KJK launches campaign against attacks on Shengal and Afghan women
In a written statement, the Kurdistan Women’s Communities (KJK) Coordination announced that they would run a campaign from 3 to 15 August on the occasion of the anniversary of the Shengal Massacre on 3 August and the Taliban’s seizure of power in Afghanistan on 15 August. The KJK said that they organized the campaign around the slogan “We Stand with Afghan and Shengal women against hegemon men’s attacks”.
Genocide in Shengal
The KJK said: “Nine years have passed since the Shengal genocide, which took place on 3 August 2014. The whole world watched and did not intervene. The military forces of the KDP abandoned the people of Shengal and fled. First of all, we pay tribute to the women, men and children of our Yazidi people who were killed in this genocide. We strongly condemn the attacks of these brutal forces against women and life. We salute the resistance and struggle of our Yazidi people to protect their existence and identity. We declare that we will always and under all circumstances stand by our Yazidi people and women, as we did at the time of the genocide.”
ISIS and Taliban, the same mentality
The statement added: “Women are in the grip of a similar attack and massacre in Afghanistan. The negotiations between the US and the Taliban signed an agreement in Doha on 29 February 2020 for the withdrawal announced years ago. As a result of this agreement, as of 29 April 2021, the US and NATO forces began to withdraw from Afghanistan. From the end of July, the Taliban gradually regained control of the country, and with the capture of the capital, Kabul, in August 2021, they imposed their social and misogynistic rule once. The understanding-idea, power and practices of ISIS and the Taliban are the same.
The Taliban government, shaped by anti-women and hostility, continues the most reactionary and inhumane practices in history with the consent, support and contribution of international powers. Something similar to what happened in Shengal happened in Afghanistan. The whole world watched the human tragedy and massacre that took place after the Taliban seized power. The reality of West-centered global hegemony, which tries to hide misogyny, was best revealed when Shengal was handed over to ISIS and Afghanistan to the Taliban. Both genocides, massacres and femicides are a global conspiracy developed against women all over the world, especially in the Middle East. We salute the noble resistance of our Afghan sisters who did not give up their stance despite all kinds of oppressive, prohibitive and inhumane practices of the reactionary Taliban regime.”
Campaign from 3 to 15 August
The KJK said that they would launch “a campaign organized around the slogan ‘We are with Afghan and Shengal women against hegemon men’s attacks” from 3 and 15 August, on the occasion of the anniversary of the 3 August Shengal Massacre and the 15 August Taliban’s seizure of power in Afghanistan. As women, we must aim to develop an organized struggle in every area and moment of life in order to put an end to the massacres of women, nature and life, which are the work of the hegemon men nourished by capitalist modernity.”
Objectives of the campaign
With this campaign, The KJK “wants to focus on the women’s murder policies of the men’s mentality and make it visible. With this initiative, we want to be a voice for all women in the person of Shengal and Afghan women and shout out the crimes committed in the world. We demand that the massacre of women be officially recognized as a crime against humanity at international level. We call on all women’s forces, organizations and personalities to raise the common struggle in order to make the world more liveable for women and to end women’s massacres. Knowing that the just and legitimate struggle of the women of Shengal and Afghanistan is our own struggle, we call on all women’s organizations to be a partner and support this resistance, which is carried out under difficult conditions. We believe in the absolute victory of organized united women’s action and resistance against the hegemon’s male system and its practices, which are organized in every field against women’s struggle and resistance.
We call on all women’s forces fighting on this basis to join the campaign. We, as women, state that the most correct answer to this brutality is the solidarity and organization of women, and we call on women all over the world to claim accountability for the feminicides in Shengal and Afghanistan.”