NUCAN ARAS

Hasakah-Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan made the “Call for Peace and Democratic Society” on February 27, 2025 and then sent messages to women on International Women’s Day, March 8, and to the Yazidi community on March 18. Abdullah Öcalan stressed the importance of unity in his messages.

Gulê Cafer, a Yazidi women from the town of Dirbasiyah, northeastern Syria, was one of the women who attended the 1st Kurdish Women’s Conference in Rojava held in the city of Qamishlo on March 23, 2025. In an interview with NuJINHA, she mentioned the importance of the message sent by Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan to the Yazidi people and Yazidi women.

‘All women must struggle together’

“We were displaced from Afrin first and then from Shahba due to the Turkish attacks,” Gulê Cafer told us. “Although the new government says that the displaced people will return to their homes, the attacks on the Tishreen dam continue. Our response to the Turkish state and the interim government of Syria is that we, as women, will secure all our constitutional rights and gains just as the revolution in Rojava was led by women.”

‘We see our freedom in the thoughts and philosophy of leader Apo’

The message sent by Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan to the Yazidi people and Yazidi women caused excitement in the Yazidi community, Gulê Cafer stressed. “Leader Apo said, ‘the genocide against the Yazidi community was the genocide against the Kurdish history’. The thoughts of leader Apo are of key importance for the Yazidi people.”

Speaking about the struggle waged by the Yazidi people and Yazidi women, Gulê Cafer said, “Thanks to the efforts of leader Apo, we have secured our gains in politics, economy, diplomacy and society. The Yazidi community and women have experienced great changes, undoubtedly, thanks to the thoughts and philosophy of leader Apo. As the Yazidi community and women, we see our freedom in the thoughts and philosophy of leader Apo.”

‘Our resistance and struggle will continue’

The message of Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan symbols a new historic beginning for Yazidi women, Gulê Cafer noted and concluded her speech as follows: “The attacks and oppression by the Turkish state and the Iraqi government on Shengal continue because the Yazidi people and Yazidi women welcome the paradigm constituting leader Apo's thoughts and philosophy. The Yazidi people continue to defend themselves. As the Yazidi community and Yazidi women, our response to the message of leader Apo; our resistance and struggle will continue under all circumstances. The freedom of leader Apo is the freedom of the whole of humanity, especially the Kurdish people.”