Feride Eralp, a member of the Women’s Initiative “I Need Peace,” assessed the struggle for women’s freedom in the Middle East, particularly in Iran, in the context of escalating conflicts and imperialist interventions. Eralp stated that the military activity in the region and wars driven by economic interests do not aim to bring democracy to peoples and drew attention to the hypocritical policies of dominant powers, particularly through the examples of Iran and Syria. Taking a clear stance against the use of NATO bases in Turkey for the bombing of peoples in the region, Feride Eralp objected to the use of women’s rights as “pawns” in geopolitical calculations. Feride Eralp noted that Iranian women draw strength from the “Jin Jiyan Azadi (Women, Life, Freedom)” uprising and emphasized that the future of the region can only be built through a secular and democratic order in which women are subjects.
We know very well that imperialist interventions do not bring freedom to women
Feride Eralp emphasized that both during the 12-Day War in June and in the ongoing attacks on Iran, as well as in the geopolitical power struggles in the region, women’s freedom is not compatible with these processes. Eralp said: “As the Women’s Initiative ‘I Need Peace,’ the main line of our statements, both during the 12-Day War in June and when the attacks on Iran began, is also in line with what Iranian feminist Shahrzad Mojab has said. As women from different peoples of the Middle East, we know very well that imperialist interventions by global and regional powers that seek to shape the world in line with their own interests do not bring freedom to women. By global power, I mean the United States; by regional power, I mean Israel. However, the same applies to Turkey in the case of Syria.
In none of these processes, carried out with aims such as establishing geopolitical and geostrategic balances, accessing resources, ensuring global domination or gaining superiority in financial wars, has women’s freedom been the objective.”
The United States seeks regimes aligned with its interests, not freedom for peoples
Feride Eralp stated that the justifications used by dominant powers for intervention have never been about democracy or women’s rights, but rather about access to resources and political alignment. She said: “Our lives are shaped by the political balances of the Middle East. As we have seen in the examples of Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and even Vietnam, the issue for dominant powers is not to bring freedom to peoples or women. The main issue is sometimes to seize oil resources, sometimes to gain access to trade routes, and ultimately to bring to power governments aligned with their own policies. Yes, there is an authoritarian, repressive and execution-driven theocratic regime in Iran. However, the reason for the United States’ intervention is not that this regime restricts the lives of women or Kurds, but that it does not side with its own interests. The aim is not to establish a more democratic or gender-equal system, but one that is more aligned with the interests of the United States and Israel.”
Eralp also referred to the example of Syria and said that international powers prioritize geopolitical alignment over democratic values and added: “In Syria, the oppression of the people and especially of Kurds by the Assad regime is well known to all of us. However, the concern of the United States was not this oppression, but that the regime did not act in line with its own interests. Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is being promoted today as the future of Syria, does not claim to be more inclusive for women, different peoples or identities. The main issue there is geopolitical alignment to be reached with Israel and its allies in terms of control of the airspace or the use of resources. If the goal were freedom, structures lacking any democratic claim would not be presented as a solution.”
We say no to US hegemony and NATO bases in the region
Eralp stated that regional policies shaped around the interests of the United States and Israel have nothing to do with the future of women in the region and emphasized that they take a clear stance against imperialist interventions. She said: “We know very well that regional policies constructed around alignment with the interests of the United States and Israel have nothing to do with the interests or the lives of women living in these lands or in Iran. As the Women’s Initiative ‘I Need Peace,’ we say ‘no’ loudly to Israel’s regional policy that began with the genocide in Gaza and to the war sustained by the United States. The women’s movement in Turkey is taking an internationalist position that does not lend support to the arguments of imperialism. At this point, our task is to oppose US hegemony in the region, NATO bases, and the attempt to draw Turkey into this war by positioning it against the peoples of Iran.”
Feride Eralp, a member of the initiative, emphasized that opposing the use of military bases in Turkey for the bombing of peoples in the region is a fundamental responsibility and said: “I do not find it right to judge from the outside the reactions of people living under an authoritarian regime in Iran to attacks against that regime. Our main position is to object to Turkey being turned into a part of regional interventions and the American war. We continue to call for the closure of the Incirlik and Kürecik bases. The land and bases of this country must not be used to bomb people’s homes, as in Gaza and now in Iran. While we try to organize opposition to these interventions through our own position, we also remind at every opportunity that the struggle of Iranian women for freedom is also our struggle, and that we stand in solidarity with them.”
Women’s struggle for freedom cannot be sidelined in war and peace debates
Feride Eralp argued that in the Middle East, an atmosphere of necessity is being created by portraying the interests of peoples and women as if they are in conflict and said that an alternative will beyond imposed choices is needed. Eralp said: “In the Middle East, a perception is created as if the interests of peoples are in opposition to one another, and a policy is pursued suggesting that whoever aligns more with dominant powers will prevail. A geopolitical framework is constructed as if the interests of the Kurdish and Palestinian peoples, or of women, are on opposing sides, forcing societies into dependency on certain actors. We are not condemned to these binaries presented to us such as the mullah regime, US imperialism, HTS, or the Baath regime. We reject this system built on choosing the ‘lesser evil.’”
