Indian Activists Issue Solidarity Statement Defending Women-Led Rojava Experiment in North and East Syria

Indian Activists Issue Solidarity Statement New Delhi: More than 220 activists, scholars, artists, journalists and women’s rights advocates from India and abroad have issued a joint statement expressing solidarity with the women-led democratic experiment in North and East Syria, warning that it is facing a renewed and coordinated assault by fundamentalist armed groups.

Released on 31 January 2026, the statement was issued on behalf of the signatories by independent social activist Shabnam Hashmi, who said the assault went far beyond a conventional military conflict.

“What is under attack in North and East Syria is not just a territory, but a rare and hard-won experiment in women’s leadership and democratic coexistence,” Hashmi said. “The systematic use of violence against women is meant to dismantle everything women have built over the past decade. Silence at this moment would amount to complicity.”

The statement describes the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, often referred to as the Rojava revolution, as one of the most significant contemporary experiments in women’s political leadership, grassroots democracy and plural coexistence in a conflict-ridden region.

A women-led democratic project

Emerging during the Syrian civil war, the Rojava project has, over the past 14 years, developed a system of governance that places women at the centre of political, social and economic life. Drawing inspiration from the Kurdish feminist philosophy encapsulated in the slogan Jin Jiyan Azadî (Women, Life, Freedom), the administration introduced a mandatory co-chair system across all levels of governance, requiring every elected or appointed body to be jointly led by one woman and one man.

Women’s economic independence has been encouraged through cooperatives, while separate women’s academies and organisations—such as Kongra Star and the Arab Women’s Union Zenobiya—have worked to develop Jineolojî, a feminist framework of social knowledge grounded in women’s lived experiences.

Signatories argue that this model represents a rare example of women not merely participating in governance but shaping it, particularly in a region historically marked by patriarchy, authoritarianism and sectarian conflict.

Escalation of violence

The statement warns that this experiment is now under severe threat. According to the signatories, armed factions aligned with the Syrian Interim Government have intensified military operations since early January, following attacks on Kurdish neighbourhoods in Aleppo that displaced large numbers of civilians.

“These forces have now surrounded North and East Syria from multiple directions,” the statement says, describing what it calls a systematic campaign of violence directed particularly at women. It alleges incidents of kidnapping, sexual violence and public mutilation, with women’s bodies being used as instruments of terror to break civilian resistance.

Echoes of past atrocities

Drawing parallels with earlier Islamic State (IS) offensives, including the 2014 genocide of the Ezidi community, the statement argues that violence against women is being deployed as an ideological weapon to dismantle the social and political gains women have made in the region.

It points to recent footage from Tebqa showing armed fighters destroying a statue commemorating women combatants of the Women’s Defence Units (YPJ), the all-women militia that played a decisive role in defeating IS. The destruction of such symbols, the signatories say, signals an attempt to erase women from public life altogether.

Kobane under siege

Particular concern has been expressed over the situation in Kobane, the city that became a global symbol of resistance during the fight against IS. The statement claims the city is currently encircled by hostile forces, with essential supplies including electricity, water, food, medicine and heating oil cut off during winter.

The blockade, it says, has already resulted in the deaths of five children. The statement also raises alarms over reports that prisons holding former IS fighters in occupied areas are being breached, potentially releasing extremists who pose a threat beyond Syria’s borders.

Call for international solidarity

Framing the conflict as an attack on women’s rights globally, the signatories call on women’s movements in India and elsewhere to recognise the struggle in North and East Syria as part of a shared fight for equality, dignity and justice.

While welcoming the reported halt in fighting on 30 January, the statement stresses that a durable peace would require constitutional guarantees for Kurdish and minority rights, official recognition of the Autonomous Administration, protection of women’s political and social gains, and the safe and voluntary return of displaced populations, particularly to Afrin and Serêkanî (Ras al-Ayn).

The statement concludes with the slogan that has come to symbolise the movement: Jin Jiyan Azadî—Women, Life, Freedom. The statement has been endorsed by a wide cross-section of public figures, including filmmaker Anand Patwardhan, development economist Jean Drèze, feminist scholar Uma Chakravarty, historian Mary E. John, journalist Pamela Philipose, poet-scientist Gauhar Raza, dancer and activist Mallika Sarabhai, former MP Bhalchandra Mungekar, artist Nilima Sheikh, lawyer Niloufer Bhagwat, human rights activist Cedric Prakash, writer Ram Puniyani, former parliamentarian Jawhar Sircar, and journalist Vidya Subrahmaniam, among others.