On 8 March, International Working Women’s Day was celebrated across the world. This year’s 8 March was marked by great enthusiasm and carried deep meaning. At a time when wars are increasing, women raised their voices for freedom and democracy while also loudly rejecting war. They emphasized that wars stem from a male-dominated system. The gatherings held on 8 March demonstrated that in a world where women are free, wars will also come to an end.
Women have embarked on a struggle for freedom by developing a deep awareness of their historical oppression. Those who become conscious of the depth of this oppression also pursue a radical struggle for freedom. Today, women are at the forefront of the struggle for freedom and democracy, declaring that they will make the twenty-first century the century of women’s freedom.
On 8 March 1998, Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan announced the ideology of women’s liberation. Since then, he has deepened and expanded the ideology and theory of women’s freedom. In the Democratic Society Manifesto most recently released from Imralı, he comprehensively addressed how the question of women’s freedom has become increasingly complex within historical society. This 8 March, he also presented a declaration to the public explaining his approach to the women’s question. Women welcomed this declaration with enthusiasm and declared that they would continue their struggle for the freedom of the Kurdish people’s leader. Women across the world are strengthening their struggles by learning the ideas put forward by this leadership. Women’s sense of justice and conscience recognizes the contributions made by Abdullah Öcalan to the struggle for women’s freedom and continues to stand by this leadership.
It is clear that women are increasingly demonstrating that they will become the most revolutionary social force of the twenty-first century. Women will also be the pioneers and creators of the struggle for socialism. This is because women are the social group that has been most exploited and subjected to oppression. They have been held under the deepest forms of slavery and exploitation. For this reason, they do not seek only certain social rights or reforms; their fundamental goal is full freedom and full democracy. In this sense, their demands are also the most revolutionary demands.
While women’s movements and feminism once struggled primarily for women’s rights and certain legal gains, today women are demanding freedom and democracy above all. They have seen that without freedom and democracy, without the liberation of women, no right or legal reform can truly transform women’s status. For this reason, their slogans center on women’s freedom. The most concrete expression of this is the phrase: “The world will change if women are free.” Indeed, if women become free, the world will truly be transformed. The greatest transformation in human history will take place. When women are free, all the evils of the world will come to an end, because these evils have emerged from male domination over women. In this sense, by dismantling the male-dominated system that produces injustice, women will secure not only their own liberation but also the liberation of all humanity. From this perspective, 8 March is also a day of liberation for all humanity, and therefore for men as well.
The meaning and consequences of male domination over women must be understood not only by women but also by men. Men, too, have become slaves of this male-dominated system. In fact, the most degraded form of this slavery is reflected in men themselves. Male domination has destroyed men’s sense of justice and conscience and has entangled them in every form of corruption. This is because the male-dominated system produces all forms of injustice and moral decay. Every day, this system reproduces a form of masculinity shaped by domination and degradation. Which man would willingly choose to live in such a way?
When men truly understand the nature of their own subjugation and corruption, they will feel shame. Women have nothing to be ashamed of, but men have much to reflect upon. For this reason, men must stand alongside and within the women’s freedom struggle. To do so, they must first transform their own mentality and free themselves from the male-dominated mindset and the complex of domination that has shaped them. No man should assume that he is free from this mentality. Every man carries this complex of domination, and it reveals itself in everyday life in attitudes toward women.
Respect must be shown for women’s struggle for freedom. It should be recognized that women are carrying out a struggle that aims to lead all of humanity toward liberation. When this is acknowledged, perspectives on the world will change, and people will begin to view the world in a more positive way. The future will be approached with hope.
Source: Yeni Yaşam Newspaper
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