Dîdem Elî /JINHA

SERÊKANIYÊ–Necme Mihemed, a resident of the Rojava city of Serêkaniyê, said that opening her own clothing store after the Ba'ath regime killed her husband has been possible thanks to her reading of the liberation philosophy of PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan.

Necme, 35 and a mother of five, operates a small clothing store in the city in Cizîrê Canton.

"My husband was on the way to Damascus when the Ba'ath regime imprisoned him," she said, "and two months later they killed him."She said the period after that was difficult. She was unable to find work. Economic problems only added to the difficulty of mourning her husband.

She says that she drew an important conclusion from reading the philosophy of jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan: that she needed to find a way to survive based on her own willpower and work. The PKK leader's philosophy emphasizes that women can and must take a leadership position, in spite of the long history of patriarchal society oppressing them.

"I opened a shop and kept myself alive," said Necme. "I'm struggling and at the same time I'm working. As women, we can't expect that anyone will come and rescue us. But I believe in our strength and our ability to stay alive with our own willpower."

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