CRY FREEDOM.net

formerly known as
Womens Liberation Front

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Welcome to cryfreedom.net, formerly known as.Womens Liberation Front.  A website that hopes to draw and keeps your attention for  both the global 21th. century 3rd. feminist revolution as well as especially for the Zan, Zendagi, Azadi uprising in Iran and the struggles of our sisters in Afghanistan.

This online magazine will be published evey month and started December 2019. Thank you for your time and interest.

Gino d'Artali
indept investigative journalist
radical feminist and activist

 

  

                             

 

 

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                                                                                                            CRYFREEDOM 2019/2020


JINA MAHSA AMINI
The face of Iran's protests. Her life, her dreams and her death.

In memory of Jina 'Mahsa' Amini, the cornerstone of the 'Zan. Zendagi. Azadi revolution.
16 February 2023 | By Gino d'Artali

And also

Read all about the assasination of the 22 year young Jhina Mahsa Amini or Zhina Mahsa Amini (Kurdistan-Iran) and the Zan, zendagi, Azadi (Women, life, freedom) revolution in Iran  2022
and the ZZA Revolution per month:  May--April--March--Feb--Jan 2023  
covering the period of the 'Women Life Freedom' revolution in 2023 and with links to the period of  the murdering of Jina Mahsa Amini on September 2022 'till December 2022.. 
updated 6 May 2023

and

'TO WEAR OR NOT TO WEAR A HIJAB i.e. TO BE OR NOT TO BE A FREE WOMAN' Updated

MAY 2023:
'We have nothing to loose'
and more news

APRIL 2023:

Unveiled And Unbroken, Woman's Revolution In Iran.
The 'witch-hunting' on the unveiled has started:

AND

BIOLOGICAL TERROR ATTACKS
Update 9 - 4 May 2023

 
AND

'BLINDING AS A WEAPON'

Update: BLINDED Part 10 - may-march-2023  AND

NEW: May - April 2023 - 'IRANIAN JOURNALISTS UNDER SIEGE'

Click image to enter

UPDATES: LINKS 2 'Blinding as a weapon' (menu to the right) AND 'Biological terror attacks' (menu to the left) go here:
www.cryfreedom.net/ZZA-JINA-FFF3-blinded-april-2023-eye-of-the-dragon.htm 
 
Gino d'Artali
Indept investigative journalist
CLICK HERE ON HOW TO READ ALL ON THIS PAGE

 

Here we are to enter THE IRANIAN WOMEN'S REVOLUTIONISTS against
the supreme leader, the arch-reactionary Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and his placeman president, Ebrahim Raisi. The message of the women when he visited a university is plain: <give way or get lost> in 2023.
IN MEMORY OF from left to right ASRA PANAHI (16)- JHINA MAHSA AMINI (22) - NIKA SHAKARAMI (16), SARINA ESMAILZADEH (16) HADIS NAJAFI (20), AND MORE WOMEN WHO WERE ASSASINATED SO FAR BY THE IRANIAN AXIS OF EVIL.

Click here for a total list so far

'Facing Faces and Facts 1-2'  (2022) to commemorate the above named and more and food for thought and inspiration to fight on.

and 'Facing Faces & Facts 3' edited December 2022/March 2023


This is how the Iranian basiji shoot with pellets at especially girls and women and how they hang now martyrs of the women-led revolution.
 
     

 

12  - 9  May
 

9 may - 24 april 2023
<<A Political Prisoner's Letter from Evin Prison: What should we regret?....
and
<<Guerrilla Theater and Iran's Nationwide Protests....
and more news

May 5 - 1 2023 (Part 1)
<We have nothing to lose!...>
and more news

May 2 - 1 2023 (Part 2)
<Iranian athlete and activist Mahsa Zarrin Chang found dead...>
and more news

May 2, 2023
How the dictatorship terrorizes children.

May 1, 2023 - Labour Day in Iran

28 April 2023
<Iran's Top Sunni Cleric Calls for Impartial Courts and Labor Rights....
...in jail without legal verdicts ....
...<In Baluchistan, there are always 30 to 40 on death row and they send them all together for execution, and they [the judiciary] demand that the executions be carried out within two months...  

