Rojava, Back to the Future

By Dr. Jan Best de Vries:

Village in Rojava

Villagers in Rojava

Around 3200 BPE, the agricultural, matriarchal cultures in West Asia and Europe were overthrown by nomadic, patriarchal tribes from the Russian and Siberian steppes. The members of peaceful communities were slaughtered and raped in the same way as the beasts of IS operate with their victims these days in Rojava and the regions around.

The comparison doesn’t end here. The agricultural communities of old were not organized in national states but in small, geographically connected districts, in which the villagers chose in direct democracy (from bottom to top instead of around) two representatives from the community because of their wisdom and organizational talents, respectively a woman being a mother and a man, who both represented the community in the contacts with the two representatives of the other districts nearby. Why both a woman and a man? Because in those times gender equality reigned and the people expressed this lifestyle in the choice of its representatives.

It suddenly occurred to me that the social organization of the three cantons of Rojava is exactly the same as that in ancient times. The gender equality is here also mirrored in the two branches of  its people’s army, the female YPJ and the male YPG, each under their own commanders. That’s why so many foreigners from America and Europa flock to Rojava to defend its borders against the aggressors of the extremely patriarchal caliphate of IS, and the likewise and no less patriarchal, terrorist states Turkey under Erdogan and Syria under Assad, although we volunteers often didn’t realize what really triggered us …, in Rojava lies the future of mankind!

 A place to die

In memory of my soulmate Nanny

The compound’s walls are thick and high

lying on a hill overlooking the plain

from where islamic fanatics are expected to come

just one gate in them is guarded day and night by two Peshmergas

on the roof of the large building inside the view is wide

nearby a tapeh rises from the plain another is still visible

 

Here on the Kurdish soil of Rojava’s canton Jazira

Mesopotamia Academy was founded on 2 September 2014

here I teach my students young and old their history

here reign friendship and love in the face of death

here we laugh and dance in the evenings

here it is good to die independent and free at last

Jan Best de Vries, Erbil, January 1, 2015

Literature

  • Heide Göttner-Abendroth (Hrsg.), Gesellschaft in Balance – Dokumentation des 1. Weltkongresses für Matriarchatsforschung 2003 in Luxemburg, Edition Hagia  und Verlag W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2006
  • Idem, Der Weg zu einer egalitären Gesellschaft – Prinzipien und Praxis der Matriarchatspolitik, Drachen Verlag GmbH, Klein Jasedow 2008
  • Idem, Das Matriarchat I – Geschichte seiner Erforschung, Kohlhammer (zie boven) 2010 (4.te Auflage)

Dr. Jan Best de Vries is an archaeologist and historian, decipherer of the so-called Byblos Script from Aleppo and Alalakh (‘How to Decipher the Byblos Script’, Aspekt Publishers 2014, ISBN978-946-153-420-0)  

2 Responses to Rojava, Back to the Future
  1. BB
    May 31, 2015 | 00:14
  2. Michael Saunders
    May 31, 2015 | 00:35

    Thank you for that history lesson.Thankfully,the aspiration to live in freedom is not buried in the ground with the ancient history.It lives today,right now,in the spirit and soul of the Kurdish people.In the midst of a region overwhelmed with misery and suffering Kurdistan is the one,true shining light of hope.
    For those who might come across this comment I urge you to make a contribution to Savekobani dot com and the Kurdish Red. Crescent.

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