Category: Mutual Aid in Rojava
Mutual Aid is a volunteer-led initiative / project where groups of people in a particular area, or from a particular community join together to support one another, meeting vital community needs without the help of state institutions or NGOs. It is, by definition, a horizontal mode of organising, in which all individuals are equally powerful. Mutual Aid, in simpler words, is co-operation for the common good.
Mutual Aid – in all of its forms and varieties – is a universal practice, rather than a catch-all term, or definition. It is an evolutionary factor as old as life on Earth.
The articles below are about Mutual Aid practices in North and East Syria (Rojava / West Kurdistan).
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Read more about the history and current practices of Mutual Aid around the world today at our sister project: www.mutualaid.coop
Syria and Rojava after Maras-centered earthquake
The Maras-centered earthquakes destroyed more than a hundred buildings in Syria and Rojava. 3,581 people lost their lives and 5,348 were injured. Thousands are still under the rubble in the Turkish-occupied areas as the death toll is not disclosed.
Women revive life in Teanê
Women revive life in the Teanê village of Shahba by having a communal life.
Women in NE Syria provide free meals to orphans, poor families
Metbexa El-Firdews (El-Firdews’s Kitchen), a charity organization, has provided free meals to orphans and poor families since its foundation. The organization distributes free meals to anyone in need during Ramadan.
Jineology: Knowledge, experience, and science of women
Jineology literally means “women’s science or the science of women”. The word derives from jin, woman in Kurdish. Jineology is a critique of the approaches of positivist social sciences, which uphold the structures of states, patriarchy, and capital. Jineology is also defined as the “science of life” and “the science that reveals the knowledge structures based on democratic modernity.” With Jineology, women discover their knowledge and experience, and rewrite history while researching the history of women. In the first article of our article series, we give information about Jineology works in Northern and Eastern Syria.
[Video] Voices from Jinwar
This short video is an introduction to the idea behind Jinwar, its meaning, and how it has been lived so far.
First women’s village of 21st century: Jinwar
Jinwar village, which opened on November 25, 2018, is an all-women village. Women building a common life have built a small model of the Democratic Nation in this village. Stating that this village strengthens women, Ruken Rojda says the door of the village is open for all women.
“Women must defend women!”
Women Defend Rojava interviewed Naima Mehmud, co-chair of the Mala Jin (Women’s House) in the canton of Heseke. They talked with her about the work of Mala Jin and how it is influenced by the current Turkish state’s invasion and war and the recent Covid-19 pandemic.
COVID and the Solidarity Ethos in North and East Syria
Crisis and suffering have always had the power to bring clarity. When lives are at stake, competing values are inevitably brought into the sharpest relief. Coronavirus has been no different in this basic sense, but even among crises it is remarkable for the sheer scope of its impact and its truly global reach.
“Letting society solve its own problems”: Developing a New Justice System in Northern Syria
The Syrian regime under the Ba’ath Party of Bashar al-Assad is not only infamous for its war crimes and human rights abuses during the war in Syria, but also held a thick record of systematic violence prior to the uprisings in 2011. Apart from its extensive intelligence apparatus, its law and justice system enshrined authoritarianism and state power in the legal realm. The population of Syria, and minorities in particular, were taught to fear the law as the representative will of the oppressive state. In northern Syria, since the beginning of the revolution in Rojava in 2012, manifold initiatives have been systematically launched to undo the state and its domination not only in the realm of politics and society, but also in the psychology of people, who experienced not only Assad’s regime, but more recently the fascist rule of ISIS. Efforts are led not only in the sphere of law and justice, but also in the realm of grassroots-organizing, education and political, economic and social action. There are many difficulties however. What could an alternative, non-statist justice system look like? Let us take a look at Anja Hoffmann’s observations from an Arabic language justice academy in Tel Marouf…
Harvest time for Firik: women collect Firik in Qamishlo
Firik is planted in the fall and grows over winter to be harvested in early summer. Some researchers say that Firik is a type of wheat and grows especially in the Euphrates basin. These days, Firik has been harvested and it will be one of the basic foods such as bulgur and rice. People serve Firik when they have special guests.
North East Syria: Displaced women from Afrin work together with women from Shahba during the harvest
With the arrival of the harvest season, displaced women from Afrin and women from Shahba in North East Syria have begun working in the fields together in a communal spirit.
