Against the caste system criminals - Nobleda Kendal

"Woman is the first colonizer in history." The statement is not only an intriguing definition but also a description of a systematic social disintegration that has lasted for thousands of years. From the Neolithic era up to the establishment of patriarchal state institutions, women have suffered exclusion, subordination, and social, intellectual, and political domination. But this exclusion was countered. Women not just defended their life but also created a life. Based on this, the confederation, which repudiated social stratification, monarchy, and centralization, established a strong and inspirational basis for women's fight for freedom.

Women were not mentioned in historical records for thousands of years. Women produced knowledge of natural sciences, production, and social forms of organization in the early societies. Women were at the center of matriarchal or egalitarian social structures. Goddess statues, tools and instruments of industry and production, and fertility symbols unearthed from Neolithic settlements are a historical record of this. But with the agricultural revolution, the conception of domination over women and nature was modified, and with the advent of monarchy, women's identity was repressed and persecuted.

It was not merely a shift in power; it was intellectual and cultural repression and restriction. Women's insight was branded as superstition, their experience was disparaged, and they were excluded from society. Male culture sanctified men, and nature and women were considered inferior and "other," to be conquered and dominated. This was not a Middle Eastern trend, but an international one. The witch hunts of Europe, India's caste system, and Asian aristocracy were all expressions of the same paradigm.

Patriarchy is not only an organization where men are directly in power over women. It is an organizing system that orders society hierarchically, centralizes power, and represses its various components. Women were at the bottom of the system, but it could only heighten their awareness of having to struggle for liberty.

Feminist struggles today, women's strikes, the anguished outcry that has gone up in Iran over Jina Amini, Rojava's women's councils, and women's collective organizations in Africa are all the result of this awareness. Women are no longer simply demanding their rights, but are also contributing to the shaping of society.

Confederalism is a social structure that emerges in opposition to the monolithic, centralized, and patriarchal framework of the nation-state. Democratic Confederalism as set forth by Leader Abdullah Ocalan is a system of government in which the people govern themselves, decisions are collective, and gender equality is the central principle. No one is in power in this system, life is structured, and women are the main actors who structure life.

The engagement of Democratic Confederalism with women is not an engagement seeing them as merely a representative factor, but as an actor building, maintaining, and changing the system. They are not categories in this system, but models. They share a common social and life vision against male-dominated policies. Therefore, the women's councils established in Rojava are not merely institutions where one talks about women's issues, but also institutions where one changes society.

Women's liberation is not only the end of injustice but also the realization of a new state of consciousness. This consciousness involves self-defense, organization, and seeking alternative modes of production and existence. The free woman's consciousness is the one that will not be muzzled by history, remembers her ancient heritage, and aims to radically change society.

This consciousness is not limited to the Middle East, but also in women's groups in Latin America, European eco-feminist movements, and African women's cooperatives. The confederal system provides a systematic and institutional mechanism for this consciousness. The co-presidency model, women's academies, women's justice committees, and women's councils are concrete manifestations of women's free consciousness in social organization.

Confederalism is not only a political organization; it is also an ethical conception of life. On the basis of this conception, free coexistence is also formed, and it is built based on a free woman. This model of life is not only a life in which men and women live together, but also a life where they are both emancipated. Women realize that their freedom is incomplete if men are not emancipated too. In turn, men, too, recognize that they cannot build a society equal to human dignity without respecting women's justice.

Therefore, free life is not just a social model; it is a moral revolution. Unlike woman-oppressing civilizations, a new civilization based on equality and freedom emerges, and Democratic Confederalism builds the political and moral foundation of this civilization.

Therefore, free life is not just a social model; it is a moral revolution. Unlike woman-oppressing civilizations, a new civilization based on equality and freedom emerges, and Democratic Confederalism builds the political and moral foundation of this civilization.

In confederal organization, women are a body that not only represents but also reconstitutes society. The academies of Rojava women are not just institutions where knowledge is imparted; they produce ideas with respect to ethics, history, politics, and life. Consciousness that arises in such a institution is an invitation to the entire world, not the Middle East:

Not a right, but an obligation. For women are not merely creatures; they are a beginning. In their wombs lies the seed of the coming life, and in their words its water.

We are no longer alone in fighting against class executioners. With each woman who breaks the silence of yesterday, she helps to create a tomorrow for all of us in a world of freedom and equality.

And this world is not exclusively for women, it is for all humankind.

T/S
ANHA