IRAN-IRAQ BORDER, Nov 04 (IPS) – Iran-Iraq border -It often takes hours of driving in a 4X4 earlier than heading out on foot via a dense forest. There, protected underneath a sea of beech bushes from the view of the drones, it’s the guerrillas of the PJAK (Occasion for a Free Life in Kurdistan) who discover us.
We’re someplace within the mountains throughout the border between Iran and Iraq. We can’t give our coordinates, nor can we {photograph} the guerrilla fighters or any spatial references which will give clues about their location. That is the deal.
The PJAK is a company made up primarily of Kurdish women and men from Iran combating for the democratization of the nation via the traces of “democratic confederalism,” a libertarian-left, culturally progressive ideology and political system outlined by Abdullah Öcalan. He’s the co-founder and chief of the PKK (Kurdistan Employees’ Occasion) in jail since 1999 and sentenced to life by the Turkish state.
Two girls of their thirties invite us to sit round a desk inside a humble mountain hut. Considered one of them is Zilan Vejin, the co-president of PJAK. We ask her about essentially the most urgent subject: the chain of protests in Iran which are difficult the Shia theocracy in energy since 1979.
It was final September 16 when Mahsa Amini , a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish lady, was overwhelmed to demise by the Iranian “morality police” for sporting the Islamic scarf incorrectly. Since then, hundreds of women and men have taken to the streets chanting “Girls, Life, Freedom”, a slogan that, Vejin recollects, was coined by her motion throughout a 2013 assembly.
“The issue of girls’s freedom is a matter whose significance was recognized, analyzed and outlined by our management 40 years in the past. Right this moment, all of the peoples of Iran are dealing with it,” the guerrilla fighter tells IPS.
A number of worldwide organizations corresponding to Amnesty Worldwide have denounced the difficulties of ethnic minorities -such as Kurds, Baluch or Arabs- in accessing schooling, employment or housing.
Along with socioeconomic discrimination, all girls no matter their ethnicity have seemingly turn into the goal of the theocratic authorities.
In its newest report on the nation, Human Rights Watch denounced the marginalization of half the inhabitants in issues corresponding to marriage, divorce, inheritance and little one custody. The shortage of choices for ladies in conditions corresponding to home violence or little one marriage can be famous by the NGO.
Might this civil rebellion put an finish to all this? The PJAK co-leader is optimistic.
“This revolt may be very totally different from all people who have occurred within the 43 years that the ayatollahs have spent in energy. It began in Kurdistan led by girls, and from there it unfold all through the nation as a result of it brings collectively individuals of all nationalities inside Iran,” claims the senior guerrilla fighter.
The hijab, she stresses, is “the excuse for a revolt that requires freedom and democracy. Folks do not simply need reforms with out looking for to alter the present insurance policies, the system and the administration”.
On whether or not the armed battle may be one of many means to attain it, Vejin sticks to the correct to “reliable protection”.
“The armed battle is just part of our power that additionally consists of civil, social and democratic actions. In fact, if the State commits massacres, we won’t stay idle,” says the Kurdish lady.
On the Iranian board
PJAK militia girls will not be the one Kurdish girls in Iran able to take up arms. There are girls combating alongside males within the ranks of the PDKI (Democratic Occasion of Iranian Kurdistan), whereas the PAK (Kurdistan Freedom Occasion) even has an all-female contingent.
The latter’s final objective is the creation of an unbiased Kurdish state that features the 4 components into which it’s presently divided (Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria).
Hana Hussein Yazdanpana, the spokesperson for the PAK girls’s contingent, spoke to IPS by phone from an unspecified location within the mountains. Apparently, their bases within the valley have turn into a recurring goal for Iranian missiles.
“The final one occurred on September 28: we misplaced ten of ours and 21 had been injured. Iran has threatened us with doing it once more if we do not cease supporting the protests and giving shelter to these fleeing the nation,” defined Yazdanpana.
In line with her, the PAK has 3,000 Peshmerga (“Those that face demise,” in Kurdish) fighters. One-third are girls who obtained coaching from the American and German contingents, amongst others, included within the worldwide coalition in opposition to the Islamic State.
They’ve additionally fought Tehran-backed Shiite militias working on Iraqi soil. As as to whether they may reap the benefits of that have to battle in opposition to the ayatollahs, Yazdanpana was blunt.
“The battle have to be peaceable. The protest will solely achieve success if the free world overtly helps the individuals and takes motion in opposition to the Islamic Republic.”
Aside from within the Kurdish mountains, the guerrillas can be discovered on the Web. On its web site, the Komala Occasion of Iranian Kurdistan defines itself as “a social democratic occasion that advocates for a free and democratic federal Iran.”
With its bases within the southeastern nook of the Kurdish Autonomous Area of Iraq -very near the border with Iran- Komala claims to be the primary Kurdish group to ever arrange a battalion of girls fighters, again in 1982.
“When Komala was based in 1969 one among its important pillars, in addition to socialism and Kurdish self-determination, was gender equality,” Zagros Khosravi, a member of its central committee, advised IPS over the cellphone.
He pointed to a contingent of “a number of hundred fighters deployed within the mountains,” however insisted that their important power lies within the “hundreds” that may be mobilized inside Iran. “A lot of them have been educated in civil resistance techniques,” famous the guerrilla.
One of the latest milestones, he added, was the creation, along with the PDKI, of a cooperation node between Kurdish-Iranian political events. “You possibly can see the consequence within the excessive stage of participation of the Kurdish nation in these protests,” he added.
From the Kurdish Peace Institute, Kamal Chomani, a Kurdish affairs analyst, advised IPS over the cellphone that coordination between the Kurdish-Iranian organizations will likely be “key” if a possible escalation of violence in opposition to the protests results in an open armed battle with the regime.
The variations between the totally different Kurdish-Iranian organizations, he added, reply to the variety of the Kurdish political arc as a complete.
“Whereas in Syria and Turkey the vast majority of Kurds subscribe to a leftist, progressive and communalist ideology, in Iran and Iraq we come throughout a nationalist and traditionalist variable during which tribal keys are additionally essential,” defined Chomani.
As to how these actors are deployed on the troubled Iranian chessboard, the professional foresees this situation:
“The PJAK is the one with essentially the most expertise in guerrilla warfare on account of its hyperlinks with the PKK they usually have nice organizational capability. The PDKI, and particularly Komala, have sturdy roots in Iran as a result of they’ve been very energetic politically and militarily because the Seventies, and that can enable them to mobilize fighters inside the nation.”
In the meantime, Iranian girls proceed to take to the streets. In line with information from the HRANA information company -managed by human rights activists-an estimated 300 have been killed because the protests started. The variety of detainees now exceeds 13,000.
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