The final declaration of the Yazidi Women's Freedom Movement (Tevgera Azadiya Jinên Êzidî, TAJÊ) congress held in Shengal (Sinjar) on Sunday with 250 delegates was published today. The TAJÊ pointed out in the declaration that delegates were prevented from entering the region and that the congress took place on the anniversary of the liberation from ISIS. The congress was dedicated to the martyrs and all the people defending Shengal against ISIS and the attacks carried out jointly by the Turkish state and the KDP, the ruling party in southern Kurdistan (northern Iraq).

"Our congress has taken place at a time when the Turkish state is carrying out massive reconnaissance and air attacks. Despite the attacks of the Turkish state and its partner KDP, it could be realised with organised and continuous willpower", said the final declaration, according to which, the delegates had it clear that they evaluate the isolation of Abdullah Öcalan as the isolation of Yazidi women and will fight for the physical freedom of the Kurdish leader.

The congress discussed current political developments. The main topic was the constant attacks on Shengal, which threaten the last contiguous settlement area of the Yazidi community. "These attacks are aimed at driving the Yazidi people out of Shengal. Yazidi women are responding to this dirty policy by claiming to organise all women," TAJÊ stated.

The TAJÊ expressed its solidarity with the revolutionary uprising in Iran and especially in Rojhilat (Eastern Kurdistan), which was triggered two months ago by the murder of the Kurdish woman Jina Mahsa Amini by the morality police and is marked by the slogan "Jin, Jiyan, Azadî" (Woman, Life, Freedom).

At the congress, a video message by Sozdar Avesta, member of the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) Presidential Council, was played and a statement by the Community of Women of Kurdistan (KJK) was read out. The focus was on the need for women to organise themselves in a self-determined way in all areas of life in Shengal. The problems of Yazidi women on a social, political and economic level were also discussed.

It was decided at the congress to promote organising in councils and municipalities. In order to achieve a change in patriarchal ideas, the TAJÊ wants to do educational work. Child marriages, forced marriages and polygyny are to be fought. The lives of leading women from the Yazidi community are to be researched and the results published in book form.

The Yazidi women's movement continues to focus on the aftermath of the ISIS massacre of 3 August 2014. TAJÊ is set to continue to fight for the perpetrators to be legally prosecuted and for the event to be classified as genocide and femicide at the international level. The stories of Yazidis freed from ISIS captivity will be written down and translated into as many languages as possible. In this context, TAJÊ is against former Yazidi ISIS prisoners being taken abroad. The movement wants to campaign for the liberated Yazidis to be able to live in their own country. Economic projects are to be initiated so that women can provide for themselves.

Especially for young Yazidi women, work is to take place in the fields of education, politics, society, defence, culture and sports.