In the quest to dominate society and woman the capitalist system has systematically removed us from ourselves, from our own identity. A person who knows oneself will also understand the system. Cigdem Dogu, a member of the KJK (Komelen Jinen Kurdistan, Kurdistan Women’s Community) Executive Council answers and poses questions on the struggle to get to know oneself as a woman and as a human being and explores “xwebun” the Kurdish Movement for Freedom’s concept of “becoming oneself”. Interview from 29 April 2024.
As KJK, we have a long history of struggle. The body and spirit of this struggle came to life with the principles of PAJK (Partiya Azadiya Jinen Kurdistane, Party of Free Women in Kurdistan). How do you evaluate these principles? And can we call this a struggle for “xwebun”?
We have fifty years of history since martyr Sakine Cansız joined the PKK, thirty-seven years since the establishment of our first women’s organisation YJWK (Kurdistan Patriotic Women’s Union), thirty-one years since the establishment of our first women’s army, twenty-five years since the first initiative of our women’s party, and nineteen years since our transition to the confederal system with KJK. The free women’s identity and approach created by Sakine Cansız, which met with Reber Apo’s (name used for Abdullah Öcalan within the Kurdish Freedom Movement) line in the PKK, has determined our history of women’s struggle for freedom. For this reason, in the words of Reber Apo, our women’s liberation struggle is the way, fight and identity of comrade Sakine Cansız. The women’s freedom march in Kurdistan has always been marked by Sakine Cansız’s life of struggle and love for humanity. We first learnt the truth of becoming oneself from her; her fighting personality that never bowed to fascism, colonialism or male domination, as well as her immense love for comradeship, humanity and free womanhood, and her modesty, guided us and gave us the strength and determination to walk on this path. Therefore, at all decisive points of our women’s liberation struggle, we encounter the truth of Sakine’s self realisation, her experiences and legacy – her trace.
Our Kurdistan women’s democratic confederal system emerged with the struggle of becoming oneself. It was developed at great cost. Tens of thousands of our female comrades have shed blood and sweat for this cause, and have revealed their identity as free women after struggling with immense adversity. Kurdish women did not theorise the reality of becoming oneself whilst sitting at a table. In the middle of the war, in the prison cells, on the streets, within the family, at school, at work, wherever they exist – they have experienced and theorised it with collective mind, collective heart, collective organisation and struggle – paying a price at each step. The ideology of women’s liberation and women’s partisanship emerged out of these experiences and heritage, revealing the principles on which the reality of becoming onself should be built. The women’s liberation struggle has been carried out in line with the five principles of PAJK (Kurdistan Women’s Freedom Party) and its Women’s Liberation Ideology; love for the homeland, free thought and free will, struggle, organisation, and ethics-aesthetics, all of which aim to instil a consciousness of selfhood among women individually and across the female gender. This struggle has passed through different epochs and phases, and has reached the stage of establishing women’s self-government in society. Such a struggle cannot be considered independently of the truth of becoming oneself.
1) How do you think the identity of “xwebun” has become an expression of Kurdish women and society?
Imagine that you exist in a social, cultural and national reality that has pioneered the development of human history, but you have no name, no language, and no country. Yet, you have existed for thousands of years. You are the woman of an unnamed country that has been colonised by being torn apart. Identity-less women of an identity-less country. The Kurdish woman lived a reality in which the colonising states imprisoned her within the family and assigned the colonised Kurdish masculinity as a guard. She was in a situation where the colonial power and the male-dominated power jointly usurped her will, and she was de-identified twofold. This deep contradiction experienced by Kurdish women has also brought with it a great potential and quest for freedom.
In fact, it is very striking that when the PKK began to emerge on the ground in Kurdistan, the mothers and young women embraced it readily, and began to see and feel their own existence and future reflected in it. The fascist Turkish state had no tolerance for even hearing the word “kurd”; its only reflex against the phenomenon and concept of kurdishness was – and still is – massacre, oppression and violence. Therefore, to speak of kurdishness at that time meant facing the most severe oppression, and it required a great deal of courage, especially for women, to move towards such an awareness and to attempt to fight for the cause. It was in this environment that Sakine Cansız took the lead and set a brave and conscious example in terms of the participation of women and mothers.
Women began to find themselves within the PKK reality. Until the third PKK congress in 1986, there was no specific evaluation or women’s organisation formulated. In general terms, the theoretical approach did not go much beyond the framework drawn by real socialism. However, Reber Apo’s practical approach was to involve women without hesitation in any work, and to develop more original sites of organisation to strengthen the involvement and development of women. The third congress, the formation of a women’s organisation called YJWK in 1987, and the development of an analysis of women and family in Kurdistan in the same period, marked a turning point in our women’s struggle. The process that followed developed step by step.
