Our IWD Webinar 2025 recording is ready for viewing!
Accompanying the recording is a thoughtful summary and reflection of the event by Rachel Robinson, local community builder and MSW candidate:
On International Women’s Day, the Siinqee Institute hosted a powerful webinar titled "Reflections on the Untold Stories of Women in Rojava, Syria," which illuminated the ongoing struggles of Kurdish women in their fight for liberation, justice, and recognition. The discussion was framed by a profoundly moving blessing offered by Aga Ruda, Board Member of Siinqee Institute, in her language, grounding the space in a spiritual and cultural foundation that honoured the voices of women who have been silenced.
One of the most pressing themes throughout the webinar was the reality that women’s voices are not being heard when it comes to the current conditions in Syria. The risks for women remain extraordinarily high, as they face oppression not only from patriarchal systems but also through the colonization of Kurdistan itself. Compassion and the feeling of the struggle for democracy is an everyday battle was felt, with women at the forefront despite the violence and suppression they endure.
A powerful video was shared to highlight the role of song and women's bodies in liberation and restorative justice. The embodied experience of oppression and resistance was acknowledged, emphasizing how cultural expressions like song become acts of resilience and defiance against erasure. This perspective resonated deeply with broader global struggles for women's rights, reinforcing the idea that decolonization is not only a political movement but also a spiritual and cultural reclamation.
The webinar also highlighted the importance of breaking the silence and utilizing the spaces we occupy to raise awareness, generate empathy, and advocate for tangible action. The call to enforce governmental accountability in response to crimes against humanity was clear: women must continue to push against systemic violence through collective advocacy. Moreover, the discussion pointed to the necessity of working together beyond the constraints of state and political domination, reclaiming power through grassroots organizing and solidarity.
The struggle for democracy in Northern Syria is deeply tied to global patterns of state oppression, political instability, and gendered violence. While the Rojava region has built a grassroots democratic system emphasizing women’s leadership and self-governance, it remains under constant attack from state forces, including Turkey’s military aggression and the broader instability in the region. This fight for self-determination, particularly by women, challenges the dominant structures of power that seek to erase alternative governance models.
In North America, we see different but interconnected struggles for democracy and justice. In both Canada and the USA, women—particularly Indigenous, Black, and racialized women—continue to fight for sovereignty, recognition, and protection from systemic violence. The ongoing crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) in Canada and the USA echoes the silencing and endangerment of women in Northern Syria. State inaction and complicity in gendered violence remain a global issue, making it crucial to lift these stories and demand accountability.
Moreover, as democratic structures in North America face rising threats from authoritarianism, political polarization, and corporate interests, the resistance in Rojava serves as a reminder that democracy is not a given—it must be actively fought for and protected. Just as Kurdish women are resisting not only patriarchy but also colonial control over their land, many in Canada and the USA are pushing back against the erosion of rights, including attacks on reproductive justice, Indigenous sovereignty, and racial justice movements.
The webinar’s emphasis on action—breaking the silence, using our circles to raise awareness, and advocating for justice—resonates deeply in this political moment. The struggles of women in Rojava are not distant issues; they are reflections of broader systems of oppression that impact women globally. Whether through challenging state violence, advocating for community-led governance, or ensuring that women's voices remain central in the fight for justice, the connections between Northern Syria and North America remind us that the work of liberation is interconnected.
This webinar was a much needed reminder that the struggles of Kurdish women are not isolated; they reflect a global pattern of patriarchal and colonial violence against women. Their resilience, however, serves as both an inspiration and a call to action for those of us in the diaspora. As women continue to be marginalized across the world, lifting and amplifying their knowledges becomes an act of resistance against historical and contemporary erasure.
One of the key takeaways for me was the reminder that advocacy does not only happen in large political spaces—it occurs in the everyday circles we move through. Whether through conversations, community organizing, or academic work, we must center these voices and push for justice. The emphasis on song and embodiment as part of women’s liberation also struck me as particularly meaningful, reinforcing that healing and resistance are interconnected.
Ultimately, this webinar expressed the urgency of solidarity with women in Rojava and beyond. By breaking the silence, holding governments accountable, and strengthening support networks, we contribute to a broader movement that transcends borders. The struggle for justice is ongoing, but through collective action and the lifting of women’s knowledges, we continue to carve a path toward liberation.
