Amira Mohammed, one of the commanders of the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ) in North East Syria (Rojava), spoke to Firat News Agency’s (ANF) Cûdî Îbrahîm about the role of women in Syria and the protection of all women living in the country.
Mohammed said that women’s resistance has been playing its role in every field and has been in a leading position and stated: “With the collapse of the Syrian regime, the country went through many transformations. With the arrival of the interim government, many peoples were subjected to massacre, genocide and destruction. The interim government claims that it has liberated Syria; however, it has turned everyone in society into a target. Women are being killed.
In the regions of North and East Syria, however, the situation is the complete opposite. All women play their role in every field of society. Kurdish, Arab, Assyrian, Syriac and women from all other peoples take part in every aspect of life; and at the same time, they wage the highest level of struggle to protect women and display an incomparable resistance.”
Mohammed said that with the common spirit of all women’s components, they will liberate women in Syria from the pressure of power and continued: “Many people from the coastal areas of Syria and from Sweida (Suwayda) turned to us, asking us to free them. As the YPJ, we opened our doors to every woman; thousands of women came to North and East Syria. We responded to their call, women joined our ranks and took their place in the struggle. Today, women play an active role in every part of society, from organisation to the frontlines.
“In the coastal regions of Syria and in Suwayda, there had been massacres and oppression targeting women; women were subjected to direct violence. When their calls reached us, we opened our doors to all women. Women, with a strong will, began to resist this mentality; they educated themselves with the ideas and philosophy of Abdullah Öcalan and entered the struggle.”
Mohammed said that the current ruling authority rejects women and emphasised that any mentality that rejects women can never be accepted. She continued: “The new interim government does not accept women; it only carries out massacres against women. This means that women have no place in any sphere of society.
“At the moment, only one nation and one sect are taking part in the new interim government. So, what is the difference between this and the previous regime? Today there is a mentality that accepts no one but itself. Yet, in North and East Syria we built our own society with a single stance, based on the brotherhood of peoples and women’s resistance. And we will never accept those who exclude women from society.”
Mohammed underlined that the YPJ have an autonomous structure in terms of integration and stated that they will take responsibility for protecting all women in Syria. She said, “Women from every part of Syria can join us; in our future projects we will liberate all women in Syria. Many women from different cities in Syria are coming to us now and taking their place in our ranks.
“However, we want a decentralised and multi-coloured system to be established in the future. Because Syria is still being governed by one single group and one single mentality; we do not accept this. At the same time, if Syria’s new constitution does not guarantee women’s freedom, we will not accept that constitution either.”
Mohammed said: “If needed, we will also go to the coastal areas of Syria and to Sweida, and we will fight for the freedom of the women there. At this moment, in North and East Syria, the process of women’s liberation has been completed; now we are taking responsibility for the freedom of all women in Syria.
“To the women in Homs, in Latakia and in all regions of Syria, we say: we will come and liberate you. We have many more projects; we will announce them in the coming period. But our people and all women must unite around one single will, so that we can build a decentralised and multi-coloured Syria together.”
[Abridged from ANF News English.]