MEDİNE MAMEDOĞLU

Amed – Turkey’s first female editor-in-chief Gurbetelli Ersöz was killed on October 7, 1997. Since then, October 7 is celebrated as Kurdish Women Journalists’ Day. Kurdish women journalists such as Gurbetelli Ersöz, Ayfer Serçe, Deniz Fırat and Nujiyan Erhan, who followed the truth, left their legacy of resistance to all Kurdish women journalists.

Kurdish women journalists started their struggle by founding JINHA, an all-women news agency, in order to give a new impulse to women journalism. However, the news agency was shut down by a decree in law issued on October 29, 2016. After the closure of JINHA, they founded Şûjin News Agency; however, Şûjin was also shut down by a decree in law. On September 25, 2017, Kurdish women founded Jinnews despite all the pressure. After a while, they founded JİN TV, Kurdish women’s channel.

Kurdish women journalists keep reporting about injustice, exploitation and oppression faced by all women in Kurdistan, Turkey, the Middle East and the world. Fearlessly, they keep writing despite oppression and obstacles in order to be the voice of all women. In this process, women journalists are subjected to detention, arrest, torture and threats. Some of them were killed. On October 4, Kurdish feminist journalist and writer Nagihan Akarsel was gunned down outside her home in Sulaymaniyah.

“Kurdish women have paid a great price in the path of truth”

Mesopotamia Women Journalists’ Platform (Mezopotamya Kadın Gazeteciler Platformu-MKGP) spokesperson and Jinnews Kurdish editor Roza Metina spoke to NuJINHA about the resistance of Kurdish women journalists. “Kurdish women have paid a great price in the path of truth,” she said, “Today, thousands of women journalists resist to follow the path of truth.” Speaking about the Kurdish Women Journalists’ Day, she said, “Kurdish Women Journalists Day has a great meaning for us because Gurbetelli Ersöz lost her life on that day. Kurdish women journalists continue to report despite all kinds of challenges and oppression. Many Kurdish women such as Nujiyan Erhan, Deniz Fırat and Şilan Aras paid the price for following the truth. These women were killed because they reported on women,” Roza Metina said.

“We will take up Nagihan’s pen”

Pointing to the killing of Kurdish feminist journalist and writer Nagihan Akarsel in Sulaymaniyah, Roza Metina said, “Nagihan was an academic, journalist and writer. She was killed in Sulaymaniyah. Nagihan’s colleagues promise to take up her pen and follow her legacy. Kurdish women journalists resist oppression and stand firm. Actually, the will of Kurdish women was targeted in the person of Nagihan. As a response to the attack against Nagihan, we, as Kurdish women journalists, take up her pen and say, ‘Jin, Jiyan, Azadi (Women, Life, Freedom)”. The attack on Nagihan was also an attack against Kurdish women journalists and women's struggle for freedom.”

“Women journalists are first targeted”

Roza Metina stated that women journalists following the path of truth in four parts of Kurdistan face oppression and violations for doing journalism. “Women journalists resist pressure, insults and detentions while doing journalism. Governments do not want people to know the truth; they do not want rights violations and torture practiced by them. For these reasons, they first attack journalists in order to cover their crimes. Hundreds of our colleagues have been detained and arrested for their reports. But women journalists continue to report despite detentions and arrests.”

“Crackdown on journalists becomes systematic”

“According to the data of the MKGP, Kurdish women journalists have been subjected to 161 rights violations in the last seven months,” Roza Metina said, pointing out that these violations are neither the first nor the last.

“Today, women journalists resist these pressures and continue to report. This is a good message to the male-dominant system. The patriarchal mentality aims to systematize the crackdown on Kurdish women journalists.”