 

Click here for the 2022 'Chapters'

 

RELATED
'AFGHANISTAN's WOMEN IN RESISTENCE.  

 

When one hurts or kills a women
one hurts or kills hummanity and is an antrocitie.
Gino d'Artali
and: My mother (1931-1997) always said to me <Mi figlio, non esistono notizie <vecchie> perche puoi imparare qualcosa da qualsiasi notizia.> Translated: <My son, there is no such thing as so called 'old' news because you can learn something from any news.>
Gianna d'Artali.


Iranwire - May 9, 2023
<<Violence Reported as Iranian Teachers Protest across the Country
Iranian security forces violently dispersed a protest rally in the Kurdish town of Sanandaj as teachers held demonstrations in multiple cities across the country. The Coordinating Council of Teachers' Union had called for rallies outside the parliament building in Tehran and in front of the education departments in cities across Iran on May 9. The council published a list of demands, including providing high-quality education and security in schools, <especially for female students,> and the <unconditional release of all teachers' rights activists in detention.> Security forces were deployed in some education departments to prevent gatherings, and there have been reports of internet outages and disruptions in some cities.
According to a video obtained by IranWire, security agents attacked teachers who had gathered in the streets of Sanandaj, the provincial capital of western Kurdistan province, chanting slogans such as <Woman, Life, Freedom> and <Free imprisoned teachers.> Another footage showed security officers of the education department in the western city of Hamedan preventing teachers from entering the building. As a result, the protesters held their rally in the street. In the cities of Shush, Shahor and Karkheh, teachers gathered in front of education departments. In a video sent to IranWire, one of the teachers said that the rally aimed to defend the teachers held behind bars and to pursue the demands of the teachers' union. Videos shared on social media showed similar protests in Ahvaz, Harsin and Arak. The call for nationwide protests of Iranian teachers has been welcomed by activists and labor organizations. Zamimeh, a campaign working to eliminate gender discrimination from textbooks, supported the call on its Twitter account, saying that children's right to safe education is a <fundamental human right.> Ateke Rajabi, a young teacher from Khorasan Razavi province, expressed solidarity with the protests by publishing a video on his Twitter account. Rajabi was fired from his workplace after launching a one-person strike to protest the dismissal of one of his colleagues. Unrest, including protests by teachers, has rattled Iran since last summer in response to declining living standards, wage arrears and a lack of welfare support. Adding to the dissent, the September death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody for allegedly wearing a head scarf improperly breathed new life into the demonstrations, which the authorities have tried to quell with harsh measures.>>
Read more here:
https://iranwire.com/en/news/116362-violence-reported-as-iranian-teachers-protest-across-the-country/
Opinion by Gino d'Artali: in the hearts and minds of people Jina Masha Amini is still alive and kicking and the protesters are kicking the behinds of the very very hard basically repeating what Sepideh Qoliyan shouted outside Evin prison, <Khamenei the Zahhak! We'll take you down into the grave,> referring to a mythical king said to have fed serpents growing out of his shoulders with young people's brains.>

