NEWS CENTER - Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan shared the ‘Free Women's Declaration’ during the March 8. The Kurdish People's Leader said, "It is clear that we must exert every effort so that the coming century becomes a century of women’s liberation. No challenge can be more meaningful than the struggle against rape culture that stretches back tens of thousands of years.”

 

Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan released a “Free Women's Declaration” for International Women's Day on March 8.

 

The full text of the declaration is as follows: 

 

“I salute your struggle to turn the 21st century into the century of women. Both the “Call for Peace and Democratic Society” dated February 27, 2025, and the Manifesto for Peace and Democratic Society address women’s freedom as the fundamental question of socialism, while also establishing its contemporary resolution as the ground for solving all social problems. The question of women’s revolution stands beyond all other societal questions; therefore, I place women’s freedom at the forefront.

 

The question of women’s freedom is the most vital issue of our time. The fundamental condition for achieving a democratic society and of being socialist is the establishment of a democratic, equal, and free relationship with women. An important initial step has been taken in this regard through the conceptual and theoretical framework we have developed based on the paradigm of democratic modernity and jineoloji *. However, its politics of praxis—its construction—stands before us as a fundamental responsibility and duty.

 

The construction of the Free Woman

 

For women, it is essential to correctly establish the relationship between history, the present, and the future. In the history of humanity, societal life became possible through the constructive power of the mother-woman. The constructive power of women enabled the socialization of humanity. The most significant point here is that the construction of humanity took place through women and on a communal basis. This is a point of great importance and is directly connected to the present and future freedom of women. These are essential both for raising awareness of women’s enslavement and for constructing the free woman in the present and the future. At the same time, it must also be clearly understood how the social problem originally began. Free women cannot emerge without recognizing how women once constructed matrilineal society on a communal basis, and how later the hunter male—the caste-based murderer *—ruptured this matrilineal society, thereby initiating the history of enslavement for both women and society.

 

The way out is in a democratic communalist civilization

 

Matrilineal society is a women’s society. The rupture of matrilineal society by the caste-based murderer and the beginning of the urban, class-based, and state-centered process we call statist civilization represents the enslavement of women. In contrast, with the understanding of democratic communalist civilization and democratic modernity, our main point of departure is to make all the values lost in matrilineal society the foundation of a new society, civilization, and modernity

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Based on this perspective, a correct debate on socialism—what we may call the renewal of socialism—is also the proper way to overcome real socialism. In real socialist theory, the failure to correctly formulate social problems and to properly conceptualize matrilineal society resulted in the inability to adequately analyze the statist civilization that developed upon this basis. Therefore, the critique presented in the Manifesto and the solutions proposed are extremely valuable. A correct socialist breakthrough can only be spoken of to the extent that the three pillars of democratic modernity we have developed—women’s freedom, an ecological society, and an anti-capitalist democratic socialist society—are realized. For the world socialist movement and anti-capitalist movements as well, a new Manifesto can only be developed on this basis; only in this way can a new democratic socialism of society and its correct understanding of organization and struggle emerge.

 

Woman as the queen commodity

 

The critique of capitalism by Marx and the Marxists through surplus value, commodity, and commodification opened the way to a limited understanding of capitalism in the experience of the past two centuries. In the long term, however, this contributed to socialism’s failures in practice. We have developed the concept of the “queen of commodities” to describe the way the system utilizes women. Within the capitalist system, women have truly been turned into the queen of commodities and thereby made a reproductive essence of the system. Therefore, instead of analyzing the commodity alone, analyzing the status of women—who have been turned into the queen of commodities—provides the most accurate approach to understanding capitalism. Only then can socialist theory be constructed in a truly realistic manner.

What must be analyzed is not just any commodity, but woman as the queen commodity. In order to define the system constructed through women, it is necessary to expose the process through which women have been commodified. Because the commodification of women, and her gradual transformation into the queen of commodities, constitutes the starting point of the problem of the social.

 

The male subconscious has legitimized this situation of women being belittled

 

The central question of the Manifesto for Peace and Democratic Society is the process of transformation of woman as the queen of commodities. In expressing this, we are not merely referring to the literary or political dimensions of the issue; we want the real transformation of women into a commodity to be clearly understood. Within the statist system, woman is a property—indeed the queen of properties. Every part of her body has been commodified separately; she is the starting point of the mechanisms of exploitation, alienation, and degradation. The queen of commodities means the most valuable commodity. When needed, she becomes an object of love, affection, or desire; when no longer needed, she becomes a being brutally murdered. The fact that the killers are often her obsessively “in love” partners, fathers, or brothers reveals another dimension of the tragedy.

 

This chain of murders referred to as “femicides” is essentially a genocide against women. It takes inspiration from the practices of the caste-based murder at the dawn of history. The caste-based murderer which usurped the communal community killed the men and captured the women and children. The male subconscious has preserved and legitimized this degraded condition of women up to the present day. While oppressing, killing, or using women as objects, the man does not question what he is doing; he sees it as his right. There is an outright lack of respect toward women. In the past there was at least a degree of respect, but with the advancement of capitalism even that has disappeared. This is the mentality of the system of caste-based murder. Women must understand and recognize this mentality well and on that basis shape a new reality of life that enables them to transcend the existing male-dominated way of life.

