When you arrive in the village, you see a sign reading “Hûn bixêr hatin (Welcome)”. When you enter the village, you see mud-brick houses. Every woman in the village has a duty. They cook and have their meals at home. They organize activities together. All children in the village are raised by all women. They are the children of all women living in the village. The children go to the Uveysh Primary School and receive education both in Arabic and Kurdish.

Men cannot live in the village

In the village, the women bake bread in turn and use herbal medicines given by the health center. The women receive training to learn how to prepare herbal medicines. They grow herbs in their gardens. The women clean the village together. The women living in the village are victims of the male-dominated system or lost their spouses. Relatives of the women can visit them in the village. But men are not allowed to enter the village. We spoke to Ruken Rojda, the board member of Jinwar about life in the village.

“A small model of the Democratic Nation”

Opening the village on November 25 is meaningful for us, Ruken Rojda said, “We live in the 21^st century, as leader Apo (Abullah Öcalan) said, this century is a century of women’s revolution and will. The building of Jinwar has attacked the attention of many women and empowered them. Women couldn’t express their thoughts freely. In the beginning, the project of Jinwar had many challenges. The village is a response to all challenges. Women, who cannot express their thoughts, can come to this village. Jinwar is the village of will and education. The village is also a small model of the Democratic Nation. The communal system in the village shows this.”

Reporting that there are councils such as Women’s Council, Children’s Council, and Mothers’ Solidarity Council in Jinwar village, Ruken Rojda told us that they try to find solutions to the problems faced by women together.

“We should keep struggling with science”

Pointing out that women should know their own history, Ruken Rojda said, “When women are aware of their existence, they can fail the policies trying to annihilate them. We should love our femininity in order to remove the ruins of the patriarchal mentality. We should keep struggling with science in order to build a free, equal, and democratic life.  After all, life exists with the existence of two sexes. Both genders complement each other. We need to continue our struggle with conscious women.”

“Women’s love of life is amazing”

Emphasizing that Arab and Kurdish women live together in the village, Ruken Rojda said, “The door of the village is open to all women. We have a section reserved for women coming abroad to visit the village and do research. These women want to learn the system in the village to practice it in their own countries. Women living in the village decided to live in the village. When we ask them the reason for coming to the village, we see what kind of cruelty they faced. Women’s love of life is amazing.”

“Women don’t have to accept slavery”

Underlining that Jinwar village is not the first women’s village in the world; Ruken Rojda said the first women’s village was built in Africa. “Jinwar is the first women’s village in the Middle East. It is a space for women, who are subjected to all forms of violence. When women were not accepted by their families, they didn’t have any place to go. They had to accept slavery. But now, they don’t have to accept slavery anymore. They have a place to go.”

“We should create free personalities”

Calling on women to not accept slavery and to protect their rights, Ruken Rojda said, “We should keep struggling for a free, democratic, and equal life wherever we are. With their solidarity and unity, women can create free, democratic personalities and be pioneers in society.”

[Unfortunately the videos below do not have English subtitles yet]

The Women’s House (Mala Jin), is one of the people’ s institutions that were built from 2011 with the outbreak of the revolution. They are part of the Women’s Movement, organised under the umbrella of Kongra Star, and are established throughout the region of North and East Syria, as one of the pillars of the community-based institutions that represent the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria.

Their role is to support women in solving the problems that affect them, and to take part through the Consensus Committees in the management of gender-based conflicts. In the project of Mala Jin we see two of the principles of the Revolution crystallized: ending the oppression of women and understanding, addressing and resolving conflicts within the community. The problems women face include husbands who have taken second wives, forced marriages, issues of inheritance, or male violence. Because despite the legislative changes that have been taken (such as banning polygamy or raising the legal age of marriage to 18), these continue to occur and it is a long-term educational effort to eradicate them completely.

