AMED – Giving the closing speech at TJA's "Chain of Silence" conference, TJA member Gülbahar Alpsoy said: "Women will break the chain of silence."

 

The conference organized by the Free Women's Movement (Tevgera Jinên Azad-TJA) under the title "Chain of Silence: Breaking Down the Walls Around Female Political Prisoners" ended after the workshops held on the second day. At the closing forum titled "How can we move forward together?", Dr. Shahrzad Mojab made a presentation titled "From Dialogue to Action: Developing cooperation strategies for women political prisoners and creating concrete and measurable plans."

 

'WE MUST NOT REMAIN SILENT ABOUT TORTURE'

 

Mojab, who connected to the conference online, drew attention to the violence against women prisoners in Iranian prisons. Pointing out that sexual violence is used as a torture system, especially on women, Mojab said: “When we look at the political agenda, we are all responsible for this. We must not remain silent about these, we need to break this chain of silence. It is necessary to document and archive these. Moving it to international areas is of great importance locally. These need to be transformed. My aim is to draw attention to torture and survival while telling these stories. Beyond cultural interpretation, attention should be drawn to the oppressive attacks of Turkey and Iran. It is necessary to unite in solidarity”

 

WE MUST PREVENT IT

 

Saying that the state manipulates violence, Mojab said: “Prisons are real stories. As you know, there are some pressures and rebellions. This is how the revolution took place in Iran, it was born carrying the seeds of its own defeat. Even though I am out of prison, I am not free from the violence of the state. If you are out of prison, you have a responsibility no matter where you are. We need to prevent global punishment”

 

'FASCIST GAMES ARE BEING PLAYED'

 

Noting that there are an incredible number of political women prisoners in the Middle East, Mojab said: “We must all directly oppose the rules and social norms, because they violate the rights of women. Nationalist, capitalist-imperialist forces are playing fascist games. Platforms that create only destruction have been created. I'm talking about the lives of the Kurds in Syria and Turkey. Women are sold as sex workers, confined to care labor, and many women are rendered disabled. The majority of people are completely acquired by their lives. Their right to life is being taken away from them. The current wars are wars of civilizations. War policy also serves domination”

 

INTERNATIONAL SILENCE CONTINUES'

 

Mojab said: “International silences continue, we also see the lack of solidarity. A very important report was published in 2018. It was about the situation of political prisoners in the Middle East, it was called 'silent massacre'. It is said that the number of political prisoners has increased and the pressure in the region has increased. It increased because they criticized the state. This is an alarming situation for all of us. As a result of the civil war in Syria, approximately 118 thousand individuals have been arrested, forcibly disappeared, their rights have been constantly violated and condemned to live in terrible conditions. It is said that there are approximately 60 thousand political prisoners in Egypt. We know that there are approximately 10 thousand prisoners in Israel. There is incredible pressure on activists in Iran, people in prison saw incredible pressure during the 'jin jiyan azadi' protests. The proportion of Kurds among political prisoners is very high, 40 percent”

 

‘ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS MUST BE FREE'

 

Emphasizing that women's struggle is very important, Mojab concluded her words as follows: “The freedom of every political prisoner is an important slogan here. This means that this demand is not just about abolishing the prison system here, it is about eliminating authoritarian regimes. This is the content of the slogan 'Women, life and freedom'. It is an important platform established for the freedom of all political prisoners and the solidarity of international institutions."

 

Mojab's presentation ended with a question and answer session.

 

'BORDERS DO NOT MATTER FOR WOMEN'

 

TJA member Gülbahar Alpsoy, who made the closing speech after the presentation, said: “This conference was not just the transfer of experience; it will be meaningful if these experiences gain a certain organization. Perhaps what we experienced in the 4 workshops held in connection with this will be an important step in our evolution to organization” Stating that women have always been strong together, Alpsoy said: “Sovereigns and states established the borders. Those who established borders also separated beliefs according to colors and languages, and separated people from each other with the logic of divide and rule. Women's main policy is their unifying power. Women also have the philosophy of reconstruction with the perspective of a democratic nation”

 

‘IF THE ISOLATION IS ABOLISHED, THE SOCIETY WILL BREATH

 

Alpsoy said: “The state also starts the war,” and added: “Women and children are the ones who suffer. There are attacks on Rojava right now, these attacks are an intervention on Kurdish gains. As women, it is women themselves who will put an end to war and occupation. It is very important to produce policies against these attacks. Our conference, which we call the chain of silence, was a conference held against torture, human rights violations, and most importantly, the current isolation policies. If we are going to break all attacks in dungeons and all areas of life of society, first of all, it is necessary to understand well the absolute isolation imposed on Mr. Abdullah Öcalan in İmralı and to reveal the organization aimed at abolishing this isolation. The isolation is getting deeper day by day, the isolation that started from there affects all areas of life of the society and has made it impossible to breathe. The society needs to breathe, and this breathing will be achieved by abolishing the absolute isolation in İmralı. We, as the Kurdish women's movement, have never run away from the truth”

 

WOMEN WILL BREAK THE CHAIN'

 

Stating that it is women who will break the chains of silence, Alpsoy said: “Even though the rulers want to keep us in the dark, we will not stay in this darkness. It is women, women's conscience, morality and justice who will break the chains. Women can achieve this together. It doesn't matter which country we live in”