Our next reading group is on Tuesday, March 8, 7PM Eastern Time (US), organized on the occasion of the International Women’s Day 2022.

This is the last session of our study group on Rojava/ Kurdish movement and the Zapatistas. We will discuss the Kurdish and Zapatista women’s struggles and achievements to celebrate the International Women’s Day and to draw lessons for anti-patriarchal organizing in our own communities. Feel free to join even if you don’t get a chance to do the readings. 

Inspired by the Kurdish and Zapatista women’s autonomous organizing, we will host women and queer-only space half an hour before the beginning of the reading group. Stop by to socialize and share your gender-related concerns and experiences. We hope this space will be an opportunity for our mutual empowerment.

Register to get the Zoom link here.

Main readings:

Chiapas

EZLN. “Our Struggle As Zapatista Women II & III” in Critical Thought in the Face of the Capitalist Hydra I (2016): pp. 95-100.

Klein, Hilary. Compañeras: Zapatista Women’s Stories (2015): pp. 31-39, 48-49, 68-73. 

Kurdistan

Northern Kurdistan / Bakur

Latif Tas, Nadje Al-Ali & Gültan Kişanak. “Kurdish women’s battle continues against state and patriarchy, says first female co-mayor of Diyarbakir. Interview,” openDemocracy (2016).

Western Kurdistan / Rojava

Janet Biehl. “The Women’s Revolution in Rojava,” Toward Freedom (2015).

Optional readings and videos:

Chiapas:

Klein, Hilary. Compañeras: Zapatista Women’s Stories (2015): pp. 139-158.

Short video: Women in the Zapatista Movement by Schools for Chiapas (2014).

Kurdistan:

Käser, Isabel. “A Struggle within a Struggle: A History of the Kurdistan Women’s Freedom Movement, 1978-2019,” in: The Cambridge History of the Kurds: pp. 893-919.

Short documentary: ​Rojava, the Revolution By Women by Arte TV