58-year-old Helîme Hecî lives in Qamishlo. She has been shaping her life around the proposed by the philosophy of Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan since the 90s.

Speaking to ANF, Helîme Hecî talked about the thoughts of Leader Öcalan, and reading Sociology of Freedom together with women. She said that she strives to put his ideology into practice. Helîme Hecî said about her encounter with the Kurdistan Freedom Struggle in 1990: "We were living in the neighborhood of Qudirbeg in Qamishlo. The lifestyle of the Apoists caught my attention. I had the chance to listen to the Leader’s voice recordings. I got to know the Leader and his philosophy by listening to his tapes. Their narratives were our lives, they touched our lives and left a deep impression. For this reason, I opened the door of my house to the hevals [comrades]. We had undertaken the treatment of especially the wounded friends. One group would recover; another wounded group would come. They would secretly enter and exit the house. The Baath regime was strong at that time, but I was aware that it would not be easy to stand by the Kurdish Freedom Movement."

His ideas were living with us

The Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan's ideas got more support by the people after he was taken hostage, said Helîme Hecî, adding: "On the morning of 15 February [1999], the news of the Leader's arrest spread. I suddenly felt our world darken. It was a dark day. We gathered together and thought about what would happen next. As time passed, we began to face the days stronger thanks to the Leader's resistance and struggle. The Leader was in prison, but his ideas were living with us. The Leader was taken hostage as a result of his struggle for a people. Our greatest response would be to live with the Leader."

He showed women the path to freedom

Noting that the struggle that was carried out secretly in Rojava for approximately 20 years reached its peak with the Rojava Revolution, Helîme Hecî said: "We are comfortably carrying out our activities today. If it were not for Leader Apo's freedom struggle, we would not exist. We would have had to continue our lives under the oppression of the Baath regime. The revolution illuminated our path, Leader Apo refreshed our hearts. He showed women the path to freedom."

For the construction of a free life

Helîme Hecî said that they came together as women in the commune of Martyr Berxwedan (Munzur Qamishlo, killed in Til Temir in 2015), named after her son in Qamishlo and read the Sociology of Freedom. She added: "It is very meaningful for women to come together and read the Leader’s writings, understand him and adapt the Leader’s paradigm to life. We do not just read the Leader’s works and pass by. Discussions are held on every topic. Every woman voices her views. In this way, an intellectual richness is created. Our Leader is a great power for us women. We are trying to build a new free life by placing the Leader at the center of our lives."