All across northeast Syria we can hear the music and the colors of what has become the most important day of this revolution. 8 of March, the international day of the working women, is celebrated as the revolutionary festivity it was called to be 115 years ago.
These celebrations contrast with what we see in the rest of Syria, were a new Islamist government is taking over the reigns of what is left from the Assad regime. We know that Syrian women, who worked endlessly to take down the regime, who fought back to take down the caliphate of ISIS, won’t accept the misogyny that the new theocratic rulers will try to impose. They will defend the freedom and autonomy they carved out of the patriarchal system. They will fight back, and we will be on their side.
The celebrations here also contrast with those we know from some of our home countries, were liberal feminism is taking more ground every year. Every year we see new waves of corporative advertising trying to profit from such important date, praising women who become CEO’s and heads of a government. We also see how many women and queers fight back, honoring the revolutionary legacy of the 8 of March, denouncing and attacking the patriarchal system that oppress all of us. It is there were we found ourselves, and it is there were we found our path that lead us to the revolution here.
And yes, we come from far away to join this revolution. A very wise writer wrote that true voyage is return. She might be rigth. It is often here that we learn to see the threads that unite us all in the struggle. That we carry in our hearts the sacred embers of freedom, the love that nurtures and gives us the strength to revolutionize the world. And that every year our world is growing. The world of free women, the world of free life.
Everyone is invited, come and join the dance!
Têkoşîna Anarşîst
8 of March 2025
