While preparations for March 8 International Women's Day are underway all over the world, women from different professions are showing their determination to struggle for the meaning and importance of the day. Kurdish women journalists also greet March 8 with attacks, massacres, arrests, detentions and obstructions. Women journalists practising their profession in North and East Syria (Rojava-West), Rojhilat (East), Federated Kurdistan Region (South) and Bakûr (North) Kurdistan spoke to our agency about the difficulties they face in their geographies and the struggle they wage.

 

ROJAVA: THE TRUTH IS BEING CONVEYED

 

 

 

Roj Deniz, a reporter for the Fırat News Agency (Ajansa Nuçeya Fırat ê-ANF) in North East Syria, stated that the number of women journalists increased with the revolution. Roj Deniz said that women journalists formed an organisation in order to announce the "Rojava women's revolution" to the whole world and that they carried out original work. Roj Deniz said, "After the revolution, women journalists fought hard to become visible. As a result of this struggle, many women's agencies and television channels were opened. Since the beginning of the revolution, we face serious attacks and threats every day. The attacks by the Turkish state have been ongoing since 2011. Thousands of women have been targeted since then. We have taken the responsibility to convey the truth against these attacks and we are writing."

 

Emphasising that they announce both the gains of women and the attacks to the public, Roj Deniz said, "We owe it to ourselves to announce and share the truth. It is not easy to write and publicise the truth. We lose our friends for this cause. Recently, our friends Nazım Daştan, Cihan Bilgin and Egit Roj, who also conveyed the truth, were killed by Turkish drones. We are both fighters and labourers of the truth. There is a price for conveying the truth and we pay this price every day. However, it is our promise and debt to those friends of ours.  Neither their pens nor their cameras will remain on the ground. The journey of truth will continue and our pen will never bend."

 

FEDERATED KURDISTAN: STRUGGLING FOR EXISTENCE

 

 

Mizgin Kara works as a journalis in Makhmur Camp in the Federated Kurdistan Region and emphasised the improtance of reporting the truth in places where there are attacks and persecution. Mizgin Kara said, "Every day we see and write about women being murdered, children being subjected to harassment and rape. Today we are struggling for existence in Makhmur, we speak in our mother tongue and receive education in our mother tongue. I am also a journalist, I show the life that is being built here."

 

Noting that they are subjected to attacks and obstructions by both Turkey and Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in Makhmur and that they do not have working conditions, Mizgin Kara added, "These dirty policies are mostly carried out through women. When we look at the legal regulations, a journalist should work in free conditions and carry out their work. However, we cannot go out of Makhmur. We are constantly confronted with obstructions by the KDP and Iraq. In our region, there is a constant attacks on the democratic nation system that Mr Öcalan has built and presented to us. We are trying to be put under pressure because we expose those who are hostile to the democratic nation system."

 

BAKUR: WITNESSING HISTORY

 

 

Rojda Aydın, JINNEWS reporter in Bakûr Kurdistan, drew attention to the pressures they face while reporting the truth. Rojda Aydın said, "It is not easy to do journalism here. Free Press continues its struggle despite all pressures, obstructions and threats. The Free Press cannot be silenced either by arrest or murder. We have been continuing our struggle with great determination since 1990. Many of our friends have been murdered while reporting the truth. We are not only following a news story, we are also witnessing a history. Telling the truth is a different feeling. For this reason, as women journalists who announce and write the truth, we must unite our strength everywhere. We welcome March 8 with women's struggle and resistance. We resist against the censorship of the truth, we raise our struggle."

 

ROJHILAT: WE ARE RECORDING HISTORY

 

Journalist in Urmia city of Rojhilat Sara Ahmadi talked about the difficulties they face. Stating that she has been called to testify several times for following the protests in Iran, Sara Ahmadi said, "I also face different difficulties because I am a woman. For example, we are paid less tgan men. Men can become editors in news. Men can become editors in news services with less experience. But we never get managerial positions in the media sector. There is always fear, but my field of work is not domestic politics. I usually translate Turkish news and English news, but even in international news I have to be very careful how I write about Iran's relations with other countries, what point of view I choose and what wources I cite. Frankly, to say that there is no danger is to deceive ourselves. During the Jîna Emînî protests I was called to testify twice, only because of my social media posts. My family is constantly pressurising me, telling me to find another job or get married. However, I do not want to live dependent on a man."

 

Stating that most men in Iran do not believe that women should have equal rights, Sara Ahmadi stressed: "This is one of the structural problems of women in Iran. It is really hard to do journalism in such an environment. But I still believe that this work is valuable. Even is we cannot tell the whole truth, we are doing a valuable job. My message to all my colleagues in the Middle East on the occasion of March 8; we record history, we are the language and ears of the people where we are. I hope that one day we will be able to freely write and tell the true stories of our people under conditions where the truth is not obstructed."

 

MA / Zeynep Durgut