Statement of YPJ Commander Nesrîn Abdullah on November 25

YPJ Commander Nesrîn Abdullah gave a statement on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and calls on all women of the world to organize their self-defense!

“We come together as women on a day like this without allowing the borders that have been established between us to prevent us from doing so. It is the day we said “we are women and we are fighting for our freedom!” On such a day dedicated to the struggle of women who have given their lives for the cause of freedom, for the freedom of women, for the freedom of societies and for the freedom of their homeland we remember all these women and give our promise that we will continue their struggle and their path. On such a day, we also remember the three sisters, the Mirabal sisters, the butterflies of freedom. Who have shown us how important the theory of the butterfly effect is for creating a movement in this world. What these three sisters, these three companions have created was a movement for freedom. They became the successors of those who fought before them and today we are the successors of these three sisters, following their path and fighting to keep their legacy alive and to add a new legacy to theirs.

We also greet all the women watching us today – as friends with a common cause, as friends on a common path, as friends with a common goal, with a common mind, with a common spirit, with common values and principles and common goals, that we can express in one phrase: We pledge ourselves to the path of freedom!

On the way to freedom, we jointly elucidated its formula – it is the formula: “Jin, Jiyan, Azadî!” which is being shouted everywhere in the world today together by the powerful voices of women: Jin, Jiyan, Azadî! Today, more than at any other time, the women’s revolution is finding its meaning and color. A revolution that can embrace the world, a revolution that can embrace communities, that can embrace peoples, that can embrace women.

Each with her own color, with her own language, with her own culture, with her own identity, with her originality – and this is how the revolution acquires its meaning. Certainly, designating November 25 as the only day of the women’s struggle for freedom makes no sense since we have vowed to make every day a day of struggle for freedom. Every day is for us a day for the struggle for becoming ourselves. Every day is a day of struggle for women. Our struggle is based in the heritage that created us as women and we are waging a struggle that seeks to do justice to this heritage and even increase it.

As the Women’s Defense Units (YPJ) – with all our possibilities, with all our experiences, with our clear determination, we have always had the attitude that we will always be the protection shield for the values of women. In fact have hundreds of women in the YPJ kept their promise and put it into practice, giving their lives without ever doubting.

Because they knew – we are women who have set ourselves 3 principles:

if there is a life for us, then with our existence!

if there is a life for us, then with being ourselves!

if there is a life for us, then with knowledge!

We have been following these 3 principles until today. As the Women’s Defense Units (YPJ) when we started to organize ourselves in 2011 we said: we are the Women’s Defense Units and we have based ourselves on the women’s freedom ideology and we have clarified a philosophy for us: the better we know ourselves, the better we can defend ourselves. We were very clear on these two issues. And as the Women’s Defense Units (YPJ) – despite all the attacks on us – be it from within in the form of conservative society or backward masculinity – be it from the enemy in the form of ISIS or the fascism of the Turkish state and the Ba’ath regime – as women we have never ever taken a step back! And we told ourselves the following: we are ready, we pledge that we will always remain connected to our goals and that we will no longer leave our fate to anyone, that we will finally take our fate into our own hands, we ourselves ensure our existence and being ourselves. We ensure ourselves.

Because in a process of 5000 years, when we take a look back, we will see: neither the system has given us women power, nor the man, nor our sons, nor our brothers, nor our husbands. As a result of 5000 years of experience, we have come to the insight that only women can defend themselves. Women can only defend their existence with their own will and that is the struggle we are waging today.

We find ourselves in a situation in which we women – all women – all movements, all organizations, even all groups, have to review our calculations. We need to really focus on how we can all come together. World War 3 eradicates everything! Every method is used. It goes far beyond the scope of the 1st and 2nd World Wars. It has a very special characteristic: it affects all areas, all areas of life and all areas of women. With its cards very much on the table and at the same time in secret. It wants to steal women from women. It wants to steal womanhood from women and wants to set up her existence in the maelstrom of domination. But this is an existence without selfhood. And of the methods of patriarchy, which over 5000 years has used many different methods, this is the most dangerous method that is being used in that war today.

Because if this system has waged war against women for 5,000 years, women have also resisted for 5,000 years and have not surrendered to this day. And they have always said: I will not surrender and I will fight for my rights. But today we can see that women are facing great dangers. On the one side, women are being led to believe, in the name of the laws and rights that have been written down, that these rights and laws will defend them, although this is not the case at all. From another side, she is being pulled into the realm of politics in order to promote fascism therein. From another side, she is to be pulled into the realm of the army in order to become a part of it and place her in service in this way. And from yet another side, she is to be drawn into the realm of power, as an exemplary woman who is now also taking her place in government – women can become president, women can become ministers. But if we look from a different angle, it becomes clear that these are women with characteristics of men. These traps are set for us. We women have to watch out for them. On the other hand, more than in any other time, the organization of women is fundamental. If we can defend ourselves, we can only do so by being organized. Organizing with the principle of unity. We women must all create unity.

When we address November 25, we must do so within this framework. We are making November 25 a call for organizing. For unity. For a common will, a common stance, a common decision, a common aim. We have to see that we need to build a common system of self-defense in every area, and I’m not just saying this for the military area, which we don’t call it that ourselves, but call it self-defense. We have to create our defense shield in every area. Women need to develop more than at any other time, especially in the field of knowledge. A woman with knowledge, an organized woman also entails a world full of knowledge and an organized society. And we need to know that as women, more than at any other time, we have a great responsibility to fulfill this mission of ours.

Because today there is a feminicide being committed against us. A planned massacre is carried out on women. Because the system knows that women represent society. If it wants to drive this society apart and eradicate the meaning of society, it must tear out women from its midst. Therefore, this is done with money and in a planned way and we as women have to be aware of this. As YPJ we have experiences on this soil that have become very concrete today that we can take over a pioneering role.

A central headquarters of the Women’s Defense Forces has been built in northeast Syria. Kurdish women, Arab women, Assyrian women, Armenian women, Syriac women and women of all ethnic groups of this society take their place in this center and with a common spirit, a common attitude, a common determination lead the struggle for self-defense of both the society and the women as well as their motherland.

I call on all women to make our defence a central part of our struggle, to build a central system and a central organization. Only in this way can we defend ourselves and defend everyone. And if this system, which is committing a massacre not only on women, but on society, on nature and has created a world in which only the color of death exists, is to be stopped, then we women must finally be together shoulder to shoulder. With a loud voice, a clear stance, we say this: with Jin, Jiyan, Azadî we are going towards the women’s revolution!

Once again, with great respect for all our martyrs who have shown us the path of freedom and who have become our vanguards, we as YPJ renew our pledge that we will always be the defenders of women’s freedom, defenders of sociality, defenders of communalism and socialism, and we always will keep saying: Jin, Jiyan, Azadî!”