Can Syria’s Kurds save their women’s revolution?
The Documentary Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 3 March 2026
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
For 14 years, while Syria was divided by civil war, Kurds in the north-east of the country tried to build a new democratic society, with equality for men and women – an inspiration for feminists around the world. But now, the Kurdish autonomous area, Rojava, is coming back under the control of a central government that’s now run by former Islamists.
Reporter Tim Whewell asks whether Rojava’s rare social experiment - including all-women fighting units – will survive? He interviews Kurdish women, including the young co-mayor of one of the area’s main cities, who’s determined to continue her work, and learns about the origins of Rojava’s unusual system. He also talks to a woman who says she and her family witnessed the killing in January this year of unarmed Kurdish men, by fighters supporting the central government. As such allegations multiply, many Kurds are nervous about their future in a united Syria.
This episode of The Documentary comes to you from Assignment, investigations and journeys into the heart of global events.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.4 | Welcome to Assignment on the documentary from the BBC World Service with me, Tim Hewell. |
| 0:11.5 | This is the story of a social experiment that's inspired people around the world, |
| 0:17.0 | and that now faces a very uncertain future. |
| 0:23.4 | I've never walked into an atmosphere like there was in that hall that day. |
| 0:31.0 | Hundreds of women all united in this massive determination to hold on to the gains of what they call the women's revolution. |
| 0:39.3 | One after the other, women rose to their feet and called the hall to these chants of Jin Jian Azadi, woman life, freedom. |
| 0:48.6 | Jin Jian Azadi, Jinjian Azadi. I felt the reverberations kind of rose through my body. |
| 0:57.0 | That's Natasha Walter, a British feminist writer. |
| 1:00.4 | A year ago, she travelled to northeast Syria |
| 1:03.1 | to a place that says it's empowered women more successfully, perhaps, |
| 1:07.8 | than anywhere else in the world. |
| 1:09.6 | Their determination, their daring, their confidence is something quite extraordinary. |
| 1:15.2 | Natasha too rose to her feet. |
| 1:17.2 | Believe me when I say that there are many, many women across the world |
| 1:21.2 | who are hearing your voice and who want to join you in saying, |
| 1:26.3 | woman, life, freedom. |
| 1:29.2 | Jin, Jan, Jan, Jian, Jian, Azzadi. |
| 1:33.7 | Jinn, Jani, thank you. |
| 1:37.3 | The language is Kurdish. |
| 1:39.3 | For 14 years amid the chaos of civil war, |
| 1:42.9 | Syria's Kurds, a minority in an Arab-dominated state, |
... |
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