Jin, Jîyan, Azadî : Woman, Life, Freedom 

The Quilt Club’s latest large scale installation is an oversized quilted banner that has been created in solidarity with the women-led protests in Iran, and the Kurdish women’s anti-system revolutionary movement.

The slogan Jin, Jîyan, Azadî has been gaining global recognition in response to the killing of Jîna Mahsa Amini, a 22 year old Kurdish woman, in the custody of Iran’s morality police, following her arrest for “improperly” wearing her hijab. News of Mahsa Amini’s death from the injuries she sustained from severe beatings, sparked protests across Iran led by women who chanted the slogan as they cut their hair, and removed their Hijabs. It has now evolved into a revolutionary movement calling for a change in Iran’s theocratic government regime. 

The protests in Iran have now been globally recognised and Jin, Jîyan, Azadî  is being taken up as a universal slogan for mass mobilisation for liberation. However, it is important to recognise the political historical context that led to the development of the slogan, which was born out of the radical revolutionary political struggle of the Kurdish Women’s Movement.

The slogan has shaped several decades of the Kurdish Freedom Movement’s philosophical and political thought and its distinctive approach to gender, with the liberation of women central to the movement’s ideology. It symbolises the call for the abolition of patriarchal capitalist and colonial state structures and violence. The slogan is a tool for societal change and social transformation through the building of women’s autonomy and self-determination, which leads to tangible action and organisation. 

However, rather than a rally call for women’s equality, it calls for collective and universal liberation from systems of power and domination. Life is not possible without the contribution of women, and therefore the liberation of women is essential to the liberation of all in society. Abdullah Őcalan, the recognised leader of the Kurdish Freedom Movement wrote: “The freedom of our society is measured by the freedom of women”.

By standing for a universal struggle for liberation, the slogan was designed to create meaningful solidarity, connection, and friendship that is necessary for political and social emancipation. It is in this context that Quilt Club created this Jin, Jîyan, Azadî banner. It was made by our community to show solidarity with the Iran protests, and to acknowledge the political history of the slogan by demonstrating our support of the sacrifice and struggle of our Kurdish neighbours in Seven Sisters, North London. Through the collective making of the banner, we challenged our own internal narratives and culture of domination by western capitalist and patriarchal systems. 

The design of the banner includes a patchwork of brightly coloured fabrics that were intentionally chosen as an expression of joy. As Audre Lorde stated, joy is an energy for change and therefore can be an act of resistance, as the right to joy is often suppressed or stolen by oppressive regimes and systems. These colourful fabrics, making up the banner lettering and the quilt backing, have been recycled from our Big House Quilt project in a deliberate demonstration of the anti-waste and sustainable principles of the Quilt Club, and as an expression of connecting the threads of our large community installation projects.  

Our aim is for the banner to be displayed at events and meetings, and hung publicly in Seven Sisters, before being gifted to a local Kurdish women’s organisation, where we hope to work together to add the finishing touches by hand sewing the quilted layers together and create a visual depiction of meaningful solidarity and connection. 

“Only with the participation of all of society can there be truly liberated women in our society, which means liberation for all of our societies, and therefore, inshallah, peace for our beautiful region”

Dilar Dirik, Kurdish writer and organiser speaking on the Pomegranate Podcast, 2022

Read more about the history of Jin, Jîyan, Azadî and the Kurdish Women’s Movement, and Audre Lorde’s joy as political resistance:

Dilar Dirik, The Kurdish Women's Movement History, Theory, Practice

https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745341941/the-kurdish-womens-movement/ 

Pomegranate Podcast - Jin Jiyan Azadi, with Dilar Dirik

https://open.spotify.com/episode/7emBoFODMReGGC7l2dqokM

Eleonora Gea Piccardi & Stefania Barca, Jin-jiyan-azadi. Matristic culture and Democratic Confederalism in Rojava

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11625-022-01099-x

Carolina Cal, Joy as Political Resistance. The Latin American Women’s Rights Service (LAWRS). 

https://lawrs.org.uk/blog/2022/08/30/joy-as-political-resistance/

About The Quilt Club

The Quilt Club is a gathering in North London and is an inclusive, free, welcoming, environment where a group of people, reflective of the demographics of the population of the area, come together to make and create. Hosted by textile artist Nicola Woollon, the group gather each Wednesday to sew and share textile skills, collaborating on large scale installations or personal projects.