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Solidarity with YPJ – Defending the Women’s Units means protecting women’s dignity!

Sign our open letter until September 29 and take part of the campaign for defending YPJ

Civil society organizations and individuals urgently call for international

support for the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ) in North-East Syria. At a time of growing attacks on women’s liberation in the region, the dissolution of YPJ into state structures poses a serious threat to women’s rights and safety.

Women’s Self-Defense and Social change

The YPJ gained global recognition through its decisive role in defeating ISIS and defending Kobanê in 2015. Beyond these military successes, the YPJ was crucial for the achievements of the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES). Over the past decade, women-led institutions, shelters, councils, and mechanisms of women’s justice have been established. Against traditional family roles and prevailing patriarchal structures, it gained great successes in the combat against child marriage, and patriarchal violence. With up to 20,000 women fighters, the YPJ has become a symbol of women’s liberation, inspiring hope in women worldwide.

Growing threats to Women’s self-organisation

Following the takeover of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in late 2024, these achievements face unprecedented risks. They wasted no time in revealing their Islamist background: Broad massacres against Alawi people, systematic attacks on the Christian and Druze population, and systematic violence against women. Several civil society organizations and media outlets have documented arbitrary arrests, executions and gender-based violence, including threats of sexual slavery, physical and verbal abuse and the mutilation and humiliation of women’s bodies. Since the beginning of the offensive, well over 244 people have been arbitrarily arrested, at least 47 civilians have been killed in mass executions and thousands of families had to flee their home due to damage or security concerns. YPJ also condemned the desecration of Asayîş fighter Deniz Cîya, whose body had been thrown from a building by an Islamist militiaman. In August 2026, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) formally dissolved into the Syrian Army. Shortly after, the integration of YPJ into the Internal Security Forces under the Interior Ministry was announced.

Defending the achievements of YPJ

After being a source of hope for over a decade, it is up to us to show international solidarity with its legitimate self-defence.The YPJ’s subordination to a system that was shaped by Islamist forces, complicit in grave human rights violations and patriarchal violence does not only jeopardize the safety and freedom of women and children in North-East Syria, but also the social achievements for which they have fought. Without YPJ self-defense units, there is a serious threat of a return to patriarchal structures and the oppression of women in all areas of society.

Today more than ever, we must defend the Rojava Revolution and preserve its achievements. We must be the voice of the women and peoples and confessions of Syria – Kurds, Arabs, Assyrians, Armenians, and Circassians, Muslims, Alawites, Druze and Christians – who refuse to see their country ruled by a political Islamist regime trying to strengthen its influence on the Middle East. We must condemn both the inaction and the support of the US and European governments in face of these far-reaching threats. We therefore call on all democratic, feminist, internationalist, and human rights forces to stand in solidarity with the peoples ofNorth-East Syria and the YPJ.

We demand:

1. Recognition of the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ) within the Syrian Ministry of Defense.

2. Recognition and protection for all women’s institutions in Northeast Syria.

3. An end to normalization and negotiations with the Syrian government led by economical interests from foreign states while ignoring the human rights violations in Syria

4. An independent United Nations investigative mission focusing on rights violations against women by the Syrian government.

You want more information?

Find our Dossier about the YPJ here: https://peoples-bridge.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/YPJCamapign_dossier.pdf

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The open letter is scheduled to be closed on October 19th, and the campaign will be accompanied by posts and events. Please feel free to get in touch with us if you would like to support the campaign or organize an event, wherever you are.