Members of the HDP (Peoples’ Democratic Party) Women’s Council and Middle East Desk and activists from the Free Women’s Movement (TJA) met with women from the Middle East and North Africa who came to Ankara to attend the HDP’s 5th Ordinary Congress to be held tomorrow.

The women attending today’s meeting included Algerian Workers’ Party Secretary General Louiza Hanoune, Palestine National Initiative Movement Member Sheren Mohammed Abdullah Hilal, Jordan Communist Party Member and Jordan Organization of Arab Women Secretary General Nawal Haddadin, Left Democratic Party Member and DKY Middle East-North Africa Spokesperson Khadija Ryadi, Palestine Union of Women’s Committees President Able Saadet, UN Women’s Regional Group and Algerian Women’s Observatory President Shaiat Aljafari.

The participants discussed the importance of unity in the struggle of women from the Middle East and North Africa. Speaking here, HDP Women’s Council Spokeswoman Ayşe Acar Başaran said the following:

“As women from Turkey, Kurdistan, the Middle East and Africa, our greatest deficiency is cooperation in the women’s struggle beyond identities. Our struggle for identity is of great importance, but a joint struggle of women is also vital. No matter how different it might seem, what women of any ethnicity experience is no different at all. We are all subjected to aggressive tendencies of the patriarchal system in the lands where we live.”

Speaking after, Left Democratic Party Member and DKY Middle East-North Africa Spokesperson Khadija Ryadi said, “We watch your actions and achievements in Turkey and Kurdistan and we take them as a basis. We attach importance to helping women’s struggles grow and be shared.”

Meetings of women will reportedly continue after tomorrow’s congress.