ŞevinŞervan / JINHA

QAMIŞLO – For the women of Rojava, every day is March 8, International Women's Day, and a day of resistance, saysHanifeHesen, director of TEV-DEM, the umbrella grassroots political organization in Rojava.

Women take part in every level of the system of democratic autonomy being built in Rojava. HenifeHesen says that for women on the ground in Rojava, until there is a revolution in the widespread patriarchal mindset, women's liberation is not complete.

"Women have especially taken on a role in self-defense," Hanife said. She said that after Daesh's massacre in Shengal, in which gang members abducted thousands of women and girls, women especially saw the importance of self-defense. "If the women of Shengal had been organized, conscious and trained, they could have defended themselves against the Daesh attacks."

Hanife says women's identities bring them together across national borders. Women experience the violent consequences of the same patriarchal mindset around the world, but these consequences manifest in different ways.

"While women are commodified in the so-called developed countries, women in the Middle East experience every form of repression and cruelty. Women's bodies, souls and emotions are exploited from every side and women are not seen as having willpower."

She said the Rojava revolution helped women see themselves as having a will.

"With the Rojava revolution, women have become the ones in charge," said Henife. "It wasn't easy getting here. There are years of struggle behind this and we paid a heavy price. We lost a lot of our children—like Arîn Mîrxan, the symbol of the Kobanê resistance. The revolution makes its own heroes."

"To destroy the existing patriarchal system, women need to unite and struggle against it," Hanife said. "One of our projects in Rojava is for women toorganize themselves, to bring their perspective to the struggle without looking at what culture they're from." She said it was time for women of all cultures to organize.

Henife greeted women around the world taking to the streets on March 8. She sent her best wishes to the World March of Women, starting just across the Turkish border in Nusaybin on March 6.

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