YPG International made a statement on the occasion of International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, November 25th, saying the following:

“Today, states’ capitalist and class system is based on thousands of years of exploitation, oppression and violence against women. All around the world, we can see how patriarchal violence against women is reaching new heights. But if this violence has lasted for thousands of years, the resistance of women against it is also thousands of years old.

In every country, in every continent of the world, the struggle for the liberation of women has been systematically at the forefront of the struggle. One of the brightest examples of this legacy of resistance can be seen here, in Kurdistan and in the Rojava revolution. Here, the Kurdistan women’s movement has been the vanguard in the struggle for the transformation and liberation of life. Here, we learned that the liberation of society cannot be achieved without the liberation of women. The struggle for women’s freedom is the struggle for the freedom of everyone.

As men, as revolutionaries, it is our fundamental duty to make the struggle against patriarchy an essential part of our daily practice and struggle, and to reject and overcome every aspect that patriarchy has influenced in behaviour, mentality or action.

We are calling on every man to fight against the male-dominant system outside and inside themselves. We are sending with admiration and with the deepest respect our greeting to the Kurdistan women’s movement and all women’s movements around the world fighting against patriarchal violence. We draw a lot of inspiration and strength from their resistance.

Biji berxwedana YPJ (Long live the YPJ resistance), Jin, Jiyan, Azadi (Woman, Life, Freedom).”