RONÎDA HACÎ

Hasakah- Since December 8, 2024, the Turkish state and Turkish-backed factions have intensified their attacks on North and East Syria, especially on the Tishreen Dam, the second largest dam in North and East Syria. On January 8, 2025, the people from many cities of North and East Syria went to the dam in convoys and started a vigil to protect both the dam, the main source of electricity of the region, and their region from the attacks; however, the Turkish state has kept targeting civilians holding the vigil on the dam.

While the resistance of the people continues on the dam, 16-year-old Emîna Şêx Bekir reflects what has been going on in the region in her paintings. She has been displaced twice by the attacks of ISIS and the Turkish state. When she was six, her family was displaced from Kobanê to Serêkaniyê (Ras al-Ayn) by the attacks of ISIS. The attacks of the Turkish state and Turkish-backed factions Serêkaniyê in 2019 displaced thousands to Hasakah, including the family of Emîna Şêx Bekir.

‘I want to become a journalist’

Emîna Şêx Bekir has been interested in drawing and painting since her childhood. She has portrayed women, who led the revolution in Rojava, fighters and Cihan Bilgin and Nazım Daştan, two journalists killed in a Turkish drone strike while covering the clashes around the Tishreen Dam.

“Journalism fascinated me since my childhood,” she told NuJINHA. “When ISIS attacked Kobanê in 2014, my family had to leave Kobanê. At that time, I was six years old. We faced many challenges. We settled in Serêkaniyê; however, the Turkish state and Turkish-backed factions attacked Serêkaniyê in 2019, displacing us. Then, we settled in Hasakah. Now, they want to attack Kobanê, the stronghold of the resistance, and kill people. I started painting to show the atrocities of the Turkish state.”

‘It’s time to resist’

Emîna Şêx Bekir thinks that reporting the truth is her duty. “Therefore, I started painting journalists who were martyred while reporting the truth. It’s time to resist; resistance has no age limit. We must fulfill our responsibilities everywhere.”

‘I tell the realities of war and the resistance against it in my paintings’

Emîna Şêx Bekir also commented on the war waged against the Kurdish people. “Today, everyone must resist by using a pen, a camera, a song or a weapon. Since I am still very young, I tell the realities of the war and the resistance against it in my paintings to support the SDF fighters.”

Emîna Şêx Bekir told us why she depicted Cihan Bilgin in one of her paintings. “Cihan was a strong and determined woman. She made great efforts to report the truth. She was martyred while covering the attacks of the Turkish state. I drew the Tishreen Dam behind her and martyr Nazım. A resistance has been carried out on the Tishreen Dam. This is a life and death resistance. I call on everyone to support the resistance on the Tishreen Dam. I want to become a journalist in order to follow in the footsteps of Cihan and Nazım.”