A Commentary on: Jin Jîyan Azadî, A Philosophy Guided By Constant Struggle
16 September 2024 marked two years since the killing of Jîna Mahsa Aminî, a young Kurdish woman from Rojhelat (Eastern Kurdistan), by Iranian morality police due to “mis-wearing” of the hijab. Her killing sparked women-led protests for many months in Rojhelat, Iran and around the world, marked by calls to stand up against patriarchal violence embedded in the foundations of the male-dominant state system. This article is dedicated to the memory of Jîna and all women who have spearheaded the struggle for gender equality and emancipation.
When one discusses women’s struggle, it is often a cognitive reflex to immediately think of 20th century feminist movements. From existentialist philosophers like Simone de Beauvoir to the Mirabal Sisters who opposed the Trujillo regime in the Dominican Republic, the 20th century witnessed the exponential growth of feminist consciousness around the world. Often renowned as the Second Wave of Feminism, the 1960s and 1970s marked a significant outburst in women’s mobilisation, particularly in the United States. Revolutionary spheres of action and movement became the laboratories of theory and knowledge production – theory and knowledge which is now offered in Western academic spaces under umbrella terms such as “Gender Studies”. Although such developments in academic spaces could be evaluated as a sign of progress on the matter of global engagement with feminism, the common criticism of Western-centrism amongst feminist schools of thought appears to create more hurdles on the road to a universal feminist science. This article features a commentary on a collective experience marked by seminal moments - one which could offer a great degree of inspiration for Western academic, intellectual and philosophical spaces: the history of Kurdish women’s struggle.
One of many communities who are often left on the sidelines within academic and intellectual spaces are the Kurds. The Kurds are the largest stateless nation in the Middle East and Asia, numbering over 40 million in the region. Various Kurdish struggles for self-determination have taken place in the last century, inspired by different ideological and philosophical leanings including nationalism, Islam, Marxism, socialism and lately democratic confederalism. During Kurdish uprisings in the early part of the 20th century, women’s active participation in struggle was marked by leading figures such as Zarife Xanim in the Qoçgirî uprising in 1937. Later in the 1960s, Leyla Qasim, a Feyli-Kurdish activist, inspired students to challenge the Ba’athist regime led by Saddam Hussein, which was strongly against Kurdish independence. Both figures developed their own respective political experiences defined by moments of active struggle against the status quo. The symbiotic relationship between their oppressed gender and cultural identity shaped their yearnings for emancipation. While depicting a sombre reality, this binary diagnosis of Kurdish women's oppression could perhaps also explain the success of the modern Kurdish women’s movement in transforming into a philosophical and intellectual powerhouse, as part of the broader Kurdish struggle for status and recognition.
The phrase Jin, Jîyan, Azadî, translating to Women, Life, Freedom in English, was echoed around the world during mass protests following the killing of Jîna Aminî. From activists on the streets of international metropoles, to representatives in the European Parliament, many women cut their hair recalling this slogan, in protest of patriarchal state violence. The slogan was rapidly translated and adapted to local contexts, although mainstream channels of media failed to account for the true origins of the phrase. Jin, Jîyan Azadî first originated as a foundational slogan in the Kurdish Women’s Movement, marking the political activities of Kurdish women from the early 2000s. Since then, Kurdish women define the slogan as the bedrock of their educational, political, social and military activities. During the Syrian civil war, Kurdish women brought this slogan to life, organising under the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ) in the fight against the Islamic State. It is perhaps convenient to highlight that etymologically, the term jîyan (life) in Kurdish is rooted in the base term jîn (reformed jin meaning woman). Jin, Jîyan, Azadî is, therefore, not just a phonetically convenient slogan, but a declaration of the natural relationship between women and life.
When we conceive of history, it is often easier to isolate moments in order to understand their contents more definitively. However, Zarife Xanim’s personal dedication to revolutionary protest, Leyla Qasim’s efforts to awaken consciousness, particularly amongst Kurdish students and women, and Jîna Aminî’s refusal to obey the sectarian rules of a male-dominant regime, are in fact a collection of seminal moments which have laid the groundwork to the slogan of Jin, Jîyan, Azadî and its physical expression in the Women’s Freedom Movement of Kurdistan. The timeless torch of Kurdish women’s struggle has inspired the exodus of thousands of women across the world from the metaphysical prisons of patriarchy today.
Pakhshan Azizi, a 39-year old Kurdish women’s rights activist from Mahabad, Eastern Kurdistan, who has been imprisoned in Iran’s notorious Evin Prison following many weeks of torture, sums up the slogan Jin, Jîyan, Azadî as follows:
“Ignoring women is an ideological approach and a strong ideological struggle should be waged against it. The philosophy of Jin, Jîyan, Azadî is not a philosophy of death but of life. This philosophy embraced by people must not be allowed to be deflected at any price. We should build a society that creates democratic families, preserves its culture, and has revolutionary consciousness.”
Jin, Jîyan, Azadî is a philosophy guided by constant struggle, for women, for all.
