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.
Hussein, along with other women, stands and watches over the crops on the main road between the city of Qamishli, northeast Syria, and Hasakah and prevents anyone from approaching or throwing cigarette stubs or things that might cause a fire in the farmlands.
Kongra Star released a short documentary about the HPC-Jin (Civil Women Protection Units).
The society we strive for, is an ethical-political society, which means a society in which all people are involved and organized, and the ethical values of the society are being protected. We see this as a main mechanism against power regimes like capitalism and patriarchy which work to dissolve society and create a system of individuals without the glue of societal values.
Part 7: “HPC-JIN defends the reality, existence, and rights of women” “Women and children have defended their lands since the beginning of humanity. Today, the members of the HPC-JIN defend their society and lands,” said Hediye Abdullah, the executive of the Women’s Social Defense Units (HPC-JIN). The Democratic Nation System in NE Syria has brought
The Social Defense Forces (HPC) have been an important expression of radical democratic self-organization in Rojava and northern Syria since 2015. They are the democratic counter-model to state security forces.
In the Cizire region of northeastern Syria, 700 women from the autonomously organized women's structures of the Social Defense Forces are involved in patrols to protect against arson.
