IN 2011, the winds of the Arab Spring blew into Syria and protests against the regime of the Ba’ath Party led by Bashar al-Assad gave rise to a civil war that continues to this day under the influence of a wide variety of political forces.

In north-east Syria, also known as “Rojava” (the Kurdish name for Western Kurdistan), the Syrian state largely withdrew after the people’s uprising in 2012. The majority Kurdish population in the region took the initiative and began to establish self-administration based on communes and councils and empowerment of women.

From the beginning of the revolution, women organised themselves independently, set up their communes and councils, participated in all political decisions and implemented a co-chair-system and gender quotas in all institutions, as well as women’s and family laws. A women’s revolution began in Rojava.

As a consequence of the division of the Middle East after the first world war and the establishment of nation states in the region forced by the hegemonic colonial powers, Syria emerged as a state in which a wide variety of ethnicities and religious communities such as Sunnis, Shi’ites, Alawites, Druze, Kurds, Arabs, Assyrian Christians, Yezidis, Armenians and Turkmen were forced together under centralised rule.

Until the revolution, a large part of the Kurdish population in northern Syria lived without Syrian citizenship and cultural or political rights.

Kurdish language, culture, civil society and political structures were suppressed. The Syrian regime repeatedly acted violently against Kurdish activists and the population. With the Rojava revolution and the establishment of the Democratic Autonomous Administration in North and East Syria (DAANES), the region became widely independent from the Syrian regime.

Both the basic living needs of the population and the regional defence were organised by the people themselves, for example, against the emerging Islamist-jihadist groups such as Jabhat al-Nusra (al-Qaida in Syria), the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army and, from 2014, especially against the Islamic State. All of these groups have specifically attacked the DAANES and the idea of a social system in which all communities living in the region can govern themselves in a self-determined and federal manner.

They have also always targeted the achievements of the women’s revolution, which have been defended at great sacrifice by the YPJ women’s defence forces and by the political and social struggles of the Kongra Star women’s movement.

Although it has been possible to create stable social structures based on democratic principles and women’s freedom in a region scarred by war, the autonomous administration is still not recognised internationally.

As part of the neocolonial policy in the Middle East, various international forces have been active in Syria since the revolution, including Russia, Iran, the US, Israel and other Nato states, above all Turkey. In line with their own geopolitical and economic interests, they influence various regional forces and wage a proxy war for power and resources.

A war of division is currently taking place in the entire Middle East. The borders drawn 100 years ago are being redefined. The co-ordinated attacks on Aleppo, Hama, Damascus and Homs that began on November 27 and the fall of Assad’s government after 15 years of civil war must be seen in this context.

For women and all peoples, including the Kurds, the fall of the Assad regime, which ignored social diversity and their needs and subjugated them with the cruellest methods, is an important development.

The current situation has opened doors for a new process in Syria and the region as a whole. How this path is followed from now on will be essential when it comes to creating equal and democratic living conditions for all. More than ever, it is clear that the goal can only be a democratic Syria in which all different communities can live together on the basis of democracy, peace and equality.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham has currently taken over the government structures in Damascus. The extent to which a group that originally emerged from Jabhat el-Nusra and the Islamic State and is known for similar brutal methods against the people, especially women, will be ready for this process remains to be seen in the near future.

What is certain is that as long as women are excluded from this process, as long as the patriarchal mentality is only about who gains more power and territory, the path taken will not lead to a democratic Syria, but will instead exacerbate the civil war.

What is particularly worrying is that the Turkish state and the groups it supports, such as the Syrian National Army (SNA) and IS gangs, have intensified their terrorist attacks and assaults on DAANES following the fall of the regime.

In Tel Rifat, Shahba, Manbij and Kobani, thousands of people were forcibly displaced and women, children and elderly people died of hunger, disease and cold. Mass killings took place in Kobani and Ayn Issa, people were captured and tortured, and hundreds have been disappeared.

Turkey is using the current situation to enforce its genocidal policy against the Kurdish population in Rojava and to continue the annexation of northern Syria that began in Afrin, Serekaniye and Gire Spi.

It wants to eliminate the achievements of the DAANES — a project that is currently the greatest hope for a solution and peace for a region that has been marked for decades by a war of hegemonic forces for power and resources and terrorised by Islamist gangs.

We will continue our fight for this model and for the freedom of all women in it with all our strength. No matter the cost, we will continue to defend the achievements of the Rojava women’s revolution as a hope for Syria, the Middle East and the world by all means.

We call on the international community and especially women activists, feminist movements and defenders of women’s rights, not to abandon Rojava and all women and peoples in Syria now. Send solidarity and support us in the demands for a solution process towards a democratic, confederal Syria with the strength and will of women.

This article is republished from www.filia.org.uk.