Stay tuned for more commentaries.
16 September 2024 marked two years since the killing of Jîna Mahsa Aminî, a young Kurdish woman from Rojhelat (Eastern Kurdistan), by Iranian morality police due to “mis-wearing” of the hijab. Her killing sparked women-led protests for many months in Rojhelat, Iran and around the world, marked by calls to stand up against patriarchal violence embedded in the foundations of the male-dominant state system. This article is dedicated to the memory of Jîna and all women who have spearheaded the struggle for gender equality and emancipation.
When one discusses women’s struggle, it is often a cognitive reflex to immediately think of 20th century feminist movements. From existentialist philosophers like Simone de Beauvoir to the Mirabal Sisters who opposed the Trujillo regime in the Dominican Republic, the 20th century witnessed the exponential growth of feminist consciousness around the world. Often renowned as the Second Wave of Feminism, the 1960s and 1970s marked a significant outburst in women’s mobilisation, particularly in the United States. Revolutionary spheres of action and movement became the laboratories of theory and knowledge production – theory and knowledge which is now offered in Western academic spaces under umbrella terms such as “Gender Studies”. Although such developments in academic spaces could be evaluated as a sign of progress on the matter of global engagement with feminism, the common criticism of Western-centrism amongst feminist schools of thought appears to create more hurdles on the road to a universal feminist science. This article features a commentary on a collective experience marked by seminal moments - one which could offer a great degree of inspiration for Western academic, intellectual and philosophical spaces: the history of Kurdish women’s struggle.
One of many communities who are often left on the sidelines within academic and intellectual spaces are the Kurds. The Kurds are the largest stateless nation in the Middle East and Asia, numbering over 40 million in the region. Various Kurdish struggles for self-determination have taken place in the last century, inspired by different ideological and philosophical leanings including nationalism, Islam, Marxism, socialism and lately democratic confederalism. During Kurdish uprisings in the early part of the 20th century, women’s active participation in struggle was marked by leading figures such as Zarife Xanim in the Qoçgirî uprising in 1937. Later in the 1960s, Leyla Qasim, a Feyli-Kurdish activist, inspired students to challenge the Ba’athist regime led by Saddam Hussein, which was strongly against Kurdish independence. Both figures developed their own respective political experiences defined by moments of active struggle against the status quo. The symbiotic relationship between their oppressed gender and cultural identity shaped their yearnings for emancipation. While depicting a sombre reality, this binary diagnosis of Kurdish women's oppression could perhaps also explain the success of the modern Kurdish women’s movement in transforming into a philosophical and intellectual powerhouse, as part of the broader Kurdish struggle for status and recognition.
The phrase Jin, Jîyan, Azadî, translating to Women, Life, Freedom in English, was echoed around the world during mass protests following the killing of Jîna Aminî. From activists on the streets of international metropoles, to representatives in the European Parliament, many women cut their hair recalling this slogan, in protest of patriarchal state violence. The slogan was rapidly translated and adapted to local contexts, although mainstream channels of media failed to account for the true origins of the phrase. Jin, Jîyan Azadî first originated as a foundational slogan in the Kurdish Women’s Movement, marking the political activities of Kurdish women from the early 2000s. Since then, Kurdish women define the slogan as the bedrock of their educational, political, social and military activities. During the Syrian civil war, Kurdish women brought this slogan to life, organising under the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ) in the fight against the Islamic State. It is perhaps convenient to highlight that etymologically, the term jîyan (life) in Kurdish is rooted in the base term jîn (reformed jin meaning woman). Jin, Jîyan, Azadî is, therefore, not just a phonetically convenient slogan, but a declaration of the natural relationship between women and life.
When we conceive of history, it is often easier to isolate moments in order to understand their contents more definitively. However, Zarife Xanim’s personal dedication to revolutionary protest, Leyla Qasim’s efforts to awaken consciousness, particularly amongst Kurdish students and women, and Jîna Aminî’s refusal to obey the sectarian rules of a male-dominant regime, are in fact a collection of seminal moments which have laid the groundwork to the slogan of Jin, Jîyan, Azadî and its physical expression in the Women’s Freedom Movement of Kurdistan. The timeless torch of Kurdish women’s struggle has inspired the exodus of thousands of women across the world from the metaphysical prisons of patriarchy today.
Pakhshan Azizi, a 39-year old Kurdish women’s rights activist from Mahabad, Eastern Kurdistan, who has been imprisoned in Iran’s notorious Evin Prison following many weeks of torture, sums up the slogan Jin, Jîyan, Azadî as follows:
“Ignoring women is an ideological approach and a strong ideological struggle should be waged against it. The philosophy of Jin, Jîyan, Azadî is not a philosophy of death but of life. This philosophy embraced by people must not be allowed to be deflected at any price. We should build a society that creates democratic families, preserves its culture, and has revolutionary consciousness.”
Jin, Jîyan, Azadî is a philosophy guided by constant struggle, for women, for all.
Stay tuned for more commentaries.