A conference on despotism and violence against women in Rojhelat and Iran

A conference on despotism and violence against women in eastern Kurdistan (Rojhelat) and Iran was held in Stockholm, Sweden, by Rojhelat Women´s Federation, RONAK.

On Saturday, May 20 2017, RONAK organized a conference in Stockhom, Sweden, in collaboration with Kurdish Mothers in Sweden. The purpose of this conference was to enlighten the various political organizations, but also all those who have an interest in democracy and women’s right, about the violence and oppression of women in Rojhelat and Iran. The goal is to establish a cooperation with other Kurdish, and also non-Kurdish women’s organizations to jointly bring about changes in the patriarchal pattern, thereby improving women’s situation and their rights.

Various parties and organizations participated in the conference that lasted for four hours. The conference also consisted of nine selected female speakers who participated in two different panels. During the conference, the participants also had the opportunity to ask questions to the panel.

The female speakers consisted of:

• Negin Vatani, Board member within RONAK (Rojhelat Women’s Federation)
• Carmen Blanco Valer, Feminist Initiative
• Nursel Kiliç, Responsible for TJK-E (European Kurdish Women’s Movement) and Diplomatic Relations in Europe
• Mehrnosh Shafiee, socialist and left activist
• Elin Gauffin, Socialist Justice Party, Swedish Section of Committee for a Workers
  International
• Rohash Shexo, Responsible for Star Congress (Women’s Movement in Rojava) and Diplomatic Relations in Europe
• Kwestan Davodi, Member of the Women’s Commission in KNK (Kurdish National Congress)
• Zaynab Bayezdi, Human Rights Activist

Statements:

• Kurdish Mothers in Sweden
• Leonic Fors, Member of the Kurdistan Support Committee (Left Party in Söderhamn)
• Kurdish Human Rights Association (KMMK)
• Video statement: Oihana Etxebarrieta, Member of the political group Euskal Herria Bildu

 

As an end to the conference, RONAK presented its solutions, with help from the panel’s presentations and with the proposition of the participants’ questions, on those issues that need to be addressed.

Here are the twelve solutions that were presented:

1. This century is the woman´s century. In order for the woman to be able to struggle and achieve her freedom, organization and cohesion between all women is needed. We must therefore start by creating solidarity within ourselves.
2. All around the world, we are in war and the majority of those who are always sacrificed are women and children. We, as women’s organization and female activists, give our full support and solidarity to all those women who end up in the front and fight in these war for peace and democracy. We fully support all those who are struggling to put an end to all the suffering they face.
3. We are against all forms of modern and systematic capitalism as well as the patriarchal mentality. We must fight this with unity within all women’s organizations and between all women. Because if women do not organize themselves, they will not be successful in their struggle and thus can not reach their freedom.
4. Full support for all the female political prisoners, female activists, journalists and all those who are in prisons in Iran.
5. Freedom is not only a matter of the physical choice for women, but also the resistance of the ancient belief that controls the woman’s mentality, which is the right to think freely and determine their own destiny and their goals.
6. In order to pay attention to the women’s situation in Iran and in eastern Kurdistan (Rojhelat), women should help each other and work together to be able to reach the rest of the world.
7. Women should expand more, not only on the economic front, and should therefore participate more actively in politics and in the society with an undependable self-esteem and independence.
8. The women from Rojava, have fought the barbarians ISIS (DAESH) and they have been fighting against them successfully. Rojava is a fantastic example of a woman’s strength, something that women all around the world can learn from and also from the success that the women in Rojava and Syria have achieved.
9. Jinwar, is a village in Rojava, and in that village there is an ongoing number of future project’s that the women there have started. It is a project that proves what women can achieve their goals, despite years of oppression and preconditions against the position of women in a patriarchal society, and this is something we should support as women.
10. Iranian Islamic regime has caused, and still causes, a crisis in Rojhelat and Iran that leads to economic and political difficulties in the society. For each day that goes by, women end up in difficult as well as harmful situations where they are forced to expose themselves to occurrences that affect them both physically and mentally, such as prostitution and increasing drug abuse.
11. We strive to fight the conservative mentality. A country that is governed by religion only results in the creation of injustices between women and men. Politics and religion should not interact when it comes to governing a society. A country governed by religion stretches farther away from the pursuit for freedom.
12. Jîneolojî (Jineology), the doctrine of the woman. With the help of lectures on Jineology, we will expand the knowledge about the doctrine of the woman.

Our goals and solutions:

All those democratic forces, that seek justice and freedom, should be united together in this struggle. It is extremely important that feminists and female activists can offer a helping hand for the vulnerable women’s situation, as mentioned in the paragraphs above.

 

Rojhelat.info