SILVA AL-IBRAHIM

 Manbij- Women, who are attacked by the Turkish state and Turkish-backed factions in the Manbij Canton of North and East Syria, express at every opportunity that they will not leave their homeland and will protect their homeland in unity. Manbij is one of the cantons of North and East Syria, being targeted in bombardment and armed attacks.

 Special policies have been implemented against people, said Silvana Muhammad, a journalist and member of the Intellectuals Union in Manbij. “The capitalist authorities aim to destroy society. The war waged by capitalism aims to cause moral disintegration,” she said. “This war especially targets young people because this group represents the backbone of society. Awareness-raising activities should be organized so that people can return to their roots.”

Mervat Mahmoud, member of the Jineology Academy defines the policies implemented against people as “Special war policies”. “There are many methods of warfare; special war policies are one of them,” she told us. “These special war policies aim to destroy the will of people, causing pessimism, hopelessness and disinterest among people.”

Mervat Mahmoud also thinks that sexual assault is a method of warfare. “This method aims to cause moral disintegration. We witness how wars affect societies. Today, rape and harassment cases are seen normal. The perpetrators go unpunished.”

 Speaking about how people can protect themselves from the special war policies, she said:

“As Jineology Academy, we aim to make women get to know their own existence and reality by developing a culture based on ideology. Conscious women having free personalities can protect themselves from such policies.”

 ‘Education is a must’

Reem Darwish, member of the Education Bureau of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), thinks the special war policies were produced by capitalist countries to exploit minds. “Young people are affected by these policies more. For instance, sports are physical activities to have a healthy body; however, capitalist countries have turned sports into a tool of making the most profit.”

Recalling that Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan said that education is a must for all individuals to protect themselves from special war policies, Reem Darwish said, “Education is like water, food and oxygen for us, we cannot live without it. Education is a must to protect people and societies from the policies of assimilation and destruction.”