The Third Peace Knitting Arîn Theater Festival will open on 5 October in Kobanê with the slogan "Theater is the identity of social knowledge."

The festival is organized by the Euphrates Canton Culture Board and the Mesopotamia Culture and Art Movement. The opening will be on 5 October, the anniversary of the killing of Women's Defense Units (YPJ) Commander Arîn Mîrkan, who fell as a martyr in a self-sacrificing action against ISIS gangs during the Kobanê resistance in 2014.

The festival is organized every two years in Kobanê, and sees the participation of theater groups from all over Northern and Eastern Syria.

Speaking to ANHA, Preparation Committee member Hisên Xanî said that the 10-day festival will be held in the Baqî Xido Culture and Art Center hall. The festival will start on the first day and awards will be given on the last day. Two plays will be staged every day for 8 days.

Theater groups from Shehba, Aleppo, Manbij, Tebqa, Raqqa, Hesekê, Rimêlan and Kobanê will participate in the festival. A group from the city of Kirkuk in South Kurdistan and an Armenian group from the city of Hesekê will also attend. The plays address issues such as refugees, women's struggle, historical stories and the reality of the Rojava Revolution.

The 4-member Preparatory Committee is finalizing the selections of the plays and will soon release the program of the festival.

Martyr Arîn Mîrkan

Martyr Arîn Mîrkan (Deilar Genj) was born in 1992 in Afrin. She was a female fighter in the Women's Protection Units (YPJ) who fell as a martyr fighting against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant during the Siege of Kobanê on 5 October 2014.

Mirkan fought on Mishtanour Hill, where she carried out a self-sacrificing action that led to her death as well as the death of numerous ISIS fighters.