Stateless Democracy: The Revolution in Rojava Kurdistan

Stateless Democracy: The Revolution in Rojava Kurdistan.

The fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has 
often been portrayed as a fight between the West and its Arab allies 
against Islamic ultra-fundamentalists. Over the last several years, 
however, a progressive Kurdish-led resistance has been forming in Rojava
(Syrian Kurdistan) amidst the Syrian Civil War. The resistance has 
successfully implemented new models of grassroots democracy, gender 
equality, and sustainable ecology, its members practicing a political 
project they refer to as Democratic Confederalism. Women and men stand 
side-by-side in its armed forces in the face of both ISIS and the Bashar
al-Assad regime. Despite the resistance’s efforts, Rojava is currently 
threatened by a massacre, and the international community continues to 
stand by silently as tragedy unfolds.

This conference discusses the current Kurdish resistance in Kobanê, 
Rojava against ISIS. 



With help of representatives from the Kurdish 
movement as well as specialists in the field, it explores the politics 
and culture of Rojava and the reasons behind the formation and growth of
the self-proclaimed Islamic State. The question as to what and how the 
international community and civil society can help is also addressed—not
only to stop ISIS, but more crucially, to support a movement from 
within the region that is offering a new democratic horizon from which 
the world can learn.

his conference discusses the current Kurdish resistance in Kobanê, 
Keynote speeches by Dilşah Osman (co-president of the Kurdish 
Democratic Society Congress in Europe, KCD-E) and Dilar Dirik (PhD 
researcher and activist of the Kurdish Women’s Movement), contributions 
by Joost Jongerden (researcher and Kurdish specialist, Wageningen 
University), Jolle Demmers (co-founder of the Center for Conflict 
Studies, Utrecht), Jonas Staal (artist), Jasper Blom (Director 
Scientific Bureau Groenlinks / Green Party), Dilan Yezilgoz-Zegerius 
(Amsterdam council memberfor Liberal Party VVD, former Amnesty 
International specialist on Turkey) en Golrokh Nafisi (artist) and many 
others.
The conference is hosted by New World Academy; BAK, basis voor 
actuele kunst, Utrecht; Center for Conflict Studies, Utrecht; and De 
Balie, Amsterdam.
Stateless Democracy: The Revolution in Rojava Kurdistan is the first 
of a series of events on stateless democracy organized by New World 
Academy in collaboration with the Kurdish Women’s Movement.