8 years ago today, the YPJ was formally established.
Never forget that the strongest and most organized women's movement of our time crushed the most brutal misogynist terrorist organization of our time.
Meghan Bodette
14.1K posts
Meghan Bodette
@_____mjb
Director of Research @KurdishPeaceOrg
DC - Slemani - Qamishlo
Joined January 2018
- I was in NE Syria and Iraqi Kurdistan for much of this year. Some observations:
- It was an honor to interview @RuksenMohamed, Beritan Mohamed, and Lana Hussein from @YPJDefense today about women’s rights in the new Syria, the future of their forces, and their vision of equality and freedom for all women everywhere. More coming soon…
- Replying to @_____mjb1) SDF (especially Kurd elements YPG/J and PYD) aren’t “pro-regime.” Many Kurdish leaders spent time in prison or political exile. Talk to anyone in the admin about life before 2011 — you’ll hear a million stories of oppression, cultural erasure, artificial poverty.
- Thread: films you can watch about the Kurdish women's movement that are accurate and don't reproduce nationalist and patriarchal narratives. They all show real fighters, politicians and activists.
- Back in the US today after almost a month in North and East Syria. There may be no other place on earth staring down so many challenges and threats from all sides with such steadfast resistance, determination and hope. We cannot ignore them. Much more to share soon.
- Mike Pence is taking credit for defeating ISIS. Let's be clear: The SDF defeated ISIS. In return, Donald Trump and Mike Pence let Turkey ethnically cleanse their families.
- Replying to @_____mjb2) SDF wasn’t able to work with the opposition because no opposition force was ever willing to offer Kurds anything more than that bad pre-2011 deal— and because some opposition forces were more interested in ethnically cleansing Kurds on behalf of 🇹🇷 than on fighting to free 🇸🇾.
- Kobane has no strategic value, no economic resources, a very small population. Before the war, many Kurds hadn’t even heard of it, let alone Turks, Syrians or Westerners. Turkey only wants this city because it did not fall to ISIS in 2014, despite Erdogan’s best efforts.
- This is how Turkish police in Diyarbakir/Amed responded to innocent Kurdish men, women and children on their way to celebrate Newroz. Imagine going out for Christmas or New Year’s with your family and getting tear gassed.
- On political, philosophical and historical education in the Kurdish movement:
- On this day ten years ago, Kurdish revolutionary Sakine Cansiz was assassinated by Turkish intelligence in Paris. You may not know who she was, but if you've heard the slogan "jin, jiyan, azadi" or know about the Kurdish women who crushed ISIS in Syria, you have seen her legacy.
- Replying to @_____mjb4) Friends are saying the Kurdish neighborhoods in Aleppo are relatively calm, if on edge. YPG/J will protect their people if they have to. They have been doing so against brutal government and opposition attacks in those areas for over a decade.
- Why does it matter that #JinJiyanAzadi #ژن_ژیان_ئازادی #زن_زندگی_آزادی has become the slogan of mass protests against misogynist authoritarianism after the murder of a Kurdish woman in Iran? Because the movement this phrase comes from has theory + practice that go with it.