Iranwire - By OMID SHAMS - May 9, 2023
<<Guerrilla Theater and Iran's Nationwide Protests
During at least three months after the nationwide protests started with the death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of morality police, international media outlets published pictures of women who cut off their hair and threw it to the ground or hanged their headscarves on sticks and burned them as a symbol of subjugation and misogyny. From the very first day, protest theater was ingrained in what has become known as the Mahsa Uprising.
On November 25, 2022, one could hear disturbing sounds like a funeral march or drumbeats of warning coming from the front of the Netherland’s Foreign Ministry. More than 20 members of the theatrical company Tales of A Revolution stood on white stands in the front of the ministry's building, with a blood drop painted on their faces. They played a march with bottles of mineral water and shouted <Shut down the Iranian embassy>, <Your silence is violence> and <Woman, Life, Freedom.> Also standing in front of the Foreign Ministry with an emaciated face and holding a petition scroll was Baluch activist Masoud Hamidi-Far, who for two weeks had staged a sit-in there in the harsh winter of the Netherlands. This powerful perfor-mance heightened the interest of the Dutch public, media outlets and eventually politicians in the events happening in Iran. On December 14, 2022, while voting for expelling the Islamic Republic from the UN Commission on the Status of Women was in progress, the US-based Iranian sculptor Ramin Etemadi Bozorg stood in the freezing cold of New York from 9:50 to 11:33, holding a big piece of red-colored ice, sculpted in the shape of Iran. The ice melted little by little into a small stream in the color of blood. With this powerful performance, he told the spectators that the distressful situation in Iran needs urgent attention and every moment of procrastination by politicians would cost the lives of tens of Iranians. Some of these performances are rooted in the most ancient rites of Iranian culture, in which cutting hair has been a ceremonial rite of Iranian women to mourn and protest. This rite has found its way into Iranian mythology and poetry, such as the story of Siavash, a mythological Iranian prince and a major figure in Ferdowsi's <Book of Kings,> whose unjust and tragic death is mourned by women who cut their hair. But the performers have also borrowed images, concepts or themes familiar to an international audience to make the situation in Iran more tangible for them. For instance, at the height of the protests, many pictures were posted online of protesting Iranian women in the streets who were dressed like characters in the TV series The Handmaid's Tale, an adaptation of a novel by Margaret Atwood that takes place in a fictitious totalitarian and patriarchal state by the name of the Republic of Gilead. In December 2022, a group of women, dressed like the handmaids in the TV series, held a demonstration in the US city of Seattle to protest against the Islamic Republic. On International Women's Day on March 8, 2023, in a march organized by the group Stage of Freedom in the center of London from the Palace of Westminster to the Iranian embassy in Kensington, women who were dressed like the characters in The Handmaid's Tale carried pictures of those killed during the protests in Iran. Some had a patch on one eye to remind people of hundreds of protesters who had been blinded by the security forces. This march, with women in red cloaks carrying pictures with the words <Woman, Life, Freedom,> was visually so impressive that the spectators could not help wanting to know more about it. On March 7, 2023, in response to a wave of chemical attacks on girls' schools across Iran, students staged a protest theater in the courtyard of Tabriz University. Female students, wearing black blindfolds reminiscent of protesters who had been executed, sat on the ground as security forces angrily milled around them. Then one of them started chanting: <We swear to your name, a name which is our watchword, that Mahsa's night will dawn with a hundred voices.> Then she put her hand on the shoulder of the students next to her who, in turn, raised their heads and joined the chant. The same thing was repeated when each student <woke up> the next student. When all the girls had joined hands, they <rose up> and this time sang the song more forcefully. Then two men with covered faces approached them, moved around them for a little while and then released a <gas> into the air. The girls started coughing. A woman entered the scene and helped one of them. A man entered the scene to help as well and then a woman, clad in full-length chador, ran to the girl who had been poisoned. At this point, they all held each other's hands and finished their song with more resonance: <Sing so that the city becomes the song of women! So that this country becomes our country!> >>
Read more here:
https://iranwire.com/en/features/116342-guerrilla-theater-and-irans-nationwide-protests/
Opinion by Gino d'Artali: this is a very long nd powerfull and more than convincing article to revolt against the Iranian dictatorship.

