The Kurdistan Free Women's Movement (RJAK) launched a campaign on 11 April 2023 under the motto “Right to Hope for Leader Öcalan”. As part of the campaign, the organization started sending letters to the United Nations for Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan who has been imprisoned on the prison island of Imrali in Turkey for more than 24 years and has been held incommunicado for 30 months now, without any contact with the outside world. The complete lack of information regarding the situation of Öcalan and his three fellow prisoners – Hamili Yıldırım, Ömer Hayri Konar and Veysi Aktaş – raises growing concerns about their safety and health. Countless requests for visits filed for years by the lawyers and families of Imrali detainees have gone unanswered.

RJAK calls on women in Southern Kurdistan (Northern Iraq) in particular to join the campaign and not to remain silent about the absolute isolation imposed on Öcalan.

Following the call of RJAK, women living in Iraq and Southern Kurdistan have sent hundreds of letters to the UN so far, expressing their feelings and hopes for the Kurdish leader.

In her letter addressed to Öcalan, a woman from Southern Kurdistan, named Begerd Azadî, said the following: “As a mother, I thank you very much because you were the first to believe in the power of women and carry out a revolution for women’s freedom. The struggle must be as intensive as isolation. There is no doubt that isolation will be broken and Leader Öcalan will attain his freedom. As a mother, I make it clear that our struggle for the freedom of the Kurdish people’s leader and that of Kurdistan will continue.”