On the 15th of January 2005 the Star Union organization was founded on a two year long struggle to assemble the power, potential and aspirations of Kurdish women. The need for women to organize was crucial in order to collectively voice our rights and to claim our rightful place in society. Most important was
the need for Kurdish women to claim independence and to gain recognition as equal members at home and active participants of society. In order to achieve this the Star Union Organization has nurtured and utilized the newly won rights of congregation in Western Kurdistan to organize, to educate ourselves and our society and to carry out activities aimed at serving our goals. We consider our struggle as a continuation of the historical liberation movements. The Star union organization was formed by feminist movements that decided to join efforts and come together in order to gain and protect the rights of women.
The Aim
The Star Union aims at constructing a democratic and ecological society. It wishes to abolish socially constructed gender as a basis for inequality and it seeks to free women from coercion and injustice. It will do so by organizing and educating women in social, political, cultural, legal and economical rights with the aim to rebuild a free and morally defendable society. Its goal is also to participate actively to solve the Kurdish issue by democratic means by way of local self-management and free association. The women liberation is thus carried out within the framework of a Con-federalist system dedicated to the ideology of freedom. The unions structure and activities are based on democratic administrative and regulative elections that aims to represents all classes of society regardless of nationality, belief or affiliation.
Structure
Star is has a feminist base and works downwards up:
Women commons
Commons represents the street, the neighbourhood or the village, the commons can be
founded according to their role or the task at hand, it represents a practical form of direct democracy. It forms resolutions and carries out activities necessary for daily life such as economy, social services, politics, culture, health care, education and self-defence.
Women's council
Consists of representatives of commons as well as social and cultural organizations in the region or the city, the council discusses the issues and the problems faced by women
in society. The Council is also responsible for building communes, institutions and committees (social, educational, legal, culture, art, health ... etc.) that women need in the region or the city. The Council has the authority to make decisions regarding these issues in the concerned place, the council members are the ones who discuss, decide and plan all of this. The Council shall elect a coordinating committee to carry out its activities.
Coordination committees
the women's council elects and make follow ups on resolutions they also guide the committees and commons and submit their reports to the women's council in the concerned area and is accountable for their work. The will of the council is the basis of the committees work.
the General assembly
Is the highest legislative council which makes decisions concerning the women organised in the Star Union, the Council will hold its regular meeting annually, in emergency situations it will hold valid meetings in the presence of two thirds of the members, and legalise the drafts made by the councils and committees, it will take decisions necessary to continue the democratic struggle to fight for the Kurdish women in all of Western Kurdistan of Syria.
The council determines the policies of the Star Union and set its course and the organizational order, the election of the executive body of the Council
of the Federation Star.
The executive council
The executive council of the Star union is elected by the council, they submit its reports to it and it is responsible before the council and the general assembly
to observe the activities on the ground and to organise committees for this reason. It is also responsible for collecting reports from all the committees and other councils related to the Union and to cooperate with all the councils and committees. It will hold meetings every six months and shall elect a supreme body among themselves to observe the work done and to manage activities.
General conference
is the highest authority in the Union, it is held every two years with the attendance of at least two-thirds of the members, the Conference shall modify or accept the Charter of the Union and plan the annual work and to determine the work on the organisational level. The Conference take its decisions by two-thirds majority. The voting adheres to the principle of confidentiality and the process of counting votes will be transparent, the counting is made by
the Election Commission elected in the conference session
Special provisions
The Union takes the guise of an accrual for sex by 40% or the principle of positive discrimination in favour of women in the elections.
It also represents the same in all institutions of the democratic society movement "TEV DEM" starting from the commons up to the councils
Women will organise themselves autonomously and independently within all institutions and organizations within the "TEV-DEM" framework.
The Star Union has so far carried out activities all over Western Kurdistan, it has held conferences in Hewler and it has organized social committees such as the “mothers of peace committee” dedicated to delivering the message of peace and to promote the freedom of Mr Abdullah Öcalan. Our organization is based on Abdullah Öcalans philosophy and his ideas of how to buld a democratic society by way of committees that are dedicated to solving social problems, especially those that are concerned with abuse and mistreatment of women. We are dedicated to stopping practices of violence against women in the name of honour which often lead to suicide or homicide. The political and diplomatic relations committees is aimed at developing political relations with other organisations of other nationalities and ethnic groups, the committee works on developing relations with other Kurdish organization, in addition to the Arab, Assyrian and Syriac organization in order to amass the collective power of Women to solve problems and secure a bright, democratic future that insures our rights, freedom and participation in society.
Care committee: established in order to care for old women, to support them and to tend to them and to insure their needs.
Training Committee: based on a strategy of training on how to educate women and society, this committee sets up private groups to deepen the specific programs and to develop thought-ideological awareness and concepts of freedom and democratic politics.
Finance Committee , oversees the financial status of Star Union, which is being financed by donations.
In addition, the academic conditions now allow for feminist academies to be opened in Derik and in Efrin in order to educate competent cadres to organize the Union Star and women's struggle.
Centres for women were opened in most of the territories in Western Kurdistan and its task is to train the women to deal with problems and education. Women now can go to these centres instead of going to the regime's courts where they were often left at the mercy of traditional man-based laws. There are currently 15 centres open now and these are related to the star union in each province. Every centre has its own management staff headed by a representative that manage the relations in each centre.
The Union also stands to secure economical resources to solve the women’s economical issues that make them dependent on patriarchal structures.
Our organization faces many obstacles especially when considering the nature of the Kurdish society. The Kurdish society has long been short of development on the issue of women but women have now proved themselves thru their struggle. Our society is based on male dominance and until now women have been subjected to repressive cultural and social customs, with our work we hope to educate all people on the malignant effects of this kind of a society. The Baath regime had long targeted all Kurdish movements including feminist movements, the Star union rose against this when the regime recruited women gather intelligence and to open brothels in the Kurdish society that demoralized the people. Our opposition meant that many of us were arrested and subjected to torture during which many died. This did not undermine of weaken or resilience but instead strengthened our determination.
The gender issue is a complex one and solving it requires a lot of effort through self organisation because historically women have sit still in the Kurdish struggle calling for freedom, they have attained nothing for themselves because they didn’t have the proper organisational structures and was kept repressed in a masculine society, although they gained some rights within society they didn’t organise themselves and didn’t achieve to create a system in which women are equal, instead she was subjected to the will of the men. Therefore it is essential for women to work together to develop our own Philosophy in life to achieve the democratic, ecological, gender-liberated, society that grants social justice to everyone.
Despite all these events that we have made so far, we haven’t attained the attention needed from the international organizations concerned with women's affairs, Is it because it is the Kurdish frontier?
Supporting from international organizations is very important and we hope to get the support from organizations that claim to support women's rights.
Thank you all
Best regards to everyone
Hediya Ali Yousif
Member of the Star Union organization and in the Internal and external relations committee