JINHA

AMED – The Kurdistan women’s organization Congress of Free Women (KJA) has announced that their activities for March 8, International Women’s Day, will kick off this year in the town of Silopi, where three Kurdish women politicians were killed by state forces earlier this year.

The KJA has held a press conference in the city of Diyarbakır to announce their plans for March 8, International Women’s Day, for 2016. The slogan for March 8 will be “women are resisting for their leadership and their freedom.” The March 8 activities will begin in the town of Silopi, where Kurdish women politicians Sêvê Demir, Pakize Nayir and Fatma Uyar were slain by state forces earlier this year in the siege on the town, which had declared self-government.

“In the time and place where we find ourselves, the patriarchal mindset has once again not abstained from waging genocide on society in the person of women through war, destruction, harassment and rape,” said Ayşe Yağcı, from the KJA coordinating body.”

Ayşe said that in 2016, women would be dedicating their year to increasing the resistance against the savagery of Turkey’s ruling AKP government and Daesh. She noted that the spirit of women’s revolution that began in Rojava had now spread to the resistances calling for self-government in towns and cities like Cizre, Silopi, Nusaybin and Sur.

“Let us turn our pain, our sadness, our rage into rebellion and organize our rebellion for freedom,” said Ayşe. She said that the spirit of Sêvê and the other women killed in their search for freedom would be with them as they filled the streets.

The KJA’s March 8 activities will take place in the following cities:

March 1: Kickoff activities in Silopi
March 2: Ağrı, Erzurum, Elazığ
March 3: Muş, Maraş, Bitlis
March 4: Bingöl, Iğdır, Ardahan
March 5: Van, Batman, Adıyaman
March 6: Urfa, Dersim, Kars, Istanbul, İzmir
March 7: Mardin, Hakkari, Siirt
March 8: Antep, Malatya, finale activities in Diyarbakır

(şa-de/gc/cm)