Welcome to Episode 20 of the Social Justice Salon.

In this episode, we learn about the amazing Women’s Revolution that emerged in Rojava in Syria during 2010s. We discuss how the Kurdish women set up an egalitarian society at the same time as fighting the forces of ISIS. Marianne is joined by Rahila Gupta who has been to Rojava and learned all about this region first hand

Rahila is an author and activist. She is a patron of Peace in Kurdistan and on the management committee of Southall Black Sisters. She has authored a huge range of books, articles, short stories, poetry, essays, screenplays and plays for theatre, for names such as The Guardian, New Internationalist, Feminist Dissent, The Independent on Sunday, Asian Times, Spare Rib, Disability Now, The Lancet, and Poetry Salzburg. Most recently, with Beatrix Campbell, she has authored the book Planet Patriarchy a continent-crossing panorama of women’s rights, women’s oppression and women’s politics in the twenty-first century.

Marianne and Rahila discuss the context that the Rojava women’s revolution emerged in, the hideous threat that ISIS posed to women in the region, and how this new society instigated new values, new institutions and a new way of life in northern Syria. It is an episode not to miss.

Links and more info

Buy Rahila’s latest book Planet Patriarchy

Visit her website

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Become a member of Marianne’s Patreon

Music by Luke Fraser at The Tonic and Artwork was by Marianne