As a house of justice, Mala Jin takes on a mediating role, holding talks with the affected parts when possible – a couple, a family, two or three families or tribes – and seeking a solution together. Even so, in serious cases of male violence or conflicts that are not settled, they are working together with Asayiş (police force) and the court justice system, taking punitive measures if necessary.

Worldwide, the coronavirus has triggered debates about the nature of our shared responsibilities, not only in individual cities or countries, but across borders of nationality, language, and belief. Together we measure profit against solidarity, liberty against duty, and even the spiritual against the physical.

Ironically, it is the most powerful nations in the world, despite their vast and globally networked resources, that seem to be paralyzed by this moral burden. The United States has struggled to overcome policy makers’ deep ideological commitment to “rugged individualism” and the sanctity of the “free market,” leaving its citizens struggling to navigate a byzantine system of private healthcare and misappropriated subsidies. Meanwhile, it is among the world’s less powerful societies that we can see a paradigm of radical democracy and a serious attempt at an internationalist and social response to the virus.

The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) is one such example of this solidarity ethos, seeking to cooperate both within and across its borders, even amidst the many dangers plaguing Syria.

In the United States, we have seen what pandemic policies look like that emphasize competition, individualism, and the inviolability of profit. Minority and working-class communities have been devastated at an astonishingly disproportionate rate – Black and African-Americans in New York City have died at over twice the rate of white residents.

The reasons for this racial disparity are clear, with even the CDC (Center for Disease Control) pointing to: residential segregation, a lack of groceries and medical centers in poor communities, over-representation in prisons, the precarity of low-waged but “essential” workers, and lack of paid sick leave and insurance.

States have been forced to “outbid” each other for essential medical equipment, sending lifesaving supplies to the richest of states (or those most willing to drive themselves further into debt). Price gouging has been rampant, simultaneous with historically high firings and layoffs.

None of these conditions have anything to do with the pandemic – they existed long before it and are the banal, quotidian (and yet still horrific) details of life in an avowedly capitalist, “by your own bootstraps” society. The tendency is to view poverty as evidence of an individual’s personal, moral failing, allowing us to look away from or absolve ourselves of responsibility for others’ suffering. Of course, it is these same people, the poor and working class, who are on the frontlines of the pandemic – risking their lives for us all.

This is the coronavirus policy of, to put it in a single word, an antisocial system. Unfortunately, this antisocial system is not limited to one country and has become the broader geopolitical paradigm, encouraging nation-states to treat each other as rivals in the rush for medical supplies, vaccines, research, and ultimately economic advantage.

But as we’ve said this is not the only path available. Counter currents always exist and many have chosen to embrace an ethic of solidarity, cooperation, and egalitarianism in response to the pandemic.

In the AANES they have emphasized socialist (democratic, solidarity-based) policies that get down to the roots of the crisis. The administration waived sanitation, water and electricity bills across their territory for all residents for two months. Local, directly democratic councils provided resources to deliver food and fuel to their neighbors in need. Lockdowns around the world have posed a particular challenge to societies with tight kinship networks and close, communal living — leading to surges in gender-based violence and cascading medical effects like an increase in pregnancy complications.

The AANES has unique infrastructure to deal with the fallout, with long-established Women’s Committees operating at all political levels of the administration and Peace and Consensus committees available to mediate disputes and to intervene positively in family conflict. This democratic approach, which empowers society to act “from below,” endeavors to make sure that no one falls through the cracks. Political power rooted at the local level means that, through self-management, administrators know the plights and needs of their neighbors. They are conscious of their neighbors as actual human beings and not just as statistics to be weighed and measured.

Embracing this same, bottom-up solidarity ethos, “mutual-aid” organizations have flourished across the world in response to the pandemic – self-organizing to provide essential services and supplies to their communities while pressuring policymakers. Even in the United States, such initiatives have taken hold across the country where government has been absent, unwilling to help, or indifferent in its response. Across the world, partisans of democracy like the AANES are inspiring others to model alternatives not only to the current crisis, but also to systems of inequality writ large.

