Jinwar - Free Women's Village Rojava
Since late November, a new chapter of the Syria war is unfolding. After 13 years of the so-called Arab Spring and the beginning of the war in the country, the Assad regime, with dictatorship as its most preeminent mark, was taken down by an offensive led primarily by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) - an organization linked to Al-Qaeda - and followed by the Syrian National Army (SNA) and other groups of jihadist terrorists reminiscent of the Islamic State. On 8th December, the former Al-Qaeda/El Nusra fighter and present HTS leader, Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa, also known as Abu Mohammad al-Julani, declared his rule after Assad flew out of the country.
Western media was rapid to report the fall of the regime as the beginning of a new bright era for Syria, stating that thousands of Syrian refugees were finally free to go home. In a very unusual twist, HTS was not labelled as terrorist by the Western press but as “rebels”, “revolutionaries” and “radicals”. Since Syria is now in “good hands”, European countries, as quickly as they could, suspended all asylum seekers requests from Syrian refugees.
At the same time, Western media were slow to report that the unrest that followed the Assad’s fall was spreading terror and causing a more profound humanitarian crisis, especially in Northeast Syria, a region that is home mainly for Kurds and other ethnic minorities, like the Assyrians, Syriacs, and Yazidis, which carry a long history of suffering from violence, oppression and ethnic cleansing mainly by the Turkish state and, since the beginning of the war, by the Islamic State.
It is difficult to overstate the chaos: there’s now 614,000 newly internally displaced persons in Syria, 75% are women and girls – which is more people than those coming back to the country after the fall of the regime (115,000) according to UNHCR. Türkiye and along with western forces, like Israel, took the opportunity to expand their occupation in the country, while the Turkish-backed SNA disrupted the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North-East Syria (DAANES) in the Shehba region, displacing around 200,000 from Tel Rifat and surrounding towns.
The press and the Western governments silence the fact that Christians and other religious minorities, as well as women, are concerned about the possibility of HTS establishing an Islamic state based on its interpretation of Sharia law. These groups are already terrified by the everyday violence they endure by Turkish-backed SNA and jihadist militias, which has been spreading since December. Kongra Star, an umbrella organization for different women’s organizations in the country, reported that “specifically female activists are being attacked and brutally murdered such as the three activists Qamar al-Sud, Aisha Abdul Qader and Iman al-Musa who were members of the women’s organization Zenobiya on December 10”.
The media’s narrative of a new bright era for Syria was heavily dependent on hiding huge parts of the current complex reality of the country, including images of HTS fighters with ISIS emblems illustrating ideological and organizational links, and Türkiye’s and Turkish-backed mercenaries’ ongoing ethnic cleansing and demographic engineering in Northeast Syria (1), which were to a great extent facilitated by the recent HTS actions that displaced thousands of people.
The Kurdish-led self-administration in the north and east, which promotes a more democratic, inclusive governance model, was established in the beginning of the Syrian war after Assad’s regime withdrew from NE Syria to channel its strengths into protecting Damascus and the regime itself. In 2012, the Rojava Revolution was declared. Later, the revolution became known as the Woman’s Revolution since women were key to defeating ISIS in the region and became a central force of deep societal, cultural and economic transformations.
Even amid a prolonged war, which has generated a permanent humanitarian crisis and extreme poverty, the DAANES was able to put a new system in place, seeking social and ecological justice and prosperity, mainly based on the ideas of Democratic Confederalism, by the pro-Kurds Turkish leader of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) Abdullah Öcalan. Democratic Confederalism took root in many communities beyond the Kurds – Yazidis, Armenians, and even Arabs embraced Democratic Confederalism as an alternative to decades of state oppression and genocide.
We can understand Democratic Confederalism as a non-state social paradigm, based on five basic principles: 1) the self-determination of the people; 2) active popular participation where decision-making processes take place at the local level (geographically more comprehensive levels should only serve the coordination and execution of decisions taken in local communities); 3) grassroots popular democracy, understood as the only approach capable of dealing with diverse ethnic groups, religions and class differences; 4) collective and autonomous governance of communities; and 5) anti-nationalism that opposes the creation of a centralized national army, aiming for the right to self-defense of people through the advancement of democratic practices. Governance occurs through local assemblies responsible for electing delegates to municipal and regional assemblies, always with equal numbers of men and women.
The contradictions between theory and practice are undeniable and unavoidable when seeking to overcome deep-rooted problems, structures and mindsets, so no one should expect an “as in theory” revolution, and DAANES is facing a considerable number of extra challenges: on the one hand Western forces and global organizations not recognizing DAANES as an autonomous administration, and on the other hand different forces, such as Türkiye, the Barzani regime on the Iraqi Kurdistan and Iran trying to disrupt it. Türkiye and its NATOs allies managed to list the PKK and Abdullah Öcalan as international terrorists – while Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, relentlessly tries to forge a direct connection between the PKK and the DAANES in order to justify its ongoing attacks on the region.