Feride Eralp also stressed that gender equality lies at the center of all political processes in the region and cannot be treated as a matter of negotiation and added: “If we are discussing the integration of the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ) in Syria and if the role of women is the most critical red line for the country’s future; if the ‘Jin, Jiyan, Azadî’ uprising in Afghanistan and Iran stands before us as the most organized stance against the regime, then the issue of women’s freedom can never be sidelined. In Turkey as well, the field where the government attacks most, yet fails to polarize society, is women’s struggle for equality. When we speak about peace in the Middle East and globally, this issue, which directly concerns women’s lives and rights, is not a detail to be overlooked; it is at the very heart of the matter.”
Every condition where women are not free is open to rebellion and resistance
Feride Eralp said global alliances are shaped not by principles but by strategic interests, stressing that imperial powers today are waging open domination without even claiming to bring democracy. Eralp also said: “In today’s world, there is a deep struggle over resources behind wars and alignments. The fight for control over oil, water resources, trade routes and rare earth elements leads to alliances being formed not on principles, but entirely on strategic and tactical grounds. Every actor keeps its position flexible enough to ally with others at any moment to gain advantage. In the past, imperial powers would justify their interventions with the language of ‘democracy and freedom’; today, they no longer even feel the need to do so. It is now fully visible that this is a game of domination and control.”
Eralp emphasized that beyond all these geopolitical calculations, the only truly principled issue is women’s equality and freedom. She said: “There is only one principled issue that stands outside calculations over who controls trade routes or resources: women’s equality and freedom. This reality, which must be upheld without compromise by all social struggles, has once again been confirmed by the ongoing wars. Any condition in which women are not free, are not treated as equal, and cannot live with dignity is, by its very nature, a ground open to rebellion, uprising and resistance. The process we are living through shows this in the most concrete way.”
We will fight for a regional order where we are subjects of our own future
Feride Eralp said they understand from their own experience what it means to live under authoritarian regimes and to pay the price, emphasizing that they also recognize the deep sense of helplessness felt in the face of imperialist interventions. She also added: “We have not experienced exactly what Iranian women have gone through under the Islamic Republic for 47 years, but we know from our own experience what it means to live without equality under an authoritarian regime. We understand very well what it means to have the horizon of imagining a future taken away, or the weight of not being able to feel relief when faced with external intervention. After the coup attempt of July 15 in Turkey, many of us said, ‘once again, we will be the ones to pay the price.’ Today, we can only feel deep respect and solidarity for the struggle of women who experience the uncertainty and loneliness of tomorrow after an imperialist attack.”
Eralp also stressed that the project of Islamization in the region has caused significant harm to peoples and expressed the aspiration for a secular and egalitarian future. She said: “We live in a region where political Islam is used by imperial powers as a tool to suppress secular and oppositional movements. As we have seen in Syria, this project has caused great harm to our peoples. As societies incited against one another along ethnic and sectarian lines, we reject being reduced to actors in imperial projects. We are determined to become subjects of our own lives for a secular and free regional future where women’s equality is a fundamental principle. We will continue to raise our voices for the bombs to fall silent and for this war to end, drawing strength from each other’s struggles.”
We refuse to let our freedom become a pawn in anyone’s hands
Feride Eralp said the promises of “liberation” by imperial powers lack sincerity and contradict their own domestic practices, responding to the use of women’s rights as a geopolitical tool. Eralp said: “The greatest exposure of imperial powers that bomb under the pretext of ‘liberating’ women or peoples is how far they are from any promise of democracy in their own countries. Today, Trump, who uses the repression in Iran as a justification for war, is doing everything to ban abortion and strip trans people of their rights in his own country. He terrorizes immigrants and citizens who stand in solidarity with them through armed forces. A mentality that wages war against its own people only remembers women’s freedom and democracy when it comes to preventing a country from aligning with China or Russia or gaining control over oil resources.”
Feride Eralp stressed that women’s struggle for freedom can only succeed through international solidarity and that vigilance is needed against different forms of male-dominated systems. She said: “We do not accept our freedom to become a pawn or an argument in anyone’s hands. We know very well that those who displace others today in the name of our freedom will tomorrow build another male-dominated order that has nothing to do with our rights. This is exactly what we mean by an internationalist struggle for equality and freedom. The struggle of women in the United States for abortion rights is also an integral part of this shared resistance. We can only achieve our freedom through a struggle in which we are the subjects ourselves.”
Leave a Reply