NCRI - Women Committee - Articles - Women's news - May 6, 2023
<<A Political Prisoner's Letter from Evin Prison: What should we regret?
Political prisoner Golrokh Iraee described the situation in society and exposed the new tricks of the regime to gain legitimacy in a letter sent from Evin Prison on Friday, May 5. Referring to the regime's amnesty theatrics in February, she wrote, <Forcing people to express regret does not restore the lost legitimacy.> The text of her letter is as follows:
What should we regret?
We who live under the poverty line, feed our children by means of prostitution, are hanged for seventy thousand tomans, and our hands are amputated according to Sharia law, We, whose children are hanged for the crime of carrying a knife and who are victims of child-killing, and whose eyes are gouged out after being shot at,
We, whose teenagers are being poisoned in chemical attacks at schools, while education was supposed to be free,
What should we regret if we are punished and killed for our basic rights and lifestyle, relationships, clothing, eating, and drinking? The lack of an independent judiciary is the subject of many discussions. The Islamic Republic always denies it, but what is happening and what we live through is proof of this claim. On September 26, 2022, about a week after Mahsa Amini was killed and four months after my release, the security police attacked my house, breaking the door. Eleven armed agents attacked me and kicked me, arresting me while beating and offending me. After several hours of interrogation and transfer to the Vozara detention center and being interrogated at a base called Imam Hassan Mojtaba in the southeast of Tehran, I was transferred to Qarchak Prison in Varamin. After 10 days, I went to the Shapur Criminal Investigation Department, where I was offended, physically abused, stripped naked, and physically searched by the police officers. Sometime later, I was charged (without any proof) by the investigator, Haj Moradi, on alleged charges of <assembly and collusion>, <propaganda against the state,> and <disruption of order.> The judiciary of the Islamic Republic, like its other powers, institutions, and organizations, is under the control of a reactionary autocracy, and the appointees in any position have the freedom to behave as they wish and carry out the orders of intelligence agents and <anonymous soldiers> of the regime.
The nature of the Islamic Republic is the same as it was from the beginning when it stole and seized the (anti-monarchy) revolution. The current judges are also the descendants of the judges of the 1980s and the <Death Commission>, the same persons who forced many people under torture to reveal their like-minded comrades then. Now that the Islamic Republic is forced to change course to build up an international image, it pretends that it adheres to the covenants it has accepted. So, the policy today dictates that they push people to remorse or compulsory adjustment of their stands against them behind a mask of kindness and compassion.
....
The one who has his hand in state murders or issues death sentences and takes people to the gallows, the one who suppresses the people who protest for a better life and kills or maims them under beating must be ashamed and remorse if there is an honor left for him. Every day in our country, several people are hanged due to political opposition or not thinking like the regime, buying and selling drugs, robbery, or murder. Death has become normal for us and a source of livelihood for them. They came to make the poor rich and the oppressed free, but corruption became systematic, and embezzlement became the second job of their children.
....
To redefine the words <Mostazaf> (oppressed and kept poor) to find a civilized meaning for it, does not decrease the pain and suffering of living in poverty. To call the poor <a class of society that enjoys less privileges> and to categorize the hungry people in the lower deciles does not reshape the nasty face of poverty, just as when slums and shanty towns were called the margins of the city, it did not relieve the suffering of its residents and did not build a shelter for them. Regret was the share of those who did not hear the voice of the people's revolution and they were overthrown, and this will be the share of those who do not learn from history and do not see the revolutionary uprising of the people; may they suffer the fate of previous dictators.
Golrokh Iraee
May 2023
Evin Prison
>>
Read the complete letter here:
https://women.ncr-iran.org/2023/05/06/letter-from-evin-prison/

Iranwire - May 8, 2023
Striking Gas Sector Workers Arrested as Labor Protests Spread
Iranian authorities have arrested striking contractors working in the development of the South Pars gas fields project, local media reported on May 2, as labor strikes spread to more than 110 oil, gas and petrochemical industry sites in 14 provinces. According to Fars, a news agency affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the arrested contractors worked in the Pars Energy Special Economic Zones. They were charged with <numerous labor violations, anti-revolutionary calls and actions, and [participating in] strikes in industrial development projects,> the report said, adding that more contractors will be summoned and arrested in the coming days.
South Pars in the Persian Gulf is the world's largest gas field.
On April 21, the Council for Organizing Oil Contract-Workers' Protests called for a strike to demand a 79 percent increase in wages, timely payment of salaries, improved working conditions and safer work environments, among other things. <The contractors in the oil and petrochemical industries don't think about the workers. They only think about making more profits,> an oil industry worker tells IranWire. A labor activist said that the contracts drawn up by the Ministry of Oil <allow contractors to violate existing laws.> Sekhawat Asadi, the CEO of the Pars Energy Special Economic Zones, has recently threatened striking workers with replacement by a new workforce. The activist said such statements were part of attempts to intimidate striking workers. He emphasized that replacing skilled workers with inexperienced ones could be very harmful for Iran's oil and gas industry.>>
Source:
https://iranwire.com/en/news/116323-striking-gas-sector-workers-arrested-as-labor-protests-spread/