Women moved towards a more authentic and autonomous organisation both in the guerrilla and in society, becoming more competent at every step.
Our women’s struggle came to life as the women’s army, women’s organisation, women’s liberation ideology, women’s party, and democratic confederalism of women in the form of specific and autonomous organisation within the scope of the general organisation. In 2008, this culminated in Reber Apo’s conceptualisation of “Jineoloji” as the science of women. All these processes, which we have very briefly summarised, were the processes in which women in Kurdistan recognised, discovered, and realised themselves. In other words; in our struggle, women have progressed and continue to advance on the path of becoming themselves, of self realisation, with their self-defence, organisation, struggle, love and defence of the homeland, the power to think freely and produce politics, and their consciousness . Of course, this struggle will continue as long as the male-dominated system and individuals exist. It will continue until all women and the society in Kurdistan, the Middle East and the world are liberated.
The women’s revolution taking place in Rojava today is the most concrete and visible manifestation in the social sphere of the struggle to become oneself. Here, the democratic nation project and the democratic confederal style of organisation come to life as direct democracy. And within this system, women endeavour to occupy a space in all areas of life. Through co-chairing, through equal representation of power, women articulate themselves and implement decision making power in every area of life, while developing their unique and autonomous organisation within society. From economy to health, education, ecology, justice and self-defence; women play a role that strengthens and democratises both their gender and society as a whole. Currently, candidates are being selected and preparations are being made for the municipal elections that will take place in May. While Kongra Star enters these municipal elections in alliance with the PYD, it determines its candidates through primary elections. Women themselves choose the female candidates in the primary elections, which is a very important example and model. Women determine their own female co-mayor candidates, while electing the co-mayors, which will foster self-governance. They are chosen based on women’s principles and criteria.
The reality of becoming oneself which has emerged for the Kurdish woman is the acquisition of a meaning and identity with its own unique and autonomous organisation. This identity both defends itself and wages struggle, and most importantly, is utilised in establishing a free life. It is not only a theoretical, philosophical and ideological concept – it is a reality that is lived in the most meaningful and beautiful way.
2) How do you evaluate the identity of Xwebun and its links with the philosophy of “Jin, Jiyan, Azadi”?
The philosophy of “Jin, Jiyan, Azadi”, in which the phenomena of life, women and freedom are considered holistically, requires a deep understanding. After the execution of Jîna Emini by the Iranian regime, these words gained a universal echo, embedded in the wave of struggle sweeping across the world. It became our common voice, our word. Because of the depth of its meaning and liberating power, because it touched women and men in search of freedom, because it impassioned consciousness and hearts, it rippled across the globe.
For years, we chanted the slogan “Jin, Jiyan, Azadi” on the mountain tops and in the guerrilla areas and blessed our struggle with these meaningful words. With the Rojava revolution and then the murder of Jîna Emini in Rojhilat (East Kurdistan), this slogan began to pour like a flood, breaching every dam and cascading into a wider-reaching terrain. Because these were the words and voice of freedom, of true love, of those who wanted to overcome all falsehoods and artificialities, and to reach the truth. It was filtered through a process of struggle on the ground in Kurdistan that is very difficult to explain and describe. This philosophy manifested and blossomed in the mountains, on the streets, in the prisons, in the cries of women and children of evacuated villages, in “serhildans” (uprisings), in the battle cry of Beritan (1) on the cliff edge, in the spirit of Zilan (2) in the Dersim square, in the last words of thousands of young women and men. Moreover, this energy could not contain itself, it could not stop at its borders – it began to surge beyond its confines towards new lands to form new synergies. This deluge continues to flow in the most valuable way.
Because this philosophy expressed being, or Xwebun, in Kurdistan, Xwebun is also the other, the other with its power of social relationship, its communality. Therefore, as Xwebun becomes Xwebun, it attains a dialectic that meets the other, completes itself with the will of the other, re-creates itself, in a constant process of creation. While Reber Apo described the human as the incomplete god, he also described god as the completed human. The incomplete human-being always wants to make themselves whole; what they actually seek is to do so with life, society, human beings, nature, women and men, with their free will. The dialectic of Xwebunisation instigates this feeling and consciousness in human beings, and at the same time, this feeling and consciousness advances the search for organisation and struggle in order to will. It incites the feeling of struggle against that reality which destroys the will, which oppresses, exploits, falsifies, distorts and conceals freedom and truth. This statism and its weapons are killing my ability to become myself, and my process of Xwebun with my national, gender, religious, cultural, linguistic and social identity. If the main obstacle to me being me is the forces of power that are enemies of life and freedom, then the first thing I must do is fight against this obstacle. This is where the reality of women, the fundamental subject of life and freedom, comes to the fore. Because life, will, freedom and intrinsic nature were decimated by destroying women first. A life without women has no meaning, no freedom, no naturalness, beauty or simplicity.
