Jake Hanrahan Profile picture
Independent journalist and documentary filmmaker. Popular Front / Away Days / Gargoyle

Jul 18, 2021, 5 tweets

Nine years today since the beginning of the revolution in #Rojava, which fought back ISIS and introduced a new form of radical democracy and gender equality in a very volatile place.

Here's some of my favourite photos I took when I was last out there.

Originally led by Kurdish forces, the Rojava revolution includes Arabs, Syriacs, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Armenians, Turkmen, and Western volunteers.

Whilst often inaccurately (and knowingly) refereed to as a Marxist/Leninist enclave in the media, in reality Rojava is trying to implement a system that resembles more closely a sort of left-wing libertarianism. They call it Democratic Confederalism.

It's not a utopia, it's not what western Internet Leftists project upon it, and there are of course many issues still, but what's taken place in Rojava in nine years is astonishing. Even the critics must admit, Rojava will be remembered for generations.

Here's a small dispatch I made with local Arab SDF fighters from Raqqa, who now guard their city from ISIS. What they say about the effectiveness of the Rojava project says more than this thread can.

Watch:

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