About Women's Self-Defense and Foreign Domination in Sinjar.

The Strength of Women to Protect Themselves and Society

Interview with Axîn Întîqam, Commander of the Sinjar Women's Units YJŞ

Five years ago, the Women's Defense Units were established in Sinjar. What were the main reasons for the establishment of autonomous women's defense units?

The main reason for the establishment of the YJŞ was the genocide perpetrated against the Ezii society and religion in 2014. During the genocide, the society was abandoned without any chance to defend themselves. They became victims of the genocide and have suffered great pain because of it, especially the women. Especially women and children were targeted by the genocide. Therefore, it was especially important for the women to be able to defend themselves. Trust in foreign forces and especially in men had been broken. We Ezidi women realized that we can only trust each other, not only as a society, but especially as women.

Another reason, of course, was to take revenge as an Ezidi woman against the Islamic State (IS) and those who participated in the genocide. Especially revenge for the Ezidi women and children who were kidnapped by IS. For us, it was important to organize ourselves as women, regardless of the socially dominant views. Because as mentioned before, the trust in men was broken. In 2015, the Sinjar Women's Defense Units (YPJ-Sinjar) were formed. In the year following the liberation of the abducted women, the Sinjar Women's Units (Yekîneyên Jinên Şengal, YJŞ) were officially established as a women's defense unit at the first conference. After this conference, the YJŞ fought on many fronts in Sinjar, as well as in Rojava, and thus became a role model for many Ezidi women. They started to believe in themselves and trust themselves.

What is the attitude of the Ezidi faith community toward you as women's units?

After the establishment of the YJŞ, the society was of course positively influenced. First of all, it must be said that our society is very introverted, that is, it is a closed society, especially when it comes to religion and faith, and reflexively always puts itself in a protective position against attacks from outside. In many ways, however, it is quite an open society, and has thus been able to protect itself and its faith. As for women, it is the same. Very closed in on themselves and at the same time very open. During the last genocide, many women were kidnapped. The question now was, how were the remaining women to be protected? In the men's view, it was impossible to imagine women arming themselves and protecting themselves. Men could not have imagined such a thing even in their dreams. Of course, they also feel pride when they see armed women, but they would not wish it for their own daughter to join the YJŞ even today. Seeing women as property and honor, this is still very common in Ezidi society. It is still relatively new for our society to get used to the fact that women can also form a defense unit and protect themselves and their own society independently of men. For the women, of course, we are a role model of which they are proud.

Your main task is to defend the Ezidi settlement area. Does society bring other concerns and needs to you?

No matter where we are needed, we stand up for our people. The main concern is to organize ourselves and to be able to reach all women. Especially after the philosophy and ideology of Rebertî [Abdullah Öcalan] influenced society very positively, the Ezidi women in particular place a lot of hope in us. The most important thing for our women is to be able to organize themselves. To be able to make their own decisions. This is precisely the role they see in us and hope that we can and must be a role model not only as a military unit, but above all as an organization, a women's organization.

What do you think about the political agreement between the Iraqi government in Baghdad and the KDP? How do you defend yourselves against this foreign domination?

As far as the agreement is concerned and why Iraq took this step, one can also understand that after all these years the chaos has exhausted Iraq so much and they want to change some things. But instead of sitting down with us, they decided to sit down with KDP (Kurdistan Democratic Party). But not only the KDP and the Iraqi government are involved in this matter. Outside forces are also involved. On the one hand, Turkey, which desperately wants to fulfill its dream of the Ottoman Empire in this area, and on the other hand, the UN itself, which supports this agreement for its own purposes.

Geographically, Sinjar is in a strategically important position. Therefore, it is especially important for the neighboring states to get Sinjar under their own control. We all know that Sinjar is an Ezidi territory and should be run by Ezidis, but this view is not held by the neighboring states and other forces. On the contrary, the policy practiced here against the Ezidis can also be considered genocide upon closer examination. This is because there are repeated attempts to expel the Ezidis from their settlement areas to European countries. As a result, they cannot protect themselves physically or culturally in a foreign country. If this is not a genocide, what is?

The parties that support and signed this agreement believe that there is no place for democracy and human rights. We only support the parties that also have truly democratic views and, above all, support the Ezidi society to stay in Sinjar.

For us it is important first and foremost to remain as Ezidis in our settlement area, to maintain our self-organization, and above all to maintain our self-defense units. We as a society cannot accept parties and states with a different stance on this. As well as this agreement, which was realized without consulting us. We Êzîds have been able to protect ourselves against attacks from outside and will be able to protect ourselves in the same way against these political attacks, especially after we have become acquainted with the ideology of Abdullah Öcalan. If our existence in our own territory is not recognized, we will of course fight against it. We feel that this agreement is an attack on our culture and values.

What challenges do you face as women's self-defense units in 2021?

We are in a phase right now where the Lausanne Agreement is about to end. Therefore, international forces are trying to create new borders in the Middle East, and by doing so, actually give the region a new design. This is happening in all openness. These approaches of hegemonic states do not display humane and democratic views. For such states it is unimportant what happens to the people in the Middle East. For them, it is only important to secure their own borders and territories, which will then be under their control, in time before the Lausanne agreement is to end. If further genocides take place for this and people fight each other, it is of no concern to such states. The intention of the state is only to have power and to expand it. Today, society is more educated and knows why such agreements are made.

Our ideology of Abdullah Ocalan aims at the exact opposite. We want an autonomous society in which both sexes have equal rights and women organize and lead themselves as the role model of this society. I think this is the biggest challenge we face, day in and day out. Because it is the woman's main task to enlighten society and serve as a role model.

How has the founding of the YJŞ affected society? What effect has it had on women and on men?

As I said, it had quite a positive impact on society. Especially for women, we became a ray of hope. The Ezidi woman, who only knew household work, genocide and oppression, now learned that she can also defend herself against this world of men.

For the men, despite a positive influence, it is nevertheless somewhat more complicated. As mentioned before, they feel pride, but it is difficult for them to accept us. This is because in their masculine view, they actually see us as their own defeat. They have realized that they could not protect "their women" and this reality has broken their pride. As much as the men have been positively influenced by us and have realized that women also have the strength and courage to protect their own society, at the same time they feel a certain shame.

This article was first published in the May/June 2021 edition of the Kurdistan Report.