Rojava Under Existential Threat: Call for Academic Solidarity

We, the faculty, students, and staff of the Universities in Rojava/Northern and Eastern Syria, send you this message as we leave our classrooms to help defend our universities, our cities, and our revolution alongside the self-defense forces. Before the autonomous administration, Raqqa (Sharq) and Kobanê had no universities. Our campuses, built in the midst of war, have reclaimed long-denied education to young people, grounding learning in women’s liberation, ecology, and a democratic, communal life for the people.

For the past fifteen years in Rojava/Northern and Eastern Syria, under constant pressure and repeated attacks by imperial, sub-imperial, and colonial powers, our people have built a shared life through collective capacity. Against capitalism and patriarchy, we have worked to advance a society rooted in women’s liberation, ecological life, and democratic self-rule. Under the conditions of war across the region, and against the violence and impositions of regional states and their mercenaries, we relied on our own self-defense and our own diplomacy to carve out space, and within that space, we struggled to build a life that once seemed impossible.

Today, that life is under attack. What we have built, this source of hope for oppressed peoples in the region and around the world, is being targeted from all sides by the fascist forces of the Syrian Arab Army, an al-Qaeda lineage rebranded into state authority and dressed in suits, and by mercenaries, backed by regional and global imperial powers.

We are living through an unfolding feminicide and genocide. The situation on the ground is urgent and worsening by the day. Our university buildings are full of displaced people trying to survive the winter without blankets or extra clothing. Turkish drones have targeted several places near the University of Rojava in Qamishlo during the last few days. Students in the dormitories in Qamishlo are cut off from their families in Kobanê, not knowing if their loved ones are safe, and unable to reach them.

The situation in Kobanê is particularly dire. The city is currently under siege, surrounded by Syrian Army forces on one side and the Turkish army on the other. For seven days, there has been no electricity, no access to water, and no reliable access to basic necessities. Under these conditions, learning, safety, and survival are being targeted as part of a coordinated siege.

We say this clearly to our friends, colleagues, and comrades: we will defend ourselves with everything we have. We will defend our people, our universities, and the possibility of the life we have struggled to build.

We call on you, wherever you are, to stand with Rojava. Raise your voice. Organize on your campuses, in your unions, and in your communities. Use your positions, however limited they may feel, to push for action, to demand accountability, and to refuse silence. Strengthen the networks of solidarity that make resistance possible. Stand up for the revolutionary aims of freedom, women’s liberation, ecological life, and democratic communal life. Your solidarity is part of our self-defense, and it can help shift the balance and prevent yet another genocide in the region.

Universities in Rojava/Northern and Eastern Syria

University of Rojava, Kobani University, University of Al-Sharq

Students, Faculty and Staff

  The Institute of Social Sciences at the University of Rojava in collaboration with the University of Bremen and the Center for Solidarity with Alternative Universities (CSUA) organizes a summer school program on education for peace with justice: learning from communities of resistance. It will take place in June 2022 and have two forms of sessions: (a) closed seminars between MA students at the University of Rojava and the University of Bremen and (b) public seminars and workshops with speakers from diverse background of scholarship and activism on decolonization in Kurdistan and around the world. The public program of the summer school is sponsored and supported by the Peace with Justice Network. 

The summer school program brings together scholars of education as well as organizers and activists in the areas of grassroots educational and learning initiatives from communities around the world. Many of these communities have historically been subjected to different forms of marginalization and exclusion; their rights for a free and democratic education in their own language have been denied; their language and cultural practices have been suppressed; they have been assimilated; and their life has been shaped in constant struggle for basic rights and for peace with justice. This program will provide an opportunity to learn from communities of resistance on how – against many forms of violence, suppression and injustice – these communities fight back and establish their own educational systems and initiatives. We will also hear from scholars of linguistics and higher education as well as academic members of the Peace with Justice Network on how academia and grassroots initiatives can fight back the dominant global landscape of education that favours those controlling power and capital. 

Public Sessions:

There will be simultaneous English-Kurdish interpretation for the public seminars.

All seminars take place online via Zoom. 

