Interview with Kurdish filmmaker Sevînaz Evdikê about the situation of women in Rojava and the Islamist regime in Damascus.

Sevînaz Evdikê (born 1992 in Serêkaniyê, Rojava) studied film in Northern Kurdistan and co-founded Komîna Fîlma a Rojava, a film collective from Western Kurdistan. As a filmmaker she participated in many of the collective’s projects and is committed to representing Kurdish culture and female perspectives in film. She became known for the films “Home” (2018) and “The Return: Life After ISIS” (2021), which focus on the lives and experiences of women in the self-governed Kurdish regions of Syria. Her film “The Wedding Parade” (2023) expresses hope amidst war and displacement. She currently works as a film lecturer at the Women’s Art Academy in Hesekê. GWR author Robert Krieg had the opportunity to interview her during the Kurdish Film Festival in Rojava in November 2025. (GWR Editorial Team)

Robert Krieg: You told me that the Rojava project is threatened not only from the outside but also from within. Economic interests are increasingly dominating social life and public discourse. Can you describe this process in more detail?

Sevînaz Evdikê: Social life in Rojava is based on the convivial gatherings of people and their mutual support. I know many families like my own who lived in poverty, but we never had trouble feeding ourselves. We had neighbours who all supported us. But now, due to many circumstances, the situation has changed drastically. The war has increasingly broken down the social fabric, and we no longer live in our hometowns. A large part of Rojava’s population has been displaced. They no longer live in their own communities, and the social support system that existed before no longer exists. It still exists, but you have to rebuild your community. That’s something that has changed, and economically, people are struggling as displaced persons. After all the bombings in 2023, no one talks any more about the destruction of the infrastructure, the gas and oil supplies, the power plants. But it had an enormous impact on the people of Rojava. Now there is no electricity at all, and there’s a shortage of diesel to heat homes in the winter. Many people have lost their jobs because many facilities were destroyed. Added to this are the trade restrictions that the US imposed on Syria. At the end of 2023, everything became very expensive. The embargo contributed significantly to this. One worker’s salary isn’t enough. People have to work two or three jobs to make ends meet. Another important point is that the existence of many non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Rojava is destroying our social life. They pay their employees more than $1,000, while the self-governing staff earn less than $110 a month. There are shops where you pay $30 or $40 for a T-shirt because NGO employees shop there. All of this is causing people great hardship. People used to be willing to defend Rojava, but now they’re fighting for their personal survival; it’s no longer just about the bombings. We are defending Rojava, but there are so many internal problems that need to be solved.

Robert: Could you say that this has an impact on people no longer fighting for the revolution as much as they used to? That they are much more interested in doing private things to secure their economic livelihood?

Sevînaz: Yes, that’s exactly it. Now people are fighting for their daily survival. A family with children can’t do something for the greater cause, for our revolution, every single day. People have to provide for their own families, which becomes an enormous struggle. In 2024, the Turkish army attacked the Tişrîn Dam. Every day when I drove to Heseke, I saw hundreds of people at the crossroads on the outskirts of town heading there, even though it was very dangerous because the Turkish army continued bombing and didn’t distinguish between civilians and fighters. They were just killing people. But people went there. Many of our friends went there, and we lost many of them, even artists. So I wouldn’t say that people aren’t willing to defend Rojava. But in times without attacks, people are fighting for their economic survival in their private lives.

Robert: How do the economic conditions, especially in the daily lives of artists, affect the creativity, the aesthetics, and the cinematic storytelling style of Kurdish filmmakers?

Sevînaz: I don’t have a universally applicable answer to that question. I can only speak from my personal experience.

Robert: Yes, please.

Sevînaz: In my life, there are two things that are most important to me. I could be very successful if I could combine them. One is cinema, the other is the revolution to build Rojava. I always say that if I could unite these two things in my life, I would say that I have led a fulfilling life as an artist and as a person from Rojava. I have tried to do this for the past ten years, since 2015. Now I teach 25 students at the academy. I think I can still contribute something (to cinema), but my personal experience as a filmmaker shows that it is very demanding, as I have to manage three different tasks simultaneously. Two of them concern the revolution in the artistic sphere, the promotion and training of female artists, but the third is purely economic. That takes up a lot of time. And at the moment, I can’t create anything. I contribute to the creative life in Rojava, but personally, I’m not creating anything. That makes me sad, but I think it’s a phase that comes and goes. You just have to do what’s necessary at the time.

Robert: The Kurdish films at the festival, as far as I can tell, are dominated by stories about military battles. I think that influences and limits the view of social development. Social development is much more diverse; it doesn’t consist solely of armed conflict.

Sevînaz: Exactly.

Robert: I sense a danger of the militarisation of society in this. I think that contradicts the idea of ​​building a fundamentally democratic society through peaceful means. Perhaps you could comment on that.

