Feminism
In Kurdish, the word jin (ژن) means “woman.” Jineology is sometimes translated into English as the science of women, or Feminism.
Jineology (Kurdish: Jineolojî) is a form of feminism and of gender equality that was advocated by Abdullah Öcalan. From the background of honor-based religious and tribal rules that confine women in Middle East societies, Öcalan said that “a country can’t be free unless the women are free”, and that the level of women’s freedom determines the level of freedom in society at large.
Women make up 40% of the Kurdish militia fighting in the Rojava conflict against the Bashar al-Assad regime and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in the Syrian Civil War. Women fight alongside men in the People’s Protection Units (YPG) as well as in their own Women’s Protection Units (YPJ). In the YPJ, women study the political theories of Öcalan, on whose ideology the foundations of the group were laid. For female participants in the reconstruction of northern Syria, Jineology is seen as superior to Western feminism because it aims to reject all forms of hegemony, including patriarchy and positivism, in order to establish a more sustainable peace. This is because Jineology is seen as more holistic and inclusive of all members of society. During the Rojava revolution, both men and women were required to study Jineology and ecology, and Jineology is integrated into the region’s governance model rather than being treated as a separate issue focused on women’s rights.