Still, localized solutions are only part of the equation. The coronavirus has demonstrated that our collective health and wellbeing is also tied to a world community – across borders and political divisions. Recognizing the interconnectedness of our very health and prosperity, a just and equitable rebuilding will need to happen ultimately on the global level, with an internationalist perspective.

The AANES is a case in point, confronted with a host of problems that demand action from the international community. The Syrian state largely controls coronavirus testing in the country and refuses to transfer medical resources to the AANES region, which has received a scant few testing machines from its neighbors in Iraq. Turkey is taking advantage of the crisis to make further inroads in its occupation, going so far to attack water supplies in the AANES – making even the most basic hygiene in some areas, not to mention the provisioning of food, a difficult challenge.

Most glaringly, the AANES is host to massive ISIS prisoner camps, which are a potential hotbed of infection. Despite the self-defense forces of the AANES serving a key role in the coalition fight against ISIS, its international partners have refused to repatriate, adequately fund, or otherwise help to manage prisoners. This has left the US’s closest ally in Syria “holding the bag” and putting their very lives at risk during the pandemic.

The coronavirus has shown that no person, and no nation, is an island. If we are serious about embracing the notion of solidarity, it must not be limited to the people within our national borders. As a “world leader,” the United States should encourage and nurture these values everywhere they are expressed, including the AANES. Policymakers might start by sanctioning Turkey for its occupation and economic warfare in North and East Syria by separating the AANES from poorly-directed Syrian sanctions and by extending financial and medical aid to the North and East Syria. Beyond material aid, a great deal could be accomplished by simply taking a just stance on the Syrian conflict, applying diplomatic pressure on the Syrian Government to allow COVID-19 testing in North and East Syria, the transfer of supplies, and the full participation of the AANES in peace talks.

If we as a country and a global community are to make something out of the tragedy of this pandemic, it is important that we remember that crisis may shine a light, but it only reveals what was already lurking below the surface. We shouldn’t treat this moment as an aberration, but as a revelation. To seize the moment and make a change requires not only empowering the disempowered at home, but also rectifying the policies that have hurt those seeking a more just and equal world abroad. The AANES, struck by war, pandemic, ethnic discrimination, and economic deprivation, is one such society that is miraculously building hope amidst cynicism and great struggle. We owe them a debt of gratitude.

We can choose to be humble and accept one more gift from our allies in North and East Syria. We can embrace their example and go forward in a spirit of solidarity and cooperation, turning tragedy into a truly collective transformation.

Tel Marouf is a small town in northern Syria that was severely assaulted in 2014 by the extremist al-Nusra Front, the former Syrian branch of al-Qaeda that renamed itself as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham. The People’s Protection Units (YPG) and Women’s Protection Units (YPJ) resisted and eventually retook the area, but at the time, the entire population of Tel Marouf was forced to flee. Only recently, 340 out of the 600 households returned. Most of the infrastructure was damaged; even the local mosque had been bombed by the attackers.

On the edge of the town is a palace-like Arabic language academy of justice and law. At the time of writing, autumn 2018, the fourth educational cycle of the academy enabled 50 students, including 14 women to learn about the new justice system of the Democratic Self-Administration. Most of them are from Manbij, Raqqa or Deir ez-Zor and had been involved in the sphere of law and justice before the revolution. One participant, who was forced to live under ISIS occupation for five years, claimed that her experience led her to greatly value the notion of justice. The education included subjects like history and philosophy, the women’s question in the Middle East, and the justice system of the Democratic Self-Administration. The daily routine begins with physical activities at 6.30AM. After breakfast, classes start at 8AM and lasts until 7PM with several breaks in between, followed by one hour of self-education and preparation. The education lasts 45 days and follows a strict program.

In all regions of Northern Syria, justice commissions were formed to regulate legal disputes. Only if these were unable to solve any given problem at hand, the case would be taken to the Diwana Adalet (Board of Justice). As explained by one of the students, rather than merely coming to a judgement, the main aim was to find a solution that both parties could adequately live with. At the end of the education, a discussion took place to speak about the differences between the new system and the regime’s notion of law and justice.

