Branch learns about Syrian women

By Robin Lloyd, Burlington WILPF

Author and Burlington resident Janet Biehl recently traveled to Rojava, Northern Syria, where Kurdish men and women have organized themselves into a democratic autonomous region and women have full equality.

The extraordinary story of Rojava and the philosopher who inspired it is the lead article in the New York Times Magazine for November 29: A Dream of Utopia in ISIS’ Backyard.

Rojava occupies a sliver of land in northern Syria along the border with Turkey. Its people, mostly Kurds along with Arabs and Armenians, have attracted world attention for their efforts to build a new society based on gender equality and democracy in defiance of the misogynist and medieval practices of ISIS terrorists. Kurdish women are playing a leadership role in this movement and can be seen taking up arms alongside men to fight off ISIS as well as soldiers from Turkey, which has long been antagonistic to Kurdish independence movements.

Ms. Biehl spoke in Burlington about her recent trip to Rojava where she participated in a New World Summit organized by an international group of artists, designers, and theorists to help the Kurdish people forge a model of democratic confederalism, also known as “stateless democracy.” She explained how the writings of her former partner, social ecologist Murray Bookchin, inspired Abdullah Ocalan, who is the founder of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and is a leading theoretician of the Rojava revolution.

Ocalan is serving a life sentence in Turkey for his role in trying to create an independent Kurdish state.  While in prison he read Bookchin’s books, which helped convince him to abandon the nation state model for Kurds in favor of adopting autonomous confederalism, which takes into consideration the religious, ethnic and class differences in society in order to create a genuine grassroots democracy. 

Ms. Biehl also discussed the transformation of women’s roles in Rojava as a result of the formation of women’s academies and the revolution’s encouragement of women to become equal participants in all spheres of life. She introduced her new book: Ecology or Catastrophe: The Life of Murray Bookchin. Contact Robin Lloyd at robinlloyd8@gmail.com if you would like to invite Biehl to your community for a book signing or a lecture. She is an engaging speaker.
 

PHOTO: Women of Rojava, Northern Syria, were the subject of a program presented to Burlington VT Branch.  Credit: Janet Biehl
INSET PHOTO: Janet Biehl