CENTRAL NEWS – The Revolution in Rojava is well known around the world as a symbol of hope to those people that wish to build a world were equity, justice and freedom are really put to practice. With the ideas of Rêber APO and the praxis of Democratic Confederalism, the people in the Northeast of Syria are living under a different system for the past 10 years, where the basis of the Revolution is based in communal life and the organization of society itself.
Under this praxis, thousands of internationalists were present in Rojava throughout those 10 years and many still are present. We talked to a group of Young Woman that are current in the Internationalist Commune of Rojava and made an podcast to share their experiences with people interested in knowing the Revolution, this is “Çay at Women’s Front“:
So, where did the idea to create a podcast within the frameworks of the Internationalist Commune of Rojava come from, and what subjects you discuss on it?
So in general we are a group of young internationalist women who all found their way to Rojava. This is also where we got to know each other, we didn’t know each other before and maybe we wouldn’t have met if it wasn’t for the women’s revolution that is going on here. As we got to know each other and as we were discussing our experiences and perspectives for how we could contribute to the works that are being done in this region, we came up with different ideas. Our main goal was, and still is, to give a more personal, close to everyday-life-insight of the changes that are happening here. But not individualized, in the sense that we have only one narrative, but to let as many different women speak as possible. Finally it resulted in the idea to make a podcast about the revolution, about our personal experiences here, but also about the stories of other women that are joining the revolutionary process. For this it was important to us to not focus so much on political theory, but more on the reality and the emotional side of it.
For example, what things concretely change in the personalities when living the revolutionary processes. In this way the knowledge that is being shared is also more accessible to people who might not know the Rojava-Revolution so well yet, or to people who don’t yet have deeper knowledge about the political situation and the theoretical part of the utopia. That’s why we are trying to approach different important topics in a natural and uncomplicated way. All the topics we discuss in each episode are topics that every internationalist is being confronted with when coming here, living here, and when being part of the many different works. So on the one hand, we are presenting different works that internationalists can take part in when coming to Rojava, and on the other hand we are talking about the difficulties that come with it, when leaving the capitalist lifestyle behind and trying to adapt to a completely new way of living and working together. This is of course connected to the reality of this region. I mean, we are constantly faced with the reality of war. At the same time the society of north-eastern Syria is trying to build up an alternative system. This has a lot of influence on how one is perceiving life. So this is also a very important aspect that we are reflecting on.
After finishing the first season, we decided that we for sure want to continue our project and that it needs a few changes in how we are working and living together. That’s why we made the decision to move to the Internationalist Commune of Rojava and develope our works from there. The commune is a good place to connect with other young internationalist friends and educate ourselves together in a communal way. At the same time we have a more structured and organized daily-life here.
How is the daily-life, the contradictions that you face, and how does the podcast also help to develop the reflections on the revolutionary daily life in Rojava?
Since we moved to the internationalist commune we have more fixed activities in daily life, such as morning sports, communal garden work, individual and communal education, Kurdish lessons and so on. Next to this we are joining the activities and festivities of the society. Also we sometimes are visited by people of the local society, which is important for us to get a deeper feeling for the society.
To be honest, most topics that we are reflecting on in the podcast are topics that we discuss in everyday life. So the podcast is also a mirror of the subjects that are currently on our agenda and sums up our reflections that we develop over some weeks. At the same time it’s interesting for us to listen to the older episodes again and again, because it shows us how our understandings and our views are changing and developing in a collective way. For example, some days ago we were re-listening the first episodes again and some new ideas came to our mind that we weren’t so conscious of back in that time. With the reflections that we are making in the podcast on our life in the revolution, our communal life also gets influenced. By making these reflections and listening to them again after a while we get a more in-depth realization of our own shortcomings, how we can improve this alternative lifestyle that we are building up, and get deeper in developing a clear view on how we can contribute while learning from the revolutionary processes that are being initiated by the people from this region.
This is also the point where our main contradiction was in the beginning: how and what to do for the revolution while being in a position where we first have to learn from it? Very soon after arriving to Rojava, each one of us realized in her own way that coming from outside doesn’t put you in the position of being the spokesperson for the revolution. Also, there is no objective way to report about what’s going on here. This is also not what we wanted. We agreed very fast that we had to be careful to not develop a colonialist approach, like many journalists do when they come to Rojava. In order to catch what’s really going on here, what the difficulties are, where the beauty is hidden, you have to be part of it. And that means first of all feeling those and listening to those who gave and still give effort to build up change within society, those who are defending the achievements in a physical and meta-physical way. Listening to young girls and mothers, listening to the young people who are building the vanguard of this revolution. But not only observing and listening. If you really want to feel and understand it, you have to live it. It’s always easy to come from outside and criticize what’s going wrong. But it is the hardest and at the same the most beautiful thing in the world to be part of building up life and struggling collectively against all the difficulties. Only when being part of it, you are able to catch the essence and then it becomes legitimate to also communicate it to the outside. This is one of the main contradictions we were discussing a lot in the beginning, but we are continuing this discussion constantly, because it is a very deep topic that needs to be reflected long-term.
How has the response to the Podcast been?
The overall response has been really positive, which motivated us a lot to make it a bigger project with more than only one or two seasons. In the beginning we were actually not thinking so strategically how to spread it and we didn’t give so much effort to propagate it; it spread more by itself through the connections of the internationalist friends that we got to know here in Rojava and our friends back home.
A lot of listeners told us that they were very happy to listen to these insight stories, which are touching on many different aspects of the life here. For some the podcast was even the inspiration to make the step and come to Rojava themselves.
Do you have connections within organizations in other parts of the world that can spread the podcast? And what’s the importance of spreading it?
Until now we have not made many connections, but after the positive responses regarding the first season, we realized that by connecting with other revolutionary and feminist groups we could impact a lot more people and thus spread the thoughts of this revolution much wider. This is where we see our shortcoming. We didn’t put enough focus on actively spreading the podcast. But for sure we will do this from now on. We started the podcast as a smaller project, but now we see the importance of spreading it, because these discussions within the podcast are deep reflections on what the life within revolutionary processes is like, what changes and difficulties, but also what beauty comes with it. All of us have spent a while here already and we are not planning to go back to our home countries soon. So we get the chance to not be an outside observer and go deeper than just the surface level. At the same time we are trying to communicate all these things in an understandable way for everyone, no matter whether you are already familiar with the Kurdish freedom movement or not.
Would you like to say something to those reading the news?
This is exactly the question we also always ask our guest speakers in the podcast in the very end of every episode!
So for the young people out there, especially the young women, we want to encourage every single one of you to take the courage to take a step outside the capitalist system. If you are open to change, willing to learn from revolutionaries and look at life from a new perspective, than you should be brave and come to experience all the things that we are talking about in our podcast by yourself. Coming to Rojava was the biggest and most important step in our lives. And last but not least joining the revolution is not only making a change for individuals but also for the history of the revolution itself!