Women’s Rights

Not only the women, but also the male participants of the education stressed great transformations in terms of the rights of women. Issues that primarily concern women are first addressed in the Mala Jin, the “women’s houses” that exist everywhere across the region. Most of the problems raised by women seem to be resolved at this first level. One participant described how in the past, the testimony of one man in court was equal to that of two female witnesses. Children were automatically put under the custody of the father after divorce, but now it was the other way around. Parallel to this, child marriage and polygamy were systematically fought in an ongoing struggle. The legal age for marriage was set at 18. After years of ISIS terror, women had disappeared from the public sphere. The new justice system however instituted their rightful place in society. During the regime era, the justice system was built on breaking women’s will, which was only further deepened by ISIS. Now however, law was to be on the side of women in such matters. In general, the new system does not make discrimination between different ethnic or religious backgrounds, age or gender. Women and men were to be equally represented in all spheres of life. The women at the academy said that they would like to see this legal system develop in all of Syria.

The society is solving its own problems

The main difference between the old and the new justice system is the fact that now it is the society, not the state that is solving people’s problems. In the past, it could take up to three to four years for legal disputes to be resolved, whereas now issues were settled within weeks, evoking much appreciation by the local populations. In the old system, the law was written and practiced in the interest of the rulers and was therefore untouchable. Judges and prosecutors were installed from above and were usually not from the local area. The task of justice and law was to punish – the purpose was motivated by revenge, not by a quest to find just solutions. The regime’s system had not changed since the 1970s, but with the revolution, things were to be radically transformed and changed.

Now each town district and village has peace and consensus committees that are generally accepted within society. The priority is not to impose solutions on society but to encourage these initiatives to develop within communities themselves. If no solution is achieved at this level, the case is taken to the Dadgeha Gel (People’s Court), which is formed by members of the town district committees.

The participants emphasize that the state had historically created conflicts and contradictions among the communities by treating them differently along state interests. This, as they explain, is a principle that ISIS employed as well. Now, they no longer see the need for a dominating power hierarchy, since justice is now accountable to all colors of society. Rather, they claim that ethics and morality constitute the foundation of their understanding of justice. After all, as they say, the different societies in the Middle East, despite their individual features and practices, do not differ radically from each other culturally.

The aim of the new justice system is to find a solution that satisfies all sides concerned, based on justice and mutual understanding. Now, as the members state, all colors of life are to be expressed.  Their vision is a federal, free Syria based on democracy and solidarity of all peoples, in which people can come up with creative solutions to overcome their grievances.

Women make a living for their families by working in agriculture. Agriculture, as it is known, is one of the most important sources of income in NE Syria. 50-year-old Edle Yusif, living in the Girêdêra village of Qamishlo’s Girkêlege district, has made a living from agriculture since she was a child. Edle is a professional farmer and these days, she has collected the grains of Firik growing on the borderline.

“Firik is a type of wheat and its grains are collected when they are green”

We asked Edle, “What is Firik?” She told us what Firik is while collecting its grains. “In April, its grains grow to be collected. It is a type of wheat and its grains are collected when they are green. Firik is not like wheat. It grows in the Euphrates basin. We collect them after categorizing them and harvest them in bunches. We leave them under fresh air but without allowing their grains to be dried. We leave them on a clean floor and then grind the grains.”

“They are served to special guests”

Edle told us that Firik is one of the basic foods such as bulgur and rice. “They are more expensive,” Edle said, “They are more expensive because they don’t grow everywhere, and harvesting them is very hard. For this reason, they are kept in a place to serve to special guests.”

“As women, we have a communal life”

Edle feels happy to have a communal life with women. “Now, it is called communal life but women have had this life for years. All women farmers have helped each other in solidarity. They have exchanged their products. This is how we enrich our lives and this is how we live,” said Edle.