Ultimately, the DAANES system directly contradicts the ideas and practices of a national state governed by a capitalist mindset with its never-ending growth paradigm and innate colonialism, like Türkiye, as well as the ideas and practices of an Islamic State governed by the Sharia law, where women have no place and ethnic minorities have no cultural and religious freedom. For a place torn apart by ethnic tensions, dictatorship, violence and ecological constraints, Democratic Confederalism is the only feasible alternative for all of the different people living in Syria and its achievements should not be understated, especially when it comes to women’s liberation.
Influenced by Maria Mies’ analysis of the intrinsic connection between nature and women’s exploration (and, therefore, liberation) Democratic Confederalism is committed to undermining the male domination of women and nature, which requires a new mentality and practice when it comes to producing and reproducing life. That is why, even amid intensive warfare, the first ecological conference of NE Syria was held by the DAANES’ Ecological Council on the 26th and 27th of April 2024. The conference aimed to address the many restraints to advancing the ecological revolution, focusing on the application of Democratic Confederalism’s paradigm in the field of ecology. Researchers, academics and activists from all over the world joined the conference and contributed their knowledge and experience so DAANES could set up a plan to achieve its ecological aims while finding solutions to urgent problems.
The region faces many difficult challenges when it comes to ecology. In 2024, Syria had its worst drought in 70 years and the second worst heat wave ever within the region. Providing water to its regions is the main challenge for DAANES, since the uncontrolled development of irrigated cultivation in the semi-arid areas of the Northeast and the digging of new wells, by different actors, including Assad’s government, overburdened groundwater sources. Combined with the construction of dams upstream in Türkiye and Syria, this caused the rivers to dry up. Additionally, Türkiye routinely targets infrastructures like oil, energy and water stations, such as the Alouk water pumping station or the Tishreen Dam, cutting off access to drinking water and power to millions of people. This number could keep increasing after the recent intense displacement.
In 2023, Türkiye’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan stated that “all infrastructure, superstructure and energy facilities that belong to the PKK and the YPG [International or People's Protection Units International, a guerrilla unit made up of foreign fighters in the Syrian Democratic Forces] especially in Iraq and Syria, are legitimate targets of our security forces, armed forces and intelligence units from now on”. Other forms of Türkiye and the Turkish-backed SNA’s permanent ecocide in Syria are the intensive logging of forests and olive trees, burning farmers' lands and oil spills. DAANES repeatedly states that what Türkiye is seeking with these attacks is “spreading chaos, breaking the foundations of stability, and sending direct messages of support to terrorist groups, foremost of which is ISIS, that Turkey supports its attempts to return and revival [sic]”.
However, the other side of this scenario is the possibilities that emerge from the many constraints. The destruction of centralized infrastructure is being turned into a leap to implement decentralized energy production. Jinwar, the village for women and children, is the ideal model, where energy is provided by solar panels and a food yard, with different kinds of grains, vegetables, fruits and herbs, guarantees self-subsistence for the residents. Since the region suffers from an embargo that prevents seeds and chemical fertilizers from reaching Northeast Syria, organic fertilizer production was developed and new cultivation methods are learned through an exchange of knowledge with other groups worldwide.
The first meeting between HTS leader al-Sharaa and delegates of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) happened in the beginning of January. Internal sources confirmed that the meeting was “positive,” but “Türkiye’s influence over al-Sharaa’s administration and its hostility toward the SDF complicates the prospects for reconciliation. Additionally, the SDF’s desire to maintain autonomy in northeastern Syria might clash with al-Sharaa’s centralizing ambitions”.
The extent of al-Sharaa’s ambitions will be clearer as the conversations unfold, but undoubtedly the international actors engaged with a different and better future, in which patriarchal capitalism is a thing of the past, must be compromised with following up closely what happens next in Syria and beyond the mainstream media headlines. HTS should encounter resistance from the international community when it comes to disrupting the achievements of DAANES. Even amid a devastating scenario of warfare, what has flourished in Syria since the Rojava Revolution is a different kind of life for all the various people inside its borders, where differences are not suppressed or hegemonized, the nation-state is not committing violence and injustices against its own citizens and eternal capital accumulation is not the main goal.
The Rojava Revolution has inspired people everywhere and is one living reminder that although breaking free from the patriarchal capitalist system is a tremendous task and will take some lifetimes, it is, nevertheless, possible. For the worldwide community of transformation seekers, there’s a lot at stake when it comes to materialize a bright future for all – and for real.
(1) Since the launch of the so-called "Peace Spring" operation in 2019, Turkey has put into practice a "resettlement plan" allegedly for repatriating Syrian refugees in Northeast Syria. While Erdogan states that this process is to "enrich Syria", DAANES and international law state that this process is illegal and that Turkey aims to overcome the Kurdish majority in the region for its benefit. The intensive logging happening in Afrin is believed to be linked to these settlements' construction and heating material. One report stated that, in Afrin, “findings show demographic shifts through forced migration, the destruction of graves and historical sites, illegal archaeological excavation, the deliberate destruction of olive trees, the burning of fields, and violations of housing, land, and property rights in the region”.
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