Recently, there has been constant talk of a looming threat in the Middle East. It's scary and foreign, striking quickly and unexpectedly, and always resulting in devastation and tragedy in its wake. This threat is called terrorism. And now the champions of terrorism are none other than ISIS.
The nation of Syria is deep into a complex civil war. Different insurgent groups are revolting against the leader of the nation, Bashar al-Assad. Meanwhile, ISIS has claimed Syrian territory themselves, imposing their reactionary fundamentalist laws on the people there. Caught in this struggle are a people largely overlooked in much of the world. A nation without a state or territory, the Kurds.
Rojava is the western part of the region that is known as Kurdistan. This region is divided among four different countries with Rojava being a part of Syria. Syrian troops have left Rojavan militants mostly in control of their own territory since the war, and Rojava is currently involved in setting up their region's unique government and combating ISIS.
Rojava and ISIS are two polar opposites dueling on the battlefield. Their ideologies are both "radical" but on opposite sides of the political spectrum. While ISIS is a dark parasitic mass of authoritarian fundamentalism, Rojava is a bright light of radical gender equality, libertarian socialism, and direct democracy.
Rojava's government is founded on the principles of Democratic Confederalism, a libertarian-socialist ideology created by the leader of the Kurdistan workers party while in prison. This ideology advocates for the use of direct democracy for decisions, gender equality stemming from it's anarchist feminist aspects, and sustainability stemming from its social ecology aspects, and for the gradual dissolution of the state.
This ideology shows itself in Rojava's combat with ISIS. The towns in Rojava are governed by direct democratic councils, and the People's Protection Units that make up the army contain many strong women! Rojava battles its foe with an idea of freedom close to its heart, and while their struggle may not be known to most people, it has certainly captured the hearts of many. People from all over the world have traveled to this land, and have been willing to fight and die both for the realization of a free society, and to fight with good people against ISIS.
But why does this matter? Why should someone in a removed part of the world, care at all about this struggle? The importance lies in the thought, the proposition, that a free and equal society is possible. And in the idea that oppressive regimes can be battled- must be battled, for the realization of a better world.
If you want to learn more, please take a look at this page: /r/rojava.
