Activists of the Free Women's Movement (Tevgera Jinên Azad, TJA) and members of the Women's Council of the HDP and the Rosa Women's Association demonstrated solidarity with the revolt that broke out in Rojhilat (Eastern Kurdistan) and Iran after the violent death of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Jina Mahsa Amini on the city wall in the old city district of Sur in Amed (tr. Diyarbakir).
Participants in Friday's action, including HDP MPs Ayşe Acar Başaran, Feleknas Uca, Remziye Tosun, Dersim Dağ, Gülistan Kılıç Koçyiğit and Dilan Dirayet Taşdemir, as well as ESP Vice Chairperson Beycan Taşkıran, rolled a banner with a photo of Jina Mahsa Amini and the words "Serhildana jinan silav dikin, jin jiyan azadî! " (We salute the women's revolt, woman life freedom!) and held up signs saying "Stop femicides!" in Turkish, Arabic, Persian and Kurdish.
The spokesperson of the HDP Women's Council, Ayşe Acar Başaran, said at the demonstration that Jina had been murdered because she had protested against the patriarchal system of rule: "Jina was a Kurdish woman and was murdered. In Kurdistan and Turkey, the militarist, monist, sexist and nationalist rulers are murdering. Women are attacked by men who are incited to do so in society. This male-dominated system results in women being harassed and raped on a daily basis. In Iran, in Afghanistan, in Turkey, all over the world, there is no response to those who perpetrate violence against women. Women who stand up against it become targets. Since the day Jina was murdered, a women-led uprising has emerged in Rojhilat and Iran."
Greetings to all who will not be bowed down
Ayşe Acar Başaran pointed out that the protests in Iran and Rojhilat are suppressed by the government with an apparatus of violence: "Dozens of women and men have been massacred in these few days. But people are not giving up resistance. We salute all those who are resisting and especially the struggling women who will not be bowed down. Women's freedom will liberate society and 'Jin Jiyan Azadî' will be heard all over the world. We will continue to fight for freedom and against this regime imposed on us. No power will be able to prevail against the will and objection of women. Neither the Iranian regime nor the monist regime imposed on this country will push back the struggle of women. We are the ones who will liberate. We will be the ones who liberate society. Greetings to the women who are resisting in Iran and Rojhilat."