From the perspective of women’s resistance as well, the month of May is a month in which each day gains meaning through the names of heroes.
In May, women’s resistance against colonialism begins with Leyla Qasim, one of the important symbols of women’s resistance in the history of Kurdistan. As Leyla Qasim was being taken to execution by the Iraqi regime, her words that thousands of Leylas would be born after her almost expressed the level that Kurdish women’s passion for freedom has reached today. The Kurdish people gave the name Leyla to their daughters so that they would be brave, resistant, and free-spirited like Leyla Qasim. Of course, the Kurdish girls who received this name have insisted on seeking and creating freedom.
One of the most important followers of this legacy is Martyr Mizgîn, who left a significant mark on history with her voice, her struggle, and the militancy she revealed in her own person against oppression. Hozan Mizgîn became one of the pioneers of both the social organization of Kurdish women and the military organization of women. With her leadership in organizing the people, her commandership marked by an iron will, and her artistic personality, Hozan Mizgîn expressed the colorful essence of the PKK struggle and became one of the most striking women personalities in the history of women’s struggle. While she was among the pioneers of women’s organization within society, as well as women’s militarization and commandership in the guerrilla ranks, the side of her that enchanted everyone was her artistic personality. Perhaps her effectiveness and success both within society and in the guerrilla ranks came from the power of her artistic feelings. Her artistic spirit enabled her to do every task with belief and love, while her artistic sensitivity led her to think deeply about every task, plan it carefully, and focus meticulously on every detail. The depth of her belief and her careful, refined approach to her work brought success in everything she took up, while also revealing the distinctiveness of her personality and her women’s color.
Not knowing some people, or being late in knowing them, is a great misfortune. What those who saw and knew them learned and received is great enough to guide and give direction to their path of struggle. What you might learn slowly through your own experience, perhaps over many years, you can understand through a single word from them and gather the strength to take a great step. But PKK comradeship showed history and us the truth that knowing and understanding are not limited to seeing someone face to face. What matters is to look and understand with the eye of the heart — more precisely, with the eye of the heart of freedom. In this sense, there is much to understand and learn even from a song when it comes to Hozan, commander, and woman revolutionary Mizgîn. Her voice, whose tones smell of history and inflame rebellion against oppression, is already a part of guerrilla life at every moment. Leader Apo said, “The PKK is an unfinished song, a poem.” If we approach PKK life as the flow of a song, she is one of those who lived this life fully, with the greatest intensity and enthusiasm. And if we approach it from the perspective of turning the PKK into song, is there anyone who explains the PKK as sincerely as her songs do — who expresses the warmth of comradeship, patriotism, and the meaning of resistance? Her songs warm us as if they are being sung today; they explain the PKK and draw people toward it.
Artistry is the courage to express the most sincere and deepest feelings hidden in the most secret corners of the heart. Not everyone can express them, because this depends on what kind of feelings the heart is able to hold in its depths. To be an artist means to overcome individualistic and selfish feelings and to be able to carry within one’s heart the longings, pains, and hopes of a society. As the desires and feelings in the heart become more exalted, it becomes clear that the artist no longer belongs only to herself, but to the whole society, and that she has become identified with the totality of social values. For this reason, society sees in her personality and struggle how it should keep alive and protect its own essence and values. It accepts her as its own language, feeling, and mind. The reason art has been a method of resistance for societies throughout history lies in the spirit of artists who have identified themselves with society and in their role of social leadership. A true artist is one who takes defending the truth she has found, whatever the cost, as a principle of artistry. This is how we can define the artistry embodied in the person of Martyr Mizgîn. Hers is the stance of an artist who feels the pains of her society most deeply, searches for the path to overcome them, and leads this search.
Hozan Mizgîn was also one of the founders of YJWK, the first organized identity of the Kurdish women’s freedom movement. With both her consciousness of freedom and her emotional voice flowing from the depths of history, she played a great role in organizing Kurdish women. She was one of the first commanders of women’s militarization, and everywhere she went, she found a place in the hearts of both the people and her comrades through her sacrifice, morale, and labor. Just as in her work among the people, she continued to lead in the guerrilla ranks through the beauty of her voice and the refinement of her art. At a time when the war was at its fiercest, and when the enemy was pursuing a policy of annihilating the guerrilla before it could deepen its positioning throughout Kurdistan, Martyr Mizgîn led the struggle as a regional commander. She is one of the exemplary and pioneering women in women’s commandership, just as she is in women’s militarization.
Today, women are struggling as the sharpest defenders of the democratic struggle, without bowing to any pressure. In defiance of the policy of annihilation and denial, women’s positioning deepens day by day. In our present day, when the women’s movement has made great advances from the squares to the mountains, the squares and the mountains still echo with her songs.