Jineolojî Magazine at 10 Years Old: The Reunion of Knowledge Stolen from Women with Women – Part 1

ARJİN DİLEK ÖNCEL
Amed – Jineolojî Magazine, which began its publishing life on March 8, 2016, is celebrating its 10th year. As one of the women’s magazines in Turkish history that continues its long-term publishing life, the quarterly published theoretical journal occupies an important place in history with this characteristic. So what is Jineolojî? How did Jineolojî Magazine emerge? Why was there a need for this magazine? How does it address problems? How does it approach women’s reality? What kind of internal transformation has it undergone in 10 years? We will try to present the answers to all of these questions through our dossier.

Jineolojî as a Science: Women and Society Relations

Conceptually, Jineolojî was first used by Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan in his book “The Sociology of Freedom” in 2008. However, as the science of women and life, Jineolojî’s history encompasses a process of labor and discussion extending back to the 1990s. In the 90s, evaluations and discussions about the need to address women and men relations scientifically matured and found expression in the book “Defending a People” as follows:

“The educational value of analyzing the social characteristics of the system particularly through women is very high. A point that must be mentioned from the beginning is that examining any social phenomenon under separate political, social, economic, cultural, etc. divisions involves serious drawbacks. All the sub and superstructure systems of societies that experience continuous formation in historical wholeness work as a whole like the parts of a clock. The disease of excessive fragmentation stems from Western scientism’s characteristic of losing the wholeness of phenomena. While using this approach, which significantly makes it difficult to grasp reality scientifically, it is very important not to ignore wholeness. Women should be seen as a summary of the entire system and analyzed as such. Just as capitalist society is the continuation and peak of all old exploitative societies, women also experience the peak of the enslaving effect of all these systems. Without understanding women who are shaped in the grip of the oldest and most concentrated hierarchical and statist society’s oppression and exploitation, we cannot correctly define society. The path to correctly understanding ethnic, national, and class slavery passes through the definition of women. The studies on women that social science has tried to make the subject of even a little science while the spear doesn’t fit in the sack are specific to the last quarter of the 20th century. The feminist movement, environment, war, and the terrible destruction of powers have begun to make us think about the sexist character of history and domination. This fact alone shows the sexist character of the entire scientific structure, including social sciences that should be the most objective. Science is sexist.”

So, four years later the concept of Jineolojî emerged as a continuation of these processes and discussions. Jineolojî, meaning “women’s science,” theoretically also encompasses the definitions of “life science,” “society science,” and “science of coexistence.” Jineolojî’s aim is to present a perspective on what methods should be tried in the search for solutions by addressing the exploitation system that creates itself through male-dominant domination, the causes of power-centered understanding of life, and the problems created by this system. Jineolojî, which defines women’s identity beyond biology, sociology and history, looks at women’s identity in a way that also encompasses economic, social, and political dimensions, and ensures the illumination of women’s nature. If we start from the historical fact that sociality has been shaped most around women, the illumination of women’s nature will also bring the illumination of society’s nature. Therefore, Jineolojî can also be defined as social science. In other words, Jineolojî is an objection to the positivist scientific understanding.

From Academy to Jineolojî Faculty

Jineolojî began to be discussed from 2011 onwards. In 2015, at the 1st Conference, the organization of the “Jineolojî Academy” was decided. Conferences and workshops were organized under the name Jineolojî, both in Kurdistan and around the world. Jineolojî Academy and research centers wereestablished in North and East Syria, and in 2016, Jineolojî Magazine was launched. In 2018, a Jineolojî Center was established in Belgium, and In 2019, starting from Jineolojî, the Andrea Wolf Institute was established in North and East Syria, named after the international revolutionary Andrea Wolf. More recently a Jineolojî Faculty was opened, and it was organized in camp form in Europe and Latin America. This process enabled important women’s struggle dynamics from Europe to Asia, from Latin America to Africa, to unite around Jineolojî. All of them attempted to make sense of their own unique historicity from past to present and began to reveal forgotten life and struggle values.

Jineolojî Magazine

While the foundations of a science that had begun to be discussed since 2011 were just being laid, the attempt to push women out of history once again imposed the need to analyze women’s reality.

