Rojava (A Novel of Kurdish Freedom)

A young Kurdish woman discovers a commitment to liberation, both personal and collective, through a harrowing journey to Rojava and the heart of armed struggle.

Jînçin is a young professor living in Berlin, born to a Yezedi father who years earlier was shunned and exiled for marrying outside his community, and who late in life makes the surprising and fateful decision to return to his homeland to join the Kurdish People’s Defense Units (YPG) in their fight against the Islamic State.

Searching for answers as to why the father she adored would give his life for such a cause, Jînçin embarks on a clandestine journey through various autonomous territories of Kurdistan, from Başûr in northern Iraq (southern Kurdistan), to the remote mountains of Bakûr in southeast Turkey (northern Kurdistan), and to Rojava in northeastern Syria.

With little training and without warning, she is plunged into the freedom struggle as she confronts the extremist threat that faces the Kurds, from bloody skirmishes with ISIS to drone strikes and the clandestine operations and brutal human rights abuses of the Turkish military. 

Her new life as a guerrilla fighter is a bitter and arduous one, but also one of rich discovery. Over months of mournful, intimate, and often-times playful conversations with her comrades, as well as remarkable acts of resistance and narrow escapes from grave danger, Jînçin finally grasps her place and purpose in the world. 

Ultimately, Rojava is the story of people living and fighting shoulder-to-shoulder who have decided, regardless of the present world order and in spite of the odds stacked against them, to build a society free from discrimination, based on shared dignity and collective autonomy.