Iranwire - March 17, 2023 - Cartoons
<<Prison Cannot Defeat Sepideh
Iranian civil rights activist Sepideh Qoliyan was re-arrested this week, hours after her release from more than four years in prison. Why? Because when she came out of Tehran's Evin prison she wasn’t wearing the mandatory hijab and she shouted slogans against Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei...
Source:
https://iranwire.com/en/cartoons/114870-prison-cannot-defeat-sepideh/
|Note by Gino d'Artali: <Khamenei the Zahhak! We'll take you down into the grave,> she shouted outside Evin prison, referring to a mythical king said to have fed serpents growing out of his shoulders with young people's brains.|

Iranwire - May 8, 2023
<<Two Men Hanged in Iran in Blasphemy Case Amid Surge in Executions
Two men have been hanged in Iran after being sentenced to death for blasphemy, the judiciary's news website Mizan reported on May 8. Yousef Mehrdad and Sadrollah Fazeli Zare were running online anti-religion platforms dedicated to the hatred of Islam, the promotion of atheism and insults to sanctities, Mirzan said. Mehrdad was a father of three young children. The two men died at Arak Prison in central Iran. They had been arrested in 2020, accused of being involved in a Telegram channel called <Critique of Superstition and Religion,> according to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom. Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, who leads the Norway-based group Iran Human Rights, said the executions exposed the <medieval nature> of Iran's theocracy <The international community must show with its reaction that executions for expressing an opinion is intolerable,> Amiry-Moghaddam said in a statement. <The refusal of the international community to react decisively is a green light for the Iranian government and all their like-minded people around the world.> The Islamic Republic is one of the world's top executioners, having put to death more than 200 prisoners since the start of the year, amid continuing protests against Iran's clerical establishment. According to Iran Human Rights, half of the more than 40 people killed in the past two weeks belonged to the mainly Sunni Baluch ethnic minority. Amnesty International and Abdorrahman Boroumand Center said in March that Iranian authorities have escalated the use of the death penalty as a tool of repression against ethnic minorities.
Read more here:
https://iranwire.com/en/news/116310-two-men-hanged-in-iran-in-blasphemy-case-amid-surge-in-executions/ and view cartoons published by Iranwire headed with <<Two Men Hanged in Iran in Blasphemy Case Amid Surge in Executions>>here:
https://iranwire.com/en/cartoons/116313-defeating-the-executioners/
and here for an overview by www.cryfreedom.net/JINA-FFF3-executed.htm for an overview of the hanged martyrs of the Zan, Zendagi, Azadi revolution. The in the above excexuted not included because it was not related with the revolution. Still, as a human I say that one should not kill another except out of self-defence as the Holy Qu'ran says.

