In December 2023, RIC interviewed Vision, a heritage and conservation NGO in Raqqa; a city whose rich cultural heritage was heavily destroyed by ISIS during the time of the so-called Caliphate. Vision coordinator, Ezzat Suleiman al-Mouh, describes Vision’s efforts to both preserve historical artefacts and sites in Raqqa, as well as encourage interest and further education in archaeology amongst the population.
Fawza Youssef indicated that work on preparing a women's contract will begin in Norh and East Syria in the coming months.
In 2019, a city partnership between Berlin Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg and Derik was established. Since then, several projects have been realized in cooperation, including ecological initiatives, service provisions and information exchanges.
On the morning of 17 February, a session was held on “Rojava Revolution, an Alternative World Being Built in North and East Syria,” organized by the Civil Diplomacy Center in North and East Syria, in collaboration with the Kongra Star Women’s Movement and the Jineology Center. 50 people from all over the world participated online to learn about the methods of the people- and women-led revolution in North and East Syria.
After the Revolution in Rojava, the education system in NE Syria has been fundamentally changed. Mother language has been officially taught in all schools based on the principle of a democratic nation that protects the rights of all nations. Children are educated in their mother language and this saves communities in NE Syria from extinction and protects their cultural, artistic and historical heritage.
Women have played a prominent role in Northeast Syria since the beginning of the Syrian crisis, starting from cities like Hasakah, Qamishli, Afrin, Kobani, and extending to Raqqa, Tabqa, Manbij, and Deir ez-Zor. They have actively participated in various sectors, including military, social, political, economic, and others.
While North and East Syria’s (NES) Women’s and People’s Defense Units (the YPJ and YPG) have taken worldwide headlines for their role in the defeat of ISIS’ caliphate and continue to garner attention, a much lesser-known force in NES is the HPC – Civil Defense Forces. The HPC exist across the region of NES: small, neighborhood groups of volunteers who undertake defense activities on a local level in a decentralized manner. HPC-Jin is the women’s arm of the force. RIC followed the activities of different HPC groups around NES, visited HPC centers, and interviewed several HPC members to shed light on their work, explore how “defense” is defined within the HPC and see the challenges they face.
The time to prune the trees of our camp has come, actually it’s almost late but we had a lot of work to do until now. Anyway, at the end, in the last few days, equipped with secateurs and saw, we have worked on the garden of the Internationalist Commune. The friends who came before
Raqqa Canton General Assembly held its first meeting with the assemblies and communes in Raqqa, Manbij, Tabqa and Deir ez-Zor, and decided to expand the struggle to ensure freedom for Abdullah Öcalan.
Today is the 25th of December.
At this moment, there are sounds of war planes in the air.
Important decisions were taken at the 2nd Cooperatives Conference held in Hesekê.
The Social Contract of the Democratic Autonomous Administration of the North and East Syria Region