CENTRAL NEWS
“A science which is developed around women is the first step towards true sociology”
(Abdullah Öcalan)
As science, politics, ethics and many social institutions have stated, the 21st century will be the century in which the woman’s freedom will triumph. This evaluation is based on the rise of women’s struggles in various geographies of the world, particularly in Kurdistan.
Woman’s struggle for freedom, which has incrementally grown with great values until today, has become a main dynamic of the development of social freedom. Women’s freedom, which conditions the achievement of social freedom, has reached a potential to be able to expand more than ever. The social values that have thus been created must meet a scientific expression.
Jineolojî
Woman’s science – Jineolojî – defines itself as a social science corresponding to today’s zeitgeist. Jineolojî’s definition originates in Kurdish. It consists of the words Jin; woman, and Lojî; science. Kurdish people’s leader Öcalan first used this definition in his defence ‘Sociology of Freedom’ written in 2008. He explained why there was a need for this kind of conceptualisation as follows;
“The lines referring to women in masculine discourse, leaving its mark on social sciences like on any other scientific fields, carry propagandist approaches, which do not touch the reality at all. The true status of the woman is covered with this rhetoric, perhaps forty times, just as the histories of civilization cover up class, exploitation, oppression and torture. Instead of feminism, the concept of Jineolojî (woman’s science) can meet the purpose better.”
(Sociology of Freedom, p.226).
This conceptualisation sparked important discussions in the Kurdistan Woman’s Liberation Movement. After these discussions reached a certain level, a working group that would play a fundamental role in the establishment of Jineolojî was created at the 8th congress of the Kurdistan Women’s Freedom Party (PAJK). The unit formed, firstly strived to answer the questions of ‘how the need for women’s science arises’, and ‘which needs can it meet’.
The discussion process that started at the academies in the mountains of Kurdistan, gradually spread within society. Jineolojî is currently organized as committees in four parts of Kurdistan, Europe, and Russia.
In our meetings, we start by questioning the link between science and being organised, science and society. We also ask the same questions to the readers: Why is there such a great distance between science and society? Why is science’s relation with society so weak? To put it differently, why is science so distant from society? Social sciences that claim to seek solutions to social problems, observe live social nature as an emotionless phenomenon. Why has the link between science and ethics weakened? Why is science close to those in power but far away from society? These questions can go on further.
While trying to explain why there is a need for Jineolojî, we will also search for answers to the above mentioned questions. This booklet contains basic headings on the fields of knowledge structures, methods and practice areas on which the theoretical and institutional framework of women’s science arises. We hope that inside this booklet you can find answers to your questions concerning the link between science and society, its methods, our criticisms on science’s relation with power, along with our relation with the existing currents of thought that also deal with the expansion of women’s freedom.
We hope that it will also become apparent how Jineolojî’s approach differs from the other currents of thought.
Most importantly, we include in this booklet the knowledge that stems from the practical experiences of the Kurdistan Women’s Liberation Movement and which constitutes the main resource for Jineolojî. Let us first answer the question of ‘why a woman’s science’. In fact, Jineolojî’s guiding principles derive from the answers given to this question. We believe that even this process, which is just a start in the creation of science, will cause a profound change in social sciences. We believe that the scientific evaluations that Jineolojî reaches will be a step forward in renewing the conceptual world, thus giving libertarian content to social institutions.
Moreover, we believe that, with this initiative, the universal ties we have and will further establish with the women’s movements around the world will strengthen, and the grounds for discussion will grow.
Jineolojî aims to create a transformation not only by altering woman’s selfdefinition, but also by criticising the state, power systems, their institutionalisations and the mentality formed around them. Therefore, it can play a crucial role in the establishment of democratic modernity, as an alternative to patriarchal capitalist modernity. For this reason, as Kurdistan Free Women’s Movement, we care about the establishment of Jineolojî, and we believe that we will ensure its development with our moral, political and intellectual efforts.
SOURCE – Jineolojî