BBC News Middle East - May 5,2023
<<Iran protests: Football star Ali Karimi under travel ban, leaked papers show
Iran imposed a travel ban on football star Ali Karimi, his wife and her family during the recent anti-government protests, leaked documents seen by the BBC show. Mr Karimi was among the first celebrities who vehemently criticised the deadly crackdown on the protests which erupted in September.
The footballer, known as the Maradona of Asia, lived in the UAE at the time. The protests were sparked by the death in custody of a Kurdish Iranian woman. Mahsa Amini, 22, died after allegedly being beaten by morality police who arrested her for what they said was her failure to wear her headscarf properly.
....
One of the documents seen by BBC Persian says Mr Karimi <was invited [to Iran] by our agent nine times and has received serious warnings>. In a letter marked <top secret> and dated 24 October 2022, Iran's Revolutionary Guard's intelligence unit informed Tehran's prosecutor that <Karimi's recent activities were instigated by his wife Sahar Davari and her family>. In the late 1980s Iran had executed Ms Davari's father, Gholamali Davari, on charges of being a member of the Communist Tudeh Party. He was an officer in Iran's air force at the time. The document claims Karimi's in-laws, on his behalf, were aiming to sell his mansion in Lavasan, an affluent suburb of capital Tehran, for $20m (18m euros; £16m) in order to emigrate permanently. In the document the Revolutionary Guard asked for a travel ban on Karimi, Davari, her mother, step-father, brother and sister. This would prevent them from leaving the country, including Mr Karimi and his wife if either of them returned. The leaked letter was given to BBC Persian by a hacking group called Edalat-e Ali (Ali's Justice). Mr Karimi told BBC Persian in a phone interview that his older brother was also prosecuted several times and banned from leaving the country. <My friend was interrogated three or four times in the notorious Evin prison,> he said. He said Iran keeps people he follows on Instagram under close surveillance. <One of them needed both a deposit bail and a guarantor to be able to leave Iran,> he said. In early October, Iranian state media also claimed Mr Karimi had sold his mansion in Lavasan. But Mr Karimi told BBC Persian that this was not true. <Security forces raided the place and brutally beat up the janitor,> he said, adding that the property had been empty ever since.
<My neighbours tell me lights are on some nights and plain-clothes agents are seen going in and out,> he said. Mr Karimi shared pictures of CCTV which Iranian authorities have installed near his property. <Any car stops there for five minutes, security forces swarm the place,> he said.
Mr Karimi and his family have since moved from the UAE to an undisclosed location.>>
Source:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-65473415

Note from Gino d'Artali: Zan, Zendagi, Azadi sisters in Iran and Afghanistan and other countries : the below is to inspire you to never give up your fight:

The Guardian - May 2, 2023 - Opinion by Scheaffer Okore
Global development is supported by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
<<Stop praising women's strength. We need a world where we don’t have to fight to be valued
I've lost count of the number of times I've seen or heard women lauded for their strength whenever they are recognised for anything outstanding. Critics argue that there's nothing wrong with this - after all, it is evidence of women's hard work. However, there is no evidence, historical or otherwise, that shows women not working hard. History is a litany of hardworking, strong, audacious women whose impact was limited because their strength could only get them so far. Women aren't working hard, being strong or audacious in a vacuum. Women continue to be strong in a world where they consistently have fewer resources, less power and less influence than men. Additionally, the spotlight tends to shine on the few already uplifted women, with multiple societal privileges, such as belonging to dominant races, socioeconomic classes, religions and citizenships of global north countries. On the rare occasions it illuminates women without racial privilege, power or class, it demands even greater strength to have overcome these extra barriers. But no amount of <strength> can overcome gender pay gaps, limited career growth opportunities, the motherhood penalty, extremely inadequate ways to deal with gendered harassment and violence in the workplace, at home or even using legal means, and more. Praising women's strength, without analysing why women’s strength is a burden, is to wilfully ignore the direct links between the structural barriers that entrench gender marginalisation and the thwarting of women's full potential. Marginalisation by gender is an intentional tactic used not just against-cis-gendered women, but against multiple gender minorities, to ensure the success and power of select groups over others. For instance, something as simple as walking alone, specifically at night, continues to pose huge life risks for women everywhere. This tells us that even the fullness of a 24-hour day is something women are structurally denied. Mechanisms that ensure women's physical safety and security are still viewed as negotiable, despite an abundance of statistics showing an urgent need for them. The resignation of former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern, who said that she <didn't have enough in the tank> to finish her term, resonated with many women beyond the political sphere, women who understood that there is not enough <strength> that can mitigate rocketing levels of burnout emanating from non-stop misogynist onslaughts.
Neither has <strength> protected the millions of victims of femicide and maternal mortality, or survivors of gendered online violence. It hasn't protected the women and girls of Syria, Afghanistan and Iran, and many others, who have backbones of steel yet continue to face insurmountable levels of gendered structural violence. To change these harmful systems, we must continue radically shifting norms, despite continuing resistance. Second, creating accountable and equitable governance structures is not just women's work; it is everyone’s task, with those in possession of political and other decision-making power, resources and influence needing to do much more heavy lifting. Finally, the romanticisation of women's survival within structures purposely deployed to keep them fighting losing battles must be abolished. Society must begin prioritising women and all gender-marginalised people as worthy of better social protection, better pay, better opportunities, better options, safer societies or systems, and better lives.>>
Source:
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/may/03/stop-praising-womens-strength-we-need-a-world-where-we-dont-have-to-fight-to-be-valued

