In the heavy snowstorm we meet two guerrilla fighters. One of them joined the ranks of the PKK from northern Kurdistan, the other is the internationalist Besê Olrika. After a short welcome she leads us on the path. My admiration rises when I hear her Kurdish and see how quickly she has become one with the mountains. After a long walk we reach their manga. It is a base of female guerrillas. After a short conversation we start to listen to the story of the German Olrika - the Kurdish fighter Besê.

The women's liberation ideology

Olrika was born in 1995 in Germany. Even before her studies, she opposed the capitalist and patriarchal system. She was looking for ways to build alternatives - but her search initially went unanswered. While studying at the university she got to know the PKK and the ideology of Öcalan. This increased her confidence in democratic communitarianism. In particular, the ideology of women's liberation and its practical expression strengthened her resolve to join the Kurdish struggle for freedom. When she was convinced that the Kurdish freedom struggle was at the same the freedom struggle of all the oppressed and the entire humanity, her journey to her current place began as a fighter in the ranks of the guerrillas.

She wanted to get to know the situation in Rojava

First, Besê Olrika went to Rojava to learn about the implementation of the paradigms of Democratic Confederalism in social practice. "There I came to know a social reality in which the people themselves are reorganized, systematized and stand on their own feet," she explains. "I saw that another life is possible. I have come to know how women organize themselves and how the free woman's ideology is implemented. I have seen that forming communities, cooperatives and councils in society is not a dream. This convinced me that a collective life will be possible."

Now is time for the mountains

After this experience Besê Olrika went to the mountains of Kurdistan. "When I first came to the mountains, I felt reborn," she tells us. "I admired the new life and the true cooperative and friendship. It is hard to describe feelings. Even though you are physically so far away from the Leader, you feel close in your ideas and your mind.”

Öcalan addresses to all societies

Besê Olrika explains that she decided to continue her life as a fighter for Öcalan's paradigm and stresses: "I have seen that the Leader not only thinks of the Kurdish people, but of all societies. He is leading all those oppressed. I try to constantly question and improve myself here."

The true freedom of women in the mountains

As a woman, she has found the true freedom in the mountains of Kurdistan and the PKK ranks, says Besê Olrika, calling on all women to embrace the Kurdistan mountains.

"The Leader said it is necessary for women to embrace these mountains. We have to embrace the life they give. Standing on their own feet, the women build up a life with their own and they defend it.

As a woman, as an internationalist and as a fighter, I am fortunate enough to get to know the true meaning of labor. It's as beautiful and excisiting as the mountains themselves…”