Women pledge to escalate struggle on Kongra Star's 20th anniversary

To mark the occasion, Kongra Star held a series of meetings in the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh neighborhoods in Aleppo, coinciding with its founding anniversary on January 16 each year.

Members and representatives of women’s movements and organizations gathered at women’s council centers (Koli Salmo in the western section, Shilan Kobani in the eastern section, and Rokan Zardasht in Ashrafieh) to participate in the meetings.

The meetings began with a minute of silence, followed by speeches from Kongra Star Coordination members Narkiz Bakir and Fatima Mohammed, who celebrated two decades of Kongra Star’s struggle for women's liberation. They also commemorated all the martyrs of freedom who sacrificed their lives to free women from oppression and enslavement.

The speakers expressed gratitude to leader Abdullah Ocalan, a supporter of women's liberation and a proponent of empowering women in building societies. They recalled the resistance of the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ) fighters at Qereqozaqê Bridge and Tishrin Dam against the attacks of the Turkish occupation state and its mercenaries.

They highlighted Kongra Star’s ideology, which is based on the principles of free women and their perspective on solving issues of gender, ethnic, and authoritarian oppression. They emphasized organizing themselves around collective solidarity, free will, and autonomous administration with all women from various cultures, peoples, and beliefs.

In a related event, dozens of women, activists, and intellectuals from the Euphrates Canton gathered at the Free Women’s Square in Kobani to deliver a statement marking the anniversary of Kongra Star.

The statement, read by Magda Hussein, a member of the Kongra Star Coordination in the Euphrates Canton, congratulated all revolutionary and struggling women worldwide on the 20th anniversary of Kongra Star, paying tribute to martyrs Leyla, Zahra, Hebun, Arin, Sozdar, and all martyrs of the Women’s Freedom Movement.

The statement emphasized that Kongra Star’s establishment signifies justice and the building of a moral and political society. It noted that women in North and East Syria organized themselves under Kongra Star and became a model for women worldwide, as proven during the Kobani resistance against ISIS mercenaries.

It addressed the role of women in shaping Syria’s future, stating that the new administration seeks to silence and exclude women from all spheres of life. However, Syrian women must prevent this recurrence by adopting Kongra Star as their reference. The statement highlighted the achievements of the Women’s Protection Units at Tishrin Dam and the defeat of ISIS in Kobani, stressing that women’s strength will not allow massacres and genocides to be repeated.

The statement concluded, “We must overcome all forms of violence. With the philosophy of women, life, and freedom, as expressed in East Kurdistan, we will continue to draw on that power to advance and achieve victory for our revolution.”

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ANHA