The feminist revolution in Rojava

Translated by Giulia Cicognani

Jin, Jiyan, Azadî – Woman, life, freedom is a world-famous slogan, but only a few are aware of its origins: it was born in Rojava, an autonomous region in north-eastern Syria, not officially recognized by either the Syrian or the Turkish governments, as part of the feminist revolution led by Kurdish women.

Rojava, a region that proclaimed its autonomy in 2012, during the Syrian civil war, is today a unique experiment in the world based on democratic confederalism, theorized by the Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan. Öcalan has developed a theory that the liberation of women is an essential element for the liberation of society as a whole. The system he developed, by which society is organized, is based on direct democracy, libertarian municipalism, ecology and most importantly, on feminism.

In this region, each public office is co-chaired by a woman and a man; women are guaranteed a minimum quota of 40% in all decision-making assemblies. Moreover, laws to ensure gender equality have been implemented throughout the country: civil marriage, the right to divorce and equal inheritance rights have been introduced. This could be the most gender-balanced model in the world.

At the heart of the feminist revolution, in Rojava, there is the YPJ (Women’s Protection Units), an entirely female military body created not just to protect the territory from external attacks, but also to affirm female emancipation in traditionally male-dominated contexts, to bring down patriarchal structures. Actually, the training is for 75% ideological and political, far from any violence and weapons, in order to train women who know their own worth and who are able to carve out a future free and independent from male figures. As the commander Nesrîn Abdalla declared: "Until now, armies were created exclusively by men with a patriarchal approach, in fact they only had two tasks: to defend and to win. But we are an army of women... We are doing this not only to protect ourselves, but also to change the army’s way of thinking, not only to gain power, but to change society, to develop it".

However, this system is under constant threat. Turkey, perceiving the Kurdish democratic model as a threat to its own domestic policy, has been conducting a systematic repression of it since 2018. In February 2025, the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal highlighted the international crimes committed by Turkey against the Kurdish people in this region, including targeted attacks against women who are particularly influential in their society, such as Hevrin Khalaf, a political activist brutally murdered by pro-Turkish militias. The tribunal itself has exposed the systematic use of sexual violence and rape, used as a tool to destroy the social fabric and feminist and democratic models, to force entire communities to flee. Turkish secret prisons on Syrian territory have become places of torture and systematic sexual violence, often ignored or minimized by the international community.

The feminist revolution in Rojava invites us to reflect on the fact that feminism doesn’t belong only to the West. The Kurdish women’s fight clearly shows how female emancipation can arise and develop even outside traditional Western models. They fight as women, not by adopting male models of control and violence, but by creating an alternative system that promotes dialogue, community and mutual care as key tools of liberation. It is therefore our responsibility to give voice, space and visibility to these forms of resistance, where gender equality is not only seen as a right, but also as an instrument to transform the whole society.

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