Jinha - Womens News Center -April 24, 2023
<<Armenian twin sisters resist genocidal attacks in NE Syria
Hasakah- The Ottoman Empire committed a genocide against Armenians living Northern Kurdistan and Turkey in 1915, at the time of the First World War. Despite the genocide, the Armenian people were reborn from their ashes and continue to fight in order to preserve their identity and culture. The Martyr Nubar Ozanyan Brigade, Armenian military forces in North and East Syria, was founded on April 24, 2019, the 104th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, to protect the Armenian people and preserve Armenian culture, history, existence and identity. NuJINHA spoke to Angera Anush and Lusin Hagobiyan, twin sisters and fighters of the brigade. Angera Anush grew up by listening to stories about the Armenian genocide from her grandfather. <My grandfather told us, 'I will never forget the genocide against us in 1915. The bones of Armenians were thrown into the street. Our intellectuals, academics, and students were hanged and killed. 1.5 million Armenians, including women and children, were killed and hundreds of thousands of women went missing. The women who said, 'We are thirsty', were taken away and killed near rivers. The rivers turned red with their blood. During the Armenian genocide, women were raped and their hands were marked so that they could be resold. This pain is unforgettable.' The Ottoman Empire committed the genocide against Armenians from Northern Kurdistan to the city of Aleppo in North and East Syria. A century later, the Armenians face genocidal attacks again in the same territories.>
'Armenians had no forces'
<The Turkish state built its existence by committing genocides against other nations,> Angera Anush said, <Armenians and Greeks were farsighted, so their intellectuals and scholars were killed. At that time, the Ottomans said; 'If the Armenians and Greeks develop, the Turks will remain behind.' They were so racist and nationalist that they did not accept anything but 'one flag, one language and one religion'. At the time of Armenian genocide, Armenians had no military forces to respond to the genocidal attacks.> Following the revolution in Rojava, the twin sisters decided to protect their people. <We decided to protect Armenian women and other women so that everyone would know that Armenians still exist and will exist.>
'We should preserve our history together'
Calling on Armenians living around the world, Angera Anush said, <We should strengthen our defense against all genocidal attacks. Women must fight for freedom and use their power to serve the people. Armenian women and men should organize themselves to protect themselves. We joined the Martyr Nubar Ozanyan Brigade to protect our people against all kinds of attacks. We should preserve our history, our culture, our identity and our religion. We exist, we will continue to exist.>
'Our goal is to liberate all women'
Speaking about why they decided to join the brigade, Lusin Hagobiyan said, <I decided to join the brigade to have a role and mission in my society as a woman and to guarantee gender equality. It is important for a woman to be able to think, speak, express herself without fear and believe in herself. I wanted to join the military forces but I was rejected because I was too young. The honor of the Kurdish women affected my personality. Therefore, I decided to be involved in cultural activities. As Armenian women, our goal is to liberate all women.>
'We built a new life by resisting'
She added, <Women were excluded from society. They married, had children, and spent their lives at their home. Women said it was 'Our destiny'. We did not accept this and we built a new life by resisting.>
'I get my strength and will from my mother'
Emphasizing that her parents were at the forefront of the battlefields when the revolution started, Lusin Hagobiyan said, <My mother always said she wanted to fight in the mountains and be a fighter. She realized her childhood dream. I get my strength and will from my mother. I will fight until all enslaved women are free. The Turkish state now follows in the footsteps of the Ottomans. Although the names change, the mentality never changes. This is why we are determined to fight and protect our people. We are ready to protect women and our people wherever we are.> >>
Source:
https://jinhaagency1.com/en/actual/armenian-twin-sisters-resist-genocidal-attacks-in-ne-syria-33144
 

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