The attack on the revolutionary Zelal is an attack on the free will of women.

Yesterday evening, our friend and long-time member Feryal, known as Zelal Hesekê, was shot dead in an assassination attempt in the city of Kerkûk. She had traveled from Hesekê at the invitation of women’s organizations for an exchange on women’s issues. We as Kongra Star condemn this attack, which is a political femicide. Like the murder of Nagihan Akarsal more than a year ago in Silemaniye, yesterday’s attack is also directed against politically active women who are pioneers in their society.

As a woman from Rojava (West Kurdistan), she comes from a revolutionary family and has known the Kurdish women’s movement since her youth and has actively participated in it ever since. In the more than 31 years of her activism and struggle, she was known as Zelal Hesekê. In the years of her activism, she continuously resisted against all forms of oppression. In her struggle and activism, she has fought not only in all parts of Rojava / North and East Syria, but also in all other parts of Kurdistan and even in Armenia. Our comrade Zelal has not only fought for Kurdish women, but for all women in her struggle for freedom. She has led an unprecedented struggle, especially in the course of the women’s revolution in North and East Syria. She traveled to South Kurdistan, an area where many women are murdered, and met with women’s organizations to show the reality of the mentality that kills women. She wanted to emphasize that women need to organize themselves and strengthen their unity. Martyr Zelal was bound up with the women’s struggle for freedom until her last day. Because of her political commitment and activism, she became the target of this political assassination.

The murder of the revolutionary women and pioneers of society shows that the fascist mentality is afraid of the power of women who have started a women’s revolution for the freedom of all women through the philosophy and ideology of Abdullah Öcalan. We have already seen how women’s power defeated ISIS, the enemy of women and humanity, without hesitation. This attack was carried out with the help of the anti-Kurdish mentality of the fascist KDP and Turkey. For over 10 years there has been a series of attacks on Kurdish women, which are part of the anti-Kurdish motivated genocidal policy of the Turkish state.

The attack on the martyr Zelal was an attack on all women, an attack on the will of all women. The aim of the attack is to intimidate, to keep women away from the struggle and to deprive society of its vanguard.

For this reason, we call on all women to stand up and fight for freedom so that the murderer is brought to light and held accountable. Every woman seeking freedom should stand up and raise her voice against this mentality that is killing women. We also call on the Iraqi government to fully investigate the murder of our comrade.

Kongra Star

January 19, 2024