The fifth Feminist Peace Movement From Around the World that we would like to introduce you to is Kongra Star.

Kongra Star is active in Rojava, Northern and Eastern Syria and throughout Syria. Rojava is a region in the North East of Syria that has been de facto autonomous since 2012. It is a Kurdish revolutionary project that aims “to build a secular, pluralistic, and gender egalitarian society from the bottom up” (Dirik, 2022: 219). Rojava is home to over three million people from various ethnicities and religions.

As Hediye Yusuf, Kurdish politician from Rojava puts it ““Our fight was ideological. From the start, our priority was to express the will of the people in all communities, not the interests of one nation or one section of society. Our victories are not measured by lands conquered but by our ability to turn uneducated mothers into leaders in society.” (Dirik, 2022: 220).

Kongra Star (or Kongreya Star; Eng: Star Congress) was founded in 2004 under the name Yêkitiya Star (Eng: Star Union) and was an organisation that sought to organise women during the Ba’ath regime. In 2016 it was renamed Kongra Star. Today, it is an umbrella association that connects women’s organisations, committees, and unions across Rojava and beyond. Kongra Star’s core values are democracy, ecology, and women’s liberation.

Kongra Star’s main goals are:

• resistance against patriarchal mindset, sexism & misogyny
• male-female co-chair system & women’s equal representation & participation
• strong women’s participation in economic life
• joint activities & alliances with women’s organisations across the world
• struggle against all forms of gender-based violence
• democratic & peaceful coexistence of ethnic & religious groups
• protection of endangered cultural groups
• advocacy for a political solution to the Kurdish question in Syria
• protection of the rights of children
• environmental protection

Kongra Star also takes an internationalist approach and forges alliances abroad. In February of this year, Kongra Star members met with Nepali parliamentarians and feminist organisers. They discussed the imprisonment of Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan and the self-government model in Rojava. They also explained how the Kurdish women’s liberatory agenda of jineolojî (Eng: science of women and life) aims to valorise the social, historical, and cultural experiences, and knowledges of women and how this approach can also be useful to feminists abroad.

Reference:

Dirik, Dilar. The Kurdish Women’s Movement  : History, Theory, Practice. London: Pluto Press, 2022. Print.