Consequently, in order to make sense of life, to freely be yourself, to be become oneself, it is necessary to fight for life and freedom by placing women’s freedom and struggle in the centre. This necessity applies primarily to women, but men will also find themselves in this position. Life will be meaningful and beautiful as society develops the dialectic of the free and meaningful relationship between the sexes with the actualisation and liberation of women and men’s identities. I would like to point out, again, that to be capable of this requires a great determination to struggle, to organise, a love for humanity; drinking the sweet and real syrup of society-humanity, not the poisonous syrup of the powers that be. Its beauty lies in experiencing how it feels to develop the strength, courage and consciousness to overcome the limits set for us. In Reber Apo’s words, it is hidden in the risk of “a fight worthy of Prometheus”, in cultivating the courage to walk on the edge of cliffs, in the power to transform fight into love and love into fight. Not with the touch of the magic wand of fairy tales, but with the love of struggle, with the dialectic of “hebun-zanabun-xwebun” (existence, knowing, and becoming oneself), we can overcome the poisonous ‘seductive’ life of the powers, capitalist modernity, and realise the construction of free women, free men, free society, and develop our symbiotic relationship with the already free nature. We can create brand new synergies.
3) Is it possible to create a free individual, a free woman and a free society without the identity of “xwebun”?
Being natural, that is, being truly oneself, is a very important, existential characteristic of every being in nature, in every living creature as well as in human beings, both men and women. In the plant and animal kingdoms, there is not a problem of being oneself, of “xwebun”. They have not been corrupted by the ruling fictional analytical intelligence – although their existence is endangered by its effects. Some species are heading towards extinction, but apart from some over-domesticated animals, they are not distanced from their own existential structure, degraded, or assimilated.
In the structure of human society that is neither hegemonic or dominated by masculinity, this degradation does not exist; sociality is the self, which preserves and develops its naturalness with its moral and political structure. As a matter of fact, the remains of the Neolithic period tell us clearly that the initial structure of society preserved this naturalness. All these remains, albeit in different geographies, show that the natural social structure does not have the characteristics of exploitation, power, perpetual wars, domination such as oppression, or inequality. It also shows that the relations between men and women are not characterised by domination, violence, inequality and a lack of freedom. We understand that these societies and the individuals living within them are themselves in all their naturalness, they are in “xwebun”. That is to say, the primary character of the human and society has a moral and political structure, and with this structure, it is itself, there is no deformation or degradation. Sociality, and the continuation of the physical existence and metaphysical structure of the individual within this sociality, is also linked to this character.
With the five thousand year old male-dominated system, this naturalness has deteriorated and started to cease. When we consider that for five thousand years the histories of democratic civilisation and hegemonic civilisation have continued to flow like two forks of a river, we see that the forces of democratic civilisation have tried to preserve their original structure on the one hand, and on the other hand, they have suffered deterioration. However, we know very well from the legacy of liberatory and moral resistance that has been left to us that there has not been total destruction or total surrender to the forces of the ruling hegemonic civilisation.
Although the forces of capitalist modernity insist on destroying this heritage, and they attack women, peoples, and the oppressed, they cannot and will not be destroyed. The energy of resistance, like all energies, is indestructible. The river of democratic civilisation has carried and continues to carry us in the spirit of life, freedom, courage and resistance. For this reason, women, peoples and oppressed groups as the forces of democratic modernity are taking action in every region of the world against the forces of capitalist modernity.
Especially in our era, the forces of capitalist modernity attack on the basis of destroying the truths that make a human human, society a society, and even nature nature, without recognising any limits and measures. It is trying to remove man from being human, society from being society, nature from being nature, and life from being life. It separates women and men from their own nature. It tries to evade them of their human identity. The foremost need is to regain our social and human nature, and for this, it is necessary to overcome the capitalist system, its policies, its state and non-state methods of attack, its ideological structure that distorts the truth and effectively separates us from our nature, and to develop alternatives.
How can we build a life worth living, a free life, if we cannot analyse what this capitalist system – the hegemonic male system – has made us lose? How it deceives us, and how it builds the reality of a false life and relationships? How can we be ourselves if we cannot develop as meaningful human beings, meaningful women and men who seek a meaningful life, with its organised and combative dynamics? How can we meet our truth, the truth of becoming oneself? For this reason, as you stated in your question, the construction of free women, free men and free society cannot be realised without the search for oneself. And one cannot be oneself without the struggle to build free women, free men and free society. In today’s world, where the doomsday bell tolls, the struggle to save humanity, nature, women and men can only be possible by confronting the reality of the capitalist system, which spreads poison and death, which gives birth to violence at every moment, and by attaining the eternal divorce from it.
