The KJK (Kurdistan Women’s Community), issued a statement to mark 8 March, International Women’s Day.
The statement said: “We extend our greetings to all women around the world who are fighting for their rights, to all of humanity engaged in this struggle, and to Kurdish women. March 8th is the day of unity and the struggle of all women. As the Kurdish Women’s Liberation Movement, we pay tribute to all women who have fallen for freedom, and we salute the awakening and magnificent actions of women who, despite all the pressures, violence, and massacres, are transforming all spaces of life—prisons, mountains, streets, workplaces, fields, homes—into spaces of freedom. For over 40 years, the Kurdistan Women’s Liberation Movement has been waging a struggle to deepen the ideology of women’s liberation, reveal women’s strength and self-defense awareness, ensure free and equal political representation, overcome sexism in all areas of life, and drive women’s liberation. We have always placed great importance on sharing our experience with women around the world. Driven by enthusiasm and determination, our mission today is to transform the 21st century into the century of women’s freedom and to bring about the second great women’s revolution within the global women’s liberation movement.
The year 2026 began with a series of critical events. The world is evolving toward a multipolar and fragmented order. The global system has disintegrated. Populist and chauvinistic leaders place their lust for power above all values. Rivalries and power struggles have made our world uninhabitable. Capitalism, patriarchy, and power have caused the collapse of a foundation once thought immutable. For all these reasons, the international system based on law is on the verge of collapse. US President Donald Trump, through his actions and words, drove the final nail into the coffin of the nation-state. Today, the rules of this shattered world are set by despots and misogynistic populist leaders. Unfortunately, democracies are failing even to curb this drift. The essential question for women, therefore, is: how do we understand this process and how do we position ourselves within it? This is the fundamental question that must be addressed by people, and especially by women. It is now clear that the international system, contrary to what is claimed, protects neither people nor women; it is, in fact, both the cause and the result of all negative situations. The era of the nation-state has collapsed, and the masks of its “deities” have fallen along with the multiple crises they created.”
The statement added: “At the end of the 20th century, the collapse of the bipolar world ushered in an era of searching for a new world order. The Yugoslav Wars, the Iraq War, the uprisings and wars sparked by the Arab Spring, the Russia-Ukraine War, the Israel-Gaza War, and the ongoing wars throughout Kurdistan, divided among four colonial states, have escalated since the 1990s. These colonial wars ravaging our planet have never ceased and are systematically fueled by the dominant powers. Far from resolving existing problems, they have exacerbated them and destroyed everything that belonged to the old world. As Gramsci said, “The old world is dying, the new one struggles to be born, and in this twilight monsters emerge.” Today, everyone recognizes this reality. We now live in an age where the law of the strongest prevails. The nation-state dealt the most devastating blow to communalism by binding societies to power through the bond of citizenship. Everything that sustains a society—the economy, the environment, healthcare, housing, education, self-defense—has been confiscated by the state. People have been left defenseless. The forces meant to protect the people are either used as forces of aggression to invade the lands and resources of others or pushed onto fronts under attack.”
The statement continued: “Although our planet has been sending out warning signals for a long time, ecological destruction and genocide are perpetrated to accumulate more wealth. Why, while the planet is dying from exploitation, do states refuse to sign the necessary agreements and impose limits on corporations? Why are science and technology, which should solve our problems, becoming weapons in the hands of those in power? Why is our food and water contaminated, and why are the resulting diseases not prevented? The answer is simple: so that some can profit even more. Poverty, inequality, social pressure, authoritarianism, the environmental crisis, pollution, biodiversity loss, and the uncontrolled use of technology all stem from the wars waged to protect the competitive zones of the capitalist system.
It is time to abandon the illusion that states serve the people. Nation-states are the pillar of the capitalist system—of capitalists and narrow circles of power. To maintain their power, they need the people, the workers, the unemployed, the military, raw materials, migrants, the family, technology, and ideologies of domination (nationalism, religion, sexism, scientism). No people, especially those excluded from power, can claim that the nation-state represents them. People know they are crushed, exploited, and oppressed, but tolerate these violations because they mistakenly believe that one cannot live without a state.
As women, we have no state; as workers, we have no state; as migrants, we have no state; as Indigenous peoples, we have no state. This means that no state represents us, protects our interests, or prioritizes our well-being. Women around the world still have to fight for equality in every sphere, as they continue to be subjected to systemic male violence, contempt, and objectification. How does this system persist despite the fact that women make up half of humanity?
Why, despite popular opposition, are leaders (like the Taliban in Afghanistan or Jolani in Syria) imposed on power with the support of external forces, while leaders supported by the people are killed, abducted, criminalized, and imprisoned? It is because the interests of those in power take precedence over the will of the people.”
The statement underlined that “people are drawn into wars that are not their own, becoming pawns in power struggles that do not concern them. They pay the heaviest price for policies they never chose. The illusion that the rights of people could be guaranteed by the state has deprived us of our own resources and led us to maintain the power of others.
How did those in power achieve this? Not solely through brute force—although that was never lacking. The army, the police, the laws, and the media were always mobilized against non-submissive social groups, particularly women. But above all, people were integrated into the system through the ideology of power: nationalism, religion, scientism, and sexism.
