Zeyneb > Recent Status Updates

I have a:

🫣 never-ending TBR pile +
🤫 need for complete silence in order to read +
✍️ need to annotate so a desk/table is required +
😬 interest in too much political non-fiction that are too depressing to read +
😩 some fiction books bore me because they’re too simple

= a terrible reading schedule because I need this combo of perfect conditions to read 🙃

In Chapter 1️⃣4️⃣ there are a lot of nefarious & opportunistic j!hadist groups and individuals that want to destroy Syria and take Rojava like a chess piece, but only innocent civilians suffer as a result of these geopolitics.

The thing that struck me most was a section about Erdoğan wanting to establish his neo-Ottoman project, which in conclusion explains why Turkey aided !S!S, due mainly to Kurdophobia

Chapter 1️⃣2️⃣

Key points 🔑

1. “…the Western powers [do not] support Rojava, which is […] a project to carve out a society outside capitalist modernity & Western interventionism.”

2. A communal, democratized economy controlled by the citizen body

3. No large landholdings have been expropriated

4. Women’s cooperatives

[Damn you character limit! 😩]

Chapter 🔟

Key points 🔑

1. The 1st school for disabled & special needs students was opened on February 1, 2016.

2. The persecution & repression of educating in the native Kurdish language was finally reversed.

3. Schools strived to rid curriculums of statist, hierarchical, patriarchal-sexist & racist content.

Chapter 9️⃣ Key notes 🔑

1. Rojava’s justice system is restorative & similar to small radical democratic movements like those of the Zapatistas.

2. The Asayîş (Security Forces wing) protect society, as distinguished from the police who protect the state. The Asayîş are mixed-gender.

Reflections ✏️

To reiterate, Rojava turned destruction & chaos into something beautiful & inspirational

I feel undeservingly accomplished after only reading 10 pages of a book on a random Tuesday 😭 send me your best reading habits to fix this 😩

As I’m reading this book, I am getting teary eyed because we honestly had a glimmer of hope in the Middle East from Rojava, but the powers that be want to crush that 💔

Important new things I learned in Chapter 3!

“[…] caring for each other as a form of cultural rebellion.”

“Care-driven organizing […] as movements against dehumanization.” ❤️‍🩹

It’s taking me awhile to finish this book because I pause to cry while reading certain passages (am a sensitive crybaby).

We need community because it gives you life (esp in these trying times).

I’m starting to dislike chick lit ☹️