JINHA

WAN/COLEMÊRG – With celebrations ahead of March 8, International Women's Day, going on for weeks in the neighboring Northern Kurdistan provinces of Van and Hakkari, women have finished preparations for mass rallies on March 7 in Van and March 8 in Hakkari.

The Congress of Free Women (KJA), a democratic association of women in Kurdistan and Turkey, is organizing the celebrations under the slogan, "let's organize to liberate our lives like the women resisting in Kobanê." Initial mass rallies started in Cizre and Mersin on March 1. Now, the two Kurdish provinces in the eastern part of Turkey will host two of the largest KJA-organized celebrations of women's struggle and labor.

The Van rally was originally planned for March 4, but according to Democratic Regions Party (DBP) representative ÇimenAltürk who has been taking part in the preparations, the rally was postponed when 10 PKK fighters' identities were released and local people became engaged in providing for the condolences of their families. A YPG fighter's funeral also came to the region that day. But the delya, says Çimen, has only helped increase the excitement for the rally, which Çimen calls "an answer to the state saying that women will be the leaders of the Middle East."

MusiciansNuarin, ÖzlemGerçek and the Mesopotamia Culture Center's women's chorus will perform for the crowd. Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Van MP AyselTuğluk will speak at the rally.

In Hakkari, says DBP provincial co-chair BerivanAkboğa, the province has marked the holiday by sending cards to women political prisoners and holding meetings to discuss the holiday celebrating women's labor in the cities and villages of the area.AyselTuğluk will travel to Hakkari for the rally.

(gk/fk/cm)