More details can be found here: csua-paris.org

Seminar – Education for Peace with Justice: Building Networks of Solidarity

Speakers:

Tejendra Pherali, University College London 

Elaine Chase, University College London 

Laila Kadiwal, University College London 

Moderator:

Sardar Saadi, University of Rojava 

How can we build networks of solidarity for educators and organizers around the world? What could be the objectives and projects of such networks, and how can we form stronger relationships among different grassroots educational initiatives? In this seminar, leading members of the Peace with Justice Network will talk about the network, its aims and activities, and the projects that members of the network are involved in.

Tuesday, June 13, 2023

17:00  Rojava Time (16:00 CET, 10:00 EST, 19:30 New Delhi)

Register here:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMof-6grz4oHNdT2nDQnLx98UXRHQqkdjNc

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Roundtable – Building Communities of Resistance through Grassroots Education

Speakers:

Arif Sahar, University of Sheffield Hallam – Hazara Community (Afghanistan)

Tula Narayan Shah, Nepal Madhesh foundation (Nepal) 

Berenice Celeita, NOMADESC - The Intercultural University of the Peoples (Columbia) 

Jacinta Kerketta, Organizer with Adivasis community (India)

Hayso Thako, Karen Education and Culture Department (Myanmar) 

Representatives from Universities of North and East Syria

Moderator:

Birgul Kutan, University of Sussex

This roundtable will bring together scholars and organizers from communities of resistance around the globe to talk about the role of education and learning in daily struggle against suppression and injustice. Speakers on this roundtable represent grassroots educational initiatives in geographies where violence has destroyed many lives. Despite all odds, they insist on building capacities of resilience among their people through education. They will share their experiences and challenges they face in their projects and the ways in which they navigate through them.

Thursday, June 15, 2023

17:00 Rojava Time (16:00 CET, 10:00 EST, 19:30 New Delhi)

Register here:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwoc--qqD8rHtz0SVqxRgHAfYlXwPMYMMxZ

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Panel – Language and Decolonial Pedagogy 

Speakers:

Jaffer Sheyholislami, Carleton University

Amir Kalan, McGill University 

Moderator:

Shahrzad Mojab, University of Toronto

Abstracts:

Jaffer Sheyholislami

Multilingual Education as a Catalyst for Decolonizing Education

In this talk, I am exploring the potential of multilingual education in challenging and dismantling legacies of colonization including linguistic and cultural domination, that are mainly perpetuated through the education system. The paper suggests that one of the most effective ways of fostering a decolonized approach to education is to appreciate linguistic diversity and incorporate minoritized languages into the curricula of schools. Examples will be drawn from two opposing contexts: (1) regions that have embraced linguistic diversity including Rojava and Bashur; (2) countries that continue to deprive tens of millions of linguistic human rights and mother-tongue based multilingual education (MTBME) including Iran and Turkey. I will argue that a MTBME system can challenge some of the legacies of colonization by empowering students to project their voices and ideas, assisting linguistic communities to preserve and develop their languages, nurturing cultural heritage, and cultivating a more inclusive and equitable society. 

Amir Kalan  

European Nation-Statism and Language Education: Evidence from Newly Emerged Nations in the Middle East and Central Asia

In this talk, I draw on the experiences of newly emerged nation states in the Middle East and Central Asia to show that investment in the European nation-state model will not automatically lead to the creation of an anti-discriminatory educational system that is committed to protecting linguistic diversity, although in smaller and more ethnically homogeneous states. The creation of an inclusive language education takes the extra component of engaging in anti-discriminatory governance. Newly emerged states can oppress Indigenous minority languages and fall short of satisfactorily addressing the language issues of immigrants because of their narrow definitions of nationhood and national identity. These states can also undermine the very ethnic language that they claim to promote. This happens by devaluating “non-standard” varieties of the ethnic language and elevating the status of English over local languages as the language of science and learning.    

Tuesday, June 20, 2023

17:00 Rojava Time (16:00 CET, 10:00 EST, 19:30 New Delhi)

Register here:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYlfu-orj8qHt2ArMmYAaENUVlbWa5RT16j