Happy Newroz Message
To all the sisters at Siinqee İnstitute, warm greetings from Kurdistan, from Jineolojî Academy. In 2025, in the era of hegemony wars, as the people’s of the world we need peace, democracy and freedom more than ever. Newroz has been the symbol of resistance for existence for Kurdish people. This year, Kurdish people, in all 4 part of Kurdistan are welcoming Newroz, with the decisiveness for freedom, peace and democracy. Spring is giving birth to freedom! Happy Newroz! Long live freedom!
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Slavên germ ji bo hemû xwişkên me yên Enstituya Sinquee, ji Kurdistanê, ji Akademiya Jineolojî. Di sala 2025, di serdema şerên hegemonî de, weke gelen cîhanê ji her demê zêdetir, pêwistiya me bi aşîtî, demokrasî û azadiyê heye. Newroz, ji bo gelê Kurd sembola berxwedana hebûnê ye. İsal, li her 4 beşê Kurdistanê, gelê Kurd bi biryardariya azadî, aştî û demokrasî, Newrozê peşwazî dikin. Bihar, zayina azadiyê ye. Newroz pîroz be! Bijî Azadî!
Happy Lunar New Year!
Greetings from a Southeast Asian Siinqee Sister!!!! As many communities celebrate Lunar New Year 2025, we send greetings of joy and good fortune to all those connected with us in mutual appreciation and friendship across the global community. There are many aspects of the Lunar New Year that is marked by each family and community. In my own family's traditions, we pay close attention to the zodiac signs of the celebrated year.
2025 is marked as the year of the Wood Snake, which symbolizes wealth and wisdom, as well as the pursuit of love and happiness. The Snake, often a symbol of feminism, is the most tenacious of the 12 zodiac animals. The Wood, among the 5 natural elements, represents growth, flexibility, and tolerance. Thus, for any person born under the Wood Snake, and for all of us in general, may this year bring us resiliency, courage, and confidence to persevere in the face of adversity.
I share a few images recently captured from my homeland of Tra Vinh, Vietnam. The first shows green rice plants with the developing grains visible. The rice that grows from these lands which are fed by the famed Mekong Delta, is sacred to so many who rely deeply on this rice for physical as well as spiritual strength and nourishment. The second is the pomelo tree, a fruit that represents abundance and good fortune, which grows in unity alongside the coconut.
May 2025 bring all of you good fortune and deep connection within yourself, your family, your community, and your ancestral knowledges, as we courageously preserve together in love, unity, and solidarity.
ANH NGO, PhD, RSW (she/her)
Baga Booqaa Birraa Geessan !
Happy Irrecha !
Oromo Thanksgiving
Irreecha is an Indigenous Oromo thanksgiving celebration. The word irreecha simply means lush green grass plucked and offered for gratitude, blessings, or prayers. But irreecha is also a weeks-long national thanksgiving festival marking seasonal transitions annually and in resonance with natural phenomena.
The most colorful irreecha celebrated across the Oromo land and in the Oromo diaspora around the world is the one around the end of September, marking the end of the rainy season. In many cases, Oromos and their friends gather for annual rituals of thanksgiving, cleansing, renewal, and affirmation.
Invitation to Addooyyee Sisterhood
Join us in our pilot project of Addooyyee Sisterhood. We will reclaim the richness of the repressed knowledges and practices of Addooyyee to empower young women and girls. We explore the core values and principles of relationality, solidarity, equity, and justice and what they meant in the Addooyyee practices and how they can be reframed to highlight the possibilities and pathways of gender justice in the diaspora. We will co-learn and unlearn the various aspects of Addooyyee sisterhood, and the values they uphold. And we will reframe them for our global context together.
We are launching our very first pilot project in the Washington DC metropolitan area in summer of 2024. If you are an unmarried, sixteen years of age and up, please sign up below.
Happy International Women’s Month!
Honouring Paula Gonzalez
Reclaiming connection, solidarity, equity and justice to empower all women
We at the Siinqee Institute are a network of Individuals and small groups coming together from across different social, cultural, political, spiritual and geographical boundaries. Our shared dream is to reclaim the three basic siinqee principles of connection, solidarity, and equity and justice to empower women and facilitate engaged vibrant communities in sustainable environments.
Knowledge Mobilization
Mobilizing knowledge is creating ways of moving research into communities, rescuing knowledge that collects dust on library shelves. It is how communities grab knowledge off of those shelves and make it walk into communities. It is how they make it their own, make it tell their stories, be their voice, cry with them, laugh with them, sing and dance with them.

Contact
Feel free to contact us with any inquiries.
Email
siinqeeinstitute@gmail.com