WDR Barcelona: Invasion in N. Syria is also patriarchal violence
Thousands of women joined a demonstration in Barcelona marking 25 November International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, convened by the Novembre Feminista Collective. Demonstrators who included Women Defend Rojava Barcelona Committee, protested patriarchal oppression and all kinds of violence against women.
On its way from Jardinets de Gràcia to Plaza Catalonia, the demonstration stopped in front of the Turkish Consulate, where the Women Defend Rojava Committee read a manifesto over the loudspeakers condemning “centuries of patriarchal exploitation and oppression, colonial violence, fascist occupations, rapes perpetrated as a weapon of dominance, police violence at the side of the generals who made us disappear…
The invader is one, and it has many faces; today, here, it is the Turkish state, under whose bombs brave women comrades continue to fight and resist for the new world we carry in our hearts. But the invaders are also the militias in the streets of Santiago de Chile, the husband who has stepped over a red line, or the heads of companies that in many parts of the world continue to exploit and assault their workers.”
The moving speech in front of the consulate was concluded by commemorating the women who have given their lives fighting in Rojava against patriarchal oppression and the Turkish invaders, with protesters shouting “present!” after the name was read out of each of the martyrs – Hevrin Khalaf , Ceren Güneş and Göze Altunöz – and all the companions of the YPJ.
In the closing part of the demonstration, which was held under the motto “feminist self-organization against sexist violence” calling for individual and collective empowerment against violence, the internationalist spirit of the march was felt as representatives of organized feminist struggles throughout the world, from Chile, Nicaragua, Bolivia, and Honduras to Kurdistan had the stage to share their demands and calls for action against the patriarchal and colonial forces that oppress, violate and make women invisible. Here, the Women Defend Rojava committee read the statement issued by Kongra-Star and women’s movements in northern and eastern Syria commemorating November 25.