When we consider it from the female dimension, it is necessary to see the intoxicating poison offered by the system like a sweet syrup to women under the guise of freedom and equality, and to vomit it up and break away from it. Questioning, in every aspect, the hegemonic male system and male individuals who have become the servants of this system, recognising the obfuscations and tricks that create the illusion of freedom: breaking away from male domination is the basis of the struggle for becoming oneself. The reality of women who find and recreate themselves, who can be themselves, can develop the power to transform both society and men from the power of change they create in themselves. It can expand the capacity and values of living together and pave the way for free individuals and free relationships. As we increase this struggle, the space of the hegemonic male system, the capitalist system, will narrow – and the capacity for free life, free women and free men will expand. The revolutions of our age have to develop in such a way. For this reason, it is of great importance that every individual who opposes this system and seeks emancipation develops the struggle and expands the areas of freedom wherever and whenever they are. The more each person increases their own struggle for becoming themselves, the more male domination and the ruling system will regress and collapse.
4) How can the identity of “xwebun” create bonds between women in terms of internationalism? And what is your call to the forces opposed to the system in this regard?
In our age, we see that a struggle that develops locally can quickly become universal, leading to regional and global effects. We have seen this clearly, especially in the unfolding women’s struggle, in the mobilisations, in the rapid convergence of the slogans and results. The women’s struggle finds and affects one another, whether we physically recognise each other or not. Women’s resistance quickly leads to a collective energy and synergy. It is noteworthy that during periods when the women’s struggle intensifies and radicalises, the dominant male system implements its strategies and tactics, and the intensity of struggle is dispersed and interrupted. While the pre-coronavirus pandemic period was a time in which the women’s struggle was radicalised and peaked in a universal sense, an atmosphere was created with the pandemic in which everyone was confined to homes, where all kinds of relationships posed a threat of death through the virus, and women’s organisation regressed. The confinement of every woman at home intensified male violence and created a situation where state authority and control became completely dominant. After the pandemic, there was a discontinuity in the activism of women’s movements. There was a pause in co-operation.
As women, what will establish us as a real strength is to create possibility of uniting with women of every culture, every belief, every language on the basis of being themselves, achieving “xwebun”. As the women’s identity that emerges in its own space, in its own locality, meets with other women’s identities, other women struggling for becoming themselves, by struggling for this unique true identity, by developing and strengthening it, our power will grow. In this way, we need to develop a ground where every woman-to-women movement can both preserve its identity and meet in the identity of a broader women’s organisation. Only by developing such an organisation can we resist the global domination of the hegemonic male system, its policies and wars, and develop our alternatives. And we argue that this must take the form of a democratic confederal organisation of women. The more we can integrate women’s organisations in a democratic confederal bond, the more our network of relations and our organisation will grow. If we can develop the system of women’s self-governance, women’s communes, women’s assemblies, women’s academies and communal economies greater within the geographies where we live, and if we can elevate this confederal organisational power towards regional and worldwide unity, then we will be more successful. A women’s reality that cannot govern itself, that cannot develop its own system of life, economy, health, education, law, media, culture, art, science and faith, cannot survive the violence of hegemonic masculinity and the massacres that are implemented in different forms. It always experiences a state of victimisation, of always being a victim. To the extent that we prevail over what makes us powerless and defenceless, that which makes us prisoners of this system, we can create our own alternative and build a free life, free women and free men with the understanding of democratic confederal organisation.
My call is based on meeting with all women comrades in this organisational model that will unite and increase our power. Both strengthening ourselves in our own locality – through the democratic confederal style of organisation – and integrating with the women of other geographies through the democratic confederal style of organisation could be the main approach to save us from the apocalypse of our age. Discussing this issue more, putting it on the agenda and taking concrete steps will be very important in terms of amplifying the legacy of women’s resistance and carrying it to future generations.
To achieve “xwebun” is to be yourself, to be a comrade with women, to be harmonious with your society, identity and a free life. It is to live in the moment with history and the future, with combativeness and production intertwined in each moment towards a free life. It is our human obligation to weave women’s love in the most beautiful patterns with women’s comradeship, to imbue it and animate it with life’s most beautiful colours. Whether we know each other or not, I greet with love and respect all my women comrades whose hearts are beating for freedom and being themselves, and I wish success for women in their quests for victory.
References
(1) A female guerilla fighter who chose to throw herself of a cliff rather than fall into the hands of the enemy forces.
(2) A member of the Kurdish Freedom Movment who committed an action against a military parade in Dersim, Kurdistan.
