The Democratic Women’s Union of Iranian Kurdistan Marks 80 Years of Struggle

In a statement by the Democratic Women’s Union on the 80th anniversary of its founding, the organization commemorates eight decades of organized women’s activism at the heart of the Kurdish national liberation struggle and calling for intensified mobilization as Kurdistan and Iran approaches a historic turning point.

The Democratic Women’s Union was established in 1946 in the Kurdish city of Mahabad, at a time when few or no such organization existed in the region. From its very inception, the Democratic Women’s Union embedded women’s cause as an inseparable pillar of the Kurdish liberation movement, charging future generations with the duty to never treat women’s rights as secondary to the national cause.

The statement pays solemn tribute to those who gave their lives in that cause. Among the fallen are two of the union’s own Secretary-Generals,  Nasrin Haddad and Soheila Qadri, martyred when the Iranian regime’s missiles hit PDKI’s headquarters in September 2018. Their deaths stand as a testament to the price Kurdish women have paid for their commitment to freedom. Across eighty years of displacement, exile, and armed struggle, Kurdish women have remained at the forefront.

The Islamic Republic, the statement argues, has now entered a phase of imminent collapse, battered by US and Israeli strikes that have dismantled its military and leadership structures, and shaken from within by mass uprisings in which tens of thousands have been killed. The regime that has for decades been the primary source of repression, discrimination, and misery for Kurdish women and all women of Iran.

The statement issues a clear call: Kurdish women’s organizations must be ready for a new phase of active, united, and focused mobilization. Critically, the statement draws a firm line, the fall of the Islamic Republic must not open the door to another form of dictatorship, and women must not again be pushed to the margins when the foundations of a new political order are laid. The Women’s Union pledges to fight for a federal, democratic Iran, free of religious, national, linguistic, and gender-based discrimination. An future in which women hold their rightful place at the center of decision-making.