For this reason, the struggles for freedom and equality have failed to distinguish themselves from the enemy and have even strengthened it. The national liberation struggles and class struggles of the 19th and 20th centuries met with this same failure. Any struggle incapable of creating its own alternative modernity is bound to follow this path.
Patriarchy, and the power, class, militarism, and religion that stem from it, have beaten, killed, and exploited women for millennia. Today, this patriarchal civilization is reeling from its own horrors. The Jeffrey Epstein scandal, which women around the world are watching with shock, is a stark manifestation of the male-dominated system. Sexual crime among the wealthy and powerful is not an isolated incident: the true rapist is the capitalist system shaped by patriarchal codes.”
The statement ended with the following remarks: “Dear sisters, we are precisely at the moment when the question is “freedom or barbarism.” To assert that women’s freedom is the basis of all freedoms is not mere theory: women’s freedom is the foundation of all social freedoms. The subjugation of women and femicide are at the root of all forms of slavery and all wars of domination. The only path to liberation from the barbarities created by those in power, and from the femicides they perpetrate, lies through women’s freedom. If the confiscation of women’s rights, will, and labor were not so profound, humanity would have already shaken the world after the Epstein affair. This unprecedented scandal reveals how networks of male power and relations of capital transform justice into a protected space for men. Male networks protect the aggressors, rendering the victims invisible and devaluing them. In all patriarchal systems, violence is structural. Demonizing Epstein could even obscure the power dynamics and masculinity that make these atrocities possible. We must therefore question the system that breeds such barbarity. The Epstein case is a representation of organized male evil. “Barbarity,” “cannibalism,” and “hunting” are all reflected in this criminal network. These are not extraordinary phenomena within a patriarchal system: Epstein’s island of crime is a reflection of the capitalist system itself. We see its manifestations everywhere and at all times. As long as we fail to address the masculine order that enables this violence, the scandals will continue to erupt, while the system will remain intact.
Women’s freedom demands a radical and far-reaching struggle. For this reason, we must liberate ourselves from the mentality, culture, way of life, and tools of power. Otherwise, we will be victims of a monstrous system. We must now develop our own struggle, not that of others. To do this, we must create our own paradigm, our own institutions, our own alternative system, our own culture, in order to protect and develop our society, our land (our living space), our nature, our work. We must be at the forefront of building an alternative life—the true antidote to all forms of power.
Because the capitalist system is based on the exploitation of women—it’s its main pillar. We must wage alternative struggles that will destroy this essential pillar.
Because the struggle of women is the longest and most universal. The politicization of women will bring depth and radical solutions to human rights, social and cultural rights, environmental issues, children’s rights, health and education.
Because the driving force of socialism is woman. The women’s question is more fundamental than class and nation—historically and socially. It is broader and more essential than policies pursued in the name of class or nation. This is why we believe the communal struggle will succeed when the fact that women are the most oppressed and marginalized class is recognized and transcended. The construction of democratic socialism will be led by women. No socialist movement that stumbles over the question of women’s freedom can achieve its goals.
Faced with the barbaric patriarchal system that makes life difficult for everyone, women must lead the fight for peace and democracy. It is women who will stop the bloodshed, who will curb the barbarities created by male ideologies. Women must be the champions of peace and democracy everywhere. Otherwise, no safe haven will remain amidst the wars waged by the male mind.
Revolting against the patriarchal mentality and system demands immense sacrifices, as well as powerful organization, profound struggle, and a commitment to self-defense. In every context of crisis and the fall of authoritarian regimes, women have been the most radical force in the mobilizations. But at the negotiating table, their rights and voices are ignored. We must make the status of women a strategic issue. If we win, we will win together; if we lose, we will lose together. We must listen to and support the resistance, the outrage, and the struggle of women around the world, beyond all borders erected by those in power. The pain, the joy, the successes, and the achievements of our sisters must be our shared heritage. At this historic moment, we must organize globally to build a free and egalitarian system against the patriarchal and capitalist order. We must develop democratic alliances of women. We must create methods, perspectives, and avenues of struggle suited to the 21st century. Together, we must create the global agenda for women’s liberation. Attacks against women are increasing because they are linked to the crises of the patriarchal and capitalist system and to the rise of women’s quest for freedom. We must see the connection between gang rapes in Asia and sexual violence in the United States, between femicides in Latin America and the abduction of women by armed religious groups in Africa and the Middle East. We must understand together the rise of misogynistic fascist regimes and the attacks on women’s hard-won rights. We must see that the war waged by patriarchy on a global scale aims to stifle the rise of the women’s struggle. Never has the male system been so shaken. Never have the conditions for women’s freedom been so ripe. Never have the opportunities to achieve the second great women’s revolution been so great. We are living through a historic moment: the opportunities are immense, but so is the danger.
As Kurdish women, it is with this conviction that we welcome the 116th anniversary of the International Day of Women in Struggle. Through this letter, we wish to share our reflections and best wishes with our dear sisters and women’s organizations. With the strength and light of our collective struggle, we renew our promise to wrest each day of our lives from the patriarchal darkness and make it a March 8th.”
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