from thefreeonline on 10th March 2024 by HEVALE- English
A few words about Hevale
Hevale: The Revolution in Kurdistan is a research and media project that since its inception in 2015 has been exploring the topics of direct democracy, gender and cooperative economy in the Middle East.
Today the local citizens in the West Kurdistan (Rojava) are trying to build the system of popular assemblies, to achieve social justice and gender equality, to establish accountability and electivity of military commanders.
These efforts remind us of the best intentions of the anarchists during the Spanish Civil War, or cooperatives’ members after the Russian Revolution, when people attempted rebuilding their lives in a new way.
Our goal is to inform you about Rojava (which in Kurdish means “the place where the Sun sets” or “the West”). The place where communities of Kurds, Assyrians and Arabs are reorganizing the society in the midst of a war of all against all.
Above all we want to speak not about an armed resistance to hordes of fanatics but about the social ideals for which people of Rojava took up arms. Sharing their principles — liberty, equality and fraternity – we named our project “Hevale” which means “Comrade”.
Since 2015 Hevale have translated into Russian a number of articles about Rojava, published two books: “Life Without a State: The Revolution in Kurdistan” (Common Place Publishing, 2017) and “Kurdistan: The Real Democracy Amidst a War” (Radical Theory and Practice, 2016), and held a dozen of events.
Hevale co-organized events with these speakers: Meike Nack (Free Women of Rojava Foundation), Feleknaz Uca (The Peoples’ Democratic Party), Selahattin Soro (Kurdistan National Congress), Janet Biehl (The Institute for Social Ecology), Ferhat Patiyev (Federal National-Cultural Autonomy of Kurds of the Russian Federation), Ercan Ayboga (TATORT Kurdistan), Joe Taylor (Cooperative Economy in Rojava web-portal).
We have also conducted lectures about the education system of the Makhmur camp, presentations of Abdullah Ocalan’s book “Manifesto for a Democratic Civilization”, translated and dubbed a documentary about defence of Kobane, run presentations about our trip to Iraqi Kurdistan, at the The Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Youth University for Modern Socialism and Dostoevsky Library.
An important disclaimer: we are thankful to Nihilist for hosting, but our views on the ways of achieving self-government may differ.
Our email: heval_rusi@riseup.net
Reports in English
To comrades in Russia. The letter from Tekoşîna Anarşîst We watched the «Network» case process until the end. We wish comrades to be strong, and use the time in prison to learn, educate, maintain and develop
Between two Kurdistans: a Russian anthropologist’s journey in search of self-government
Big talk with Tekoşîna Anarşîst. Pt1: Rojava complexityAnarchist Struggle (Kurdish: Tekoşîna Anarşîst) is the organized structure of libertarian revolutionaries who actively participate in ongoing revolution in Rojava. We took a chance to make an interview…
.Rojava and libertarians: let’s learn from those who are aliveThis is the story of comradehood, fatalism and contradictions within the revolution. Hannes Dove is an anarchist from Germany
The Free 