 

A socialism that does not begin with women's issues cannot be a libertarian socialism

 

In close connection with my conceptualizations in my earlier defenses, the Manifesto represents an attempt to develop—though limited—a theoretical analysis of this issue. Above all, it must become a fundamental question of social science. A correct sociology must take the woman question as one of its central concerns. Indeed, a correct path to socialism must begin entirely from the question of women. A socialism that does not begin with the woman question cannot truly be a socialism of freedom, equality, and democracy. If freedom struggles up to now have remained incomplete and unsuccessful—if from individual freedom to national freedom the most fundamental issues remain unresolved—the main reason is that women-centered emancipatory breakthroughs and the social foundation of freedom rooted in women have not been taken as the essential basis.

 

Until now, male-dominated history in particular has ignored women’s existence, ontology, and complexity, stripping them even as beings of their entire historicity. In mythology, philosophy, religion, science, and social institutions, women have been rendered invisible. Throughout history—including modernity, which is presented as the age of freedoms—women have been subjected to an exclusion in which their name exists but they themselves do not.

 

We sought to overcome this situation through jineoloji. As an ideology of women’s liberation, jineoloji has been widely discussed in the academic world and the progressive press globally, and enriched through various contributions. It can be said that considerable progress has been made in this regard. A correct beginning has certainly been made. However, this must still be seen only as a beginning. The concretization and deepening of this initial step will only be achieved through the politics of praxis.

 

The Construction of the commune is indispensable for free life

 

Undoubtedly, laying out the theoretical foundation is extremely valuable and necessary. Yet realizing the practical solutions of theoretical truths on the correct foundations is indispensable for a free and dignified life.

The practical realization of theory is communalization. A free and dignified life can only be achieved by building communes in every sphere of life. The genuine free life of women—and therefore of society—depends on women’s constructive power and the communalization they lead. From women’s communes to the spheres of economy, health, education, language, culture, ecology, and all other dimensions of life, women’s constructive role is indispensable. Just as women built the matrilineal communal society during humanity’s first process of socialization, they can realize today its contemporary renewal—new communalization. Therefore, communal construction must fundamentally be the responsibility of women.

 

The fundamental philosophy of the Manifesto is based on this approach. Within the Democratic Civilization Paradigm, jineoloji and the solutions based upon it have been correctly articulated. Therefore, in the coming period, taking women’s question and freedom as the basis for the emergence of democratic society socialism—the new socialist breakthrough—and a new international is essential for success. It must become the starting point for programmatic and organizational construction according to the concrete realities of each country.

 

A tremendous mass movement of women has emerged

 

Within our own conditions, in the struggle for existence and freedom that we carry out for our people—in other words, within our understanding of democratic modernity—we have updated this as a cornerstone and a three-pillar foundation. The great struggle waged in this regard and the practice that has emerged are extremely valuable and historic. Without doubt, the most important value of freedom produced by our revolutionary work and efforts is the free woman. A tremendous mass movement of women has emerged. This represents a development that runs counter to the old and conventional forms of life. Women must renew the essence of the past communal society and revive the culture of the mother-goddess. Through their own will, women must develop and transform themselves.

 

I have worked with young women, and this has always been a source of courage for me. Woman is the fundamental source of life. We say “Jin, Jiyan, Azadî”—Women, Life, Freedom. Women are the true builders of peace. It is women who can bring peace and democracy. Through the process of communalization, women can construct the new life. Woman now stands not as the queen of commodities, but as the goddess of freedom, who stands fast facing a renewed life of freedom that is moving forward to realization. After thousands of years spent as the queen of commodities, to rise as the goddess of free life is a profoundly noble and valuable realization.

 

Must strive to make the next century the century of women's freedom

 

In the coming period, this historic and noble realization must be constructed as the foundation of everything. It is precisely here that the philosophy of “Jin, Jiyan, Azadî” must be highlighted. Further concretizing and making this philosophy livable forms the basis for all sacred values, emancipatory political breakthroughs, and even the resolution of daily problems. The progress achieved in this regard must be highly valued. It is clear that we must exert every effort so that the coming century becomes a century of women’s liberation. No challenge can be more meaningful than the struggle against rape culture that stretches back tens of thousands of years.

 

A socialism must be constructed based on addressing the woman question. The sociology must begin by examining the forms of sociality that have been constructed around women. I salute democratic society socialism, and as its contemporary expression in life, I salute the struggle of the free goddess. I believe that this sacred march will continue to advance with greater success each passing day.

 

With these thoughts, I celebrate March 8, International Women’s Day, I salute the Free Women's Struggle, and wish success to all women who take part in this struggle.

 

March 8th, 2026 

 

Abdullah ÖCALAN

 

* Jineoloji: This theoretical framework, which literally means the "science of women," was developed by Abdullah Öcalan. Etymologically, the term is derived from the Kurdish word jin (woman), which shares its root with the word jiyan (life). Jineoloji serves as both an epistemology (philosophy of knowledge) and a liberation ideology that critiques patriarchal, statist, and capitalist systems. It argues that mainstream sciences are shaped by male-dominated perspectives and posits that the true liberation of society is fundamentally impossible without first achieving the liberation of women.

 

*Caste-Based Murder/er: This concept, developed by Abdullah Öcalan to analyze the male-dominated system and power structures, defines a formation that historically attacked matricentric clan society to usurp women's values, developed the first forms of slavery, and established an anti-society civilization over the people through its elitist character. "Caste-based murder" treats crime not as an individual incident but as a character of the system itself; this apparatus of structural violence—which produces, directs, and protects perpetrators—represents an ideological practice of killing that spans a wide spectrum, from femicides and racist policies to capitalist exploitation and statist "security" reflexes. In other words, it is the name of a systematic mentality operating with collective intent, where killing has been transformed into a tool of governance and assimilation.