Testimony from Amara Şervan on The Independent.
Isis may have been destroyed – but the fight for women’s liberation is far from over:
« I decided to join the YPJ in 2013. From the very start, Rimelan until Derik, Tel Kocer, Sere Kaniye, Manbij, Shengal, until now in Deir Ezzor, in every campaign, we went through so much. What I remember from the war against Isis is our will to rise up, our desire for life, and our connection as comrades. […]
The war against Isis in Rojava drew the attention of the whole world. There was never anything like it in history before. Women and men fought side by side together, and lived together in an ethical way. It’s not only in marriage that women and men can come together. They can unite and struggle and resist attacks against them.
Against our enemies and their ideology, our war will never stop. In particular, we are always struggling for the minds of the people. But we take morale from the military defeat of a force like Isis, which has carried out such a repugnant war, particularly against women. […]
When we liberated Deir-ez-Zor, we liberated some women who were in Isis’s hands. We spoke together and we said, “You see how women can rise up? How they can fight for liberation? How Arab women rise up and become leaders?”
The most beautiful women are those who sacrificed themselves when men sought to dirty and subjugate them and the women of the world.
We’ve lost so many fighters, so many young people, women, children and families have been killed. So many people have been burned alive and decapitated. We’ve gone through so much pain to get to this point.
It had to end in Isis being eradicated. But our war against oppression is not over yet. »