Sevînaz: I’ve often asked myself that question, too. That’s precisely why it’s important to train young people to express themselves as they wish. All these films dealing with the military and armed struggle stem from the responsibility to report on the events here. And unfortunately, for at least the last ten years, our lives have revolved almost exclusively around the military defence of Rojava. I think what’s missing are films about the social structure, the rebuilding of social life, and a focus on that. The challenge now is to create more opportunities for this. Because there are people who would like to learn more about social structures and how they are built. Current opportunities are limited to reporting on Rojava’s self-defence. I hope that in the future we will have ample opportunities for people to express themselves—in experimental films, in films that address social structures, in films that also critically examine our own problems. But right now, our opportunities are very limited, and that’s due to the sense of responsibility we feel to talk about the current events in Rojava.

Robert: The festival features many films about women, but only a few are directed by women. Why is that? Rojava is fighting for gender equality. Could a quota help?

Sevînaz: I don’t think that’s the problem. Perhaps that will change in the future, much like social life. In a literal sense, we have equal artistic rights. But the social situation for women here is truly difficult. It’s a struggle that, unfortunately, has been going on for over ten years. It’s not as if we simply decide and shape the art scene here together. We have our own institutions as women. I belong to an all-female institution. And we’re trying to create something. But there were many men who were able to get started immediately after the revolution began, while the women first had to fight just to get out there, to learn, and then to be able to be creative. That’s why we’re somewhat underrepresented, but hopefully that will change in the future. We’ve compiled statistics on this. In women’s collectives, we recorded the number of women involved in filmmaking in Rojava. And there are more women than men working in the film industry. In all areas: as actresses, behind the camera, and as production assistants, especially on production teams. But we are underrepresented as directors. This is because the men who started in the film industry were already trained and knew how to operate a camera. They were able to make films earlier, even if it was still a small number. We, on the other hand, had to struggle just to leave the house, make excuses, and fight to be on set for two months. So it’s only a matter of time, but in my opinion, not a question of quality. Because the quality of men and women is equal, especially in film. That’s my own experience.

Robert: You work as a lecturer at the recently founded Women’s Art Academy in Hesekê. But there’s also a recently founded art academy in Derik. What’s the difference? Why is it important to you to work at this art academy for women, and generally to establish such an art academy specifically for women?

Sevînaz: From my own experience and that of many women here who work in the arts, I know that while we have a system of coexistence and our own decision-making processes in every institution, we have been working with men who—I would say—have thought they were the leaders for centuries. It was very difficult to find a balance between a man who sees himself as a leader, is creative, and tries to change in the wake of the revolution, but doesn’t really try because he already holds the superior position. It was about finding a balance between such a man and the inexperienced women whose greatest dream would be to graduate from university and find a salaried job without participating in any creative life. So, although the system was created on the principle of equality, the situation for men and women was anything but equal. That’s why we thought we’d create a space just for women, where they can feel free, authentic, and comfortable. The women here don’t really feel comfortable around men. At our academy, they can begin to express themselves freely. And that’s precisely why this institution was founded—by the women’s movement, which has always advocated for women to forge their own path and have their own space, even when they work alongside men as equals. The system is set up to respect their rights, but they still need their own space, and I’m already seeing the results. The women at our academy are now very independent and strong; they say what they think. I never experienced that in all the years I worked in Rojava’s institutions, despite the revolution.

Robert: My next question is much more general. There’s a new government in Damascus, and I think it threatens all the achievements of the women’s revolution here in Rojava. How can we defend it? What’s the right way? My idea has always been to introduce a federal system. I don’t know what you think about what a good way might be to continue the women’s revolution in Rojava as you have done so far.

Sevînaz: The new government in Damascus is terrifying, a horror. We have videos showing these new rulers in Damascus killing civilians in Kobanê and Raqqa and slaughtering women. It’s hard to imagine living with them, even though our system of autonomous administration is based precisely on coexistence. That’s what we’ve fought for all these years. Personally, I can’t imagine living with the new power in Damascus. For us, decentralisation of government is always paramount. Because it’s not just about self-governance. There are also the Alawites in the country, who are frightened, the Alawite women, who have always been known for their openness and free will. I’m in contact with them and I know how frightened they are. They refuse to leave their homes. And then there are the Druze in the south. It’s not just about the self-governing bodies, which have been working for the last ten years to develop a form of coexistence—both between all ethnic groups and between men and women. The solution is the decentralisation of power. There is no other way. Especially now, new rules are being introduced, and for me, they are primarily directed against women. I can’t imagine living in such a country. That’s why I hope we will get a decentralised government. I don’t know exactly how, but I simply wish that we have the right to decide for ourselves.

Robert: Perhaps you could add something positive, something hopeful for the future?

Sevînaz: You know, I come from Rojava, I grew up here, it’s my country, and I can’t imagine living anywhere else in the world. I feel very connected to my family and my community. Community in the sense of the people I grew up with, but also community in the sense of the people with whom I shared the creative life in Rojava. It wouldn’t have been possible to do everything I’m doing now if I didn’t come from such an open-minded family. There are so many little things I’m grateful for every day. And I see that every day in the eyes of many women and people when I walk down the streets. I really hope that this continues, that we succeed, improve, grow, and even enhance the existing programs.

Machine translation from https://freedomnews.org.uk/2026/03/04/rojava-the-solution-is-the-decentralisation-of-power/