In memory of Havrin Khalaf

Havrin Khalaf was a politician and human rights activist, born in the city of al-Malikiyah on 15 November 1984. She was executed on 12 October 2019 by Turkish-backed Ahrar al-Sharqiya fighters near the M4 Motorway south of Tell Abyad.

Hevrin Khalaf was a politician and human rights activist, born in the city of al-Malikiyah on 15 November 1984. She studied in Malikiyah schools, after which she enrolled at the University of Aleppo to study at the Faculty of Civil Engineering and graduated in 2009.

She grew up as a child in a socially and politically engaged family. Four of her brothers and Havrin’s sister, Zozan, joined the liberation struggle and fell in the ranks of the Kurdish freedom movement.

Her mother Sûad participated in many popular assemblies of Abdullah Öcalan. What she learned here also had a great influence on the education and personality development of Havrin. With the proclamation of the Democratic Autonomous Administration, she took over responsibility as deputy co-chairperson in the Energy Committee of the Democratic Self-Government in the Canton of Cizîre. In 2015, she played an important role in improving and strengthening the energy supply and economic work in the canton of Cizîre.
Her work paid particular attention to the economic needs of women and the development of women's economics. In 2018, Havrin participated in the process of setting up and founding the Syrian Future Party with the aim of advocating for the interests of all Syrian population groups and a democratic renewal of Syria.

At the founding of the Syrian Future Party on March 27, 2018 in Raqqa, she was selflessly committed to the task of Secretary General. Speaking on the occasion of the 8th anniversary of the popular uprising in Syria, Havrin expressed her conviction that the political crisis in Syria cannot be resolved by war. She said, "Eight years have passed. The popular uprisings against the crisis and the struggle of the peoples of Syria have been widely sacrificed and turned into a war. The ongoing crisis in Syria, which is the reason for the displacement and murder of the population, cannot be settled without a political solution.”

In each of her speeches, Havrin emphasized the importance of dialogue among the various Syrian political forces and communities. She insisted that the peoples should determine their own future and shape their own political and social lives together. Through her political struggle, Havrin called on all circles of society and political actors to participate in a democratic solution to the crisis in Syria.

With the beginning of the Turkish occupation war against the territories of the Democratic Autonomous Administration in northern and eastern Syria on October 9, 2019, Havrin resolutely continued her political struggle. In an ambush by members of a jihadist killer gang allied with Turkey, she was executed.

Havrin Khalaf has played an unforgettable role in the women's revolution of Rojava and the community of peoples with her life and work. To commemorate her is to defend more resolutely than ever the women's revolution in northern and eastern Syria and to continue her sparks in all the countries of the Middle East and the world.