Overview

This talk intends to stimulate a meeting of knowledges about the thoughts and practices alternative to the modern neoliberal and colonial rationality stemming from the experience of Democratic Confederalism in Rojava. It is therefore a talk between Zilan Diyar,  member of the Kurdish Women's Movement, with twenty years of experience in the implementation of autonomous female structures between Kurdistan and Europe, and three speakers from Portuguese academy and/or civil society: Carolina Moreira (UMAR Coimbra), Sinan Eden (Climáximo), Stefania Barca (CES/Ecosoc).

From a perspective from the South, the issues surrounding the current crisis of Western democracy and the successes and challenges of alternative praxis will be addressed, with particular attention to the economic, ecological and gender dimensions. Following the projection of self-produced videos on the Jinwar women's ecovillage in Rojava (eastern Kurdistan), the self-organising responses that the Kurdish people could establish in the midst of the war in northern Syria will be analysed, highlighting the central role of women in of this new sociopolitical construction.

In this regard, the conversation will be a precious opportunity to learn about Democratic Confederalism not only in practice but also in its most innovative theoretical developments, such as the formulation of a "women's science" (Jineoloji), which is one of the main bases philosophical and scientific perspective of the Kurdish model.

The talk will be moderated by Eleonora Gea Piccardi (CES/FEUC and Ecosoc) and Ceren Akyos (CES/FEUC) who will also tend the translation between Turkish and Portuguese.

Organised by the Ecology and Society Workshop (CES/Ecosoc) in collaboration with the Doctoral Programmes Democracy in the 21st Century and Post-Colonialisms and Global Citizenship.

Bio note

Zilan Diyar was born in 1975 in Dersim (Bakur, Nord Kurdistan). She completed her studies at the University of Marmara, History Department. In the last twenty years she has been an activist for the Kurdish Liberation Movement. She worked as a journalist for the Sorgul Women's Journal in Lebanon for two years and Roj TV for four years. A founding member of the Jineoloji Centre,  she is now overseeing the Jineoloji Committee in Europe between activism and research in this area.