Jineolojî Magazine, emerging from a new social science understanding, began its publishing life on March 8, 2016, World Women’s Day, to create a foundation for analyzing all of society’s unresolved problems that have turned into crises “from a women’s perspective” and offering solution proposals. The magazine, which began its publishing life precisely in 2016 during a period when many news agencies, newspapers, associations, and publishing houses were closed and pressures increased with Decrees 675 and 676, issued under the State of Emergency, meets with its readers every three months. Jineolojî Magazine, which opens a door to a world where thought methods monopolized by the system, such as philosophy, religion and science, are reconsidered from women’s reality and women’s perspective, sheds light on the process of women recreating themselves against the knowledge structure that makes women the colony of the colonized.

Every Dossier Offered Solutions

The magazine produced 33 dossiers over 10 years as follows: “1-Crisis of Social Sciences, 2-Method and Truth Based on Women’s Reality, 3-Women’s Revolution and Jineolojî, 4-Jineolojî as Self-Defense, 5-Searching for Solutions to the Middle East Crisis, 6-View of Women’s Nature, 7-View of Men’s Nature and Masculinity, 8-Free Coexistence; Why, How?, 9-Ethics-Aesthetics I; Resistance of Good and Beautiful in Social History; 10-Ethics-Aesthetics II; Language, Action and Theory of Good and Beautiful, 11-Women’s Resistance Methods I, 12-Women’s Resistance Methods II, 13-Education Policies, 14-Democratic Politics, 15-Demography, 16-Democratic Communal Economy, 17-21st Century; Women’s Century, 18-Family Discussions, 19-Ecological Life, 20-Science and Language of Life, 21-Religionism-Based Colonialism and Women’s Massacre Policies, 22-Cultural Crisis and Ways Out of Crisis, 23-Youth Discussions, 24-Sexuality, From Sacredness to Power Ideology, 25-Colonialism, 26-Transcending Scientism, 27-Organizing the Potential of Freedom: Social Movements, 28-Rojhilat, 29-Bakur, 30-Rojava, 31-Bashur, 32-Women’s Confederalism, 33-Isolation and Closure”.

Jineolojî Magazine’s 34th issue is currently in the printing stage, and it also produced two special dossiers over 10 years, one of which was the “Pandemic as a Tool of Social Massacre” during the Covid-19 process, and the other consisted of Nagihan Akarsel’s writings under the title “Journey of Truth with Nagihan”.

Material as Dossier Contents

While each dossier of the magazine carries material characteristics, the magazine’s 9th and 10th issues opened ethics-aesthetics to discussion in all its aspects. While many philosophical movements have tried to define aesthetics, i.e., the theory of beauty, the magazine points to how the science of aesthetics will be possible through mental change-transformation. While aesthetics, which is the criterion of “what kind of life” one wants, is addressed in all its aspects, it also determines how good or beautiful life should be.

The magazine’s 7th issue, “View of Men’s Nature and Masculinity” dossier, draws attention to the “masculinity problem,” and this dossier stands as an important material with the following characteristics: In this issue, emphasis is placed on the reasons for men’s and masculinity’s efforts to militarize life, reproduce violence, and suffocate women’s identity. Nagihan Akarsel’s article in the dossier, “Setting Out with Empathy”, approaches the issue of “Why Should We Understand Men?” within the framework of empathy discussions. While trying to eliminate the “masculinity” problem, it emphasizes that the relationship established through women and men understanding and empathizing with each other, is only one of the methods leading to problem solving.

Women’s Struggle in 4 Parts of Kurdistan

The “Rojhilat, Bakur, Rojava, Bashur” issues, focusing on the women’s struggle in 4 parts of Kurdistan, looks at the experiences of women living in the different regions of a fragmented geography. The dossier, which tells the resistance heritage of the 4 parts, aims to be ‘Xwebûn’ (authentic/self-existing) against alienation, for integration as opposed to fragmentation, and to bring to light knowledge that has not been revealed against the rulers in the 4 regions. It also nourishes the social culture shaped around women. The 1-year dossier, which aims to reveal women’s knowledge corpus, focuses on collective struggle by eliminating the rupture between women.

Although Jineolojî Magazine is a magazine of theory, it includes writings from women of all segments. With its approach and content it reveals that women’s experiences, including lived experiences, are correct within the scientific method. Against an understanding that excludes experience from scientific research, it has made a difference and has advanced over 10 years. Its language gradually became a language that produces social knowledge. In each issue of the magazine, which is published with women’s labor, the cover picture was also chosen from the works of women painters. At the same time, some issues of the magazine were also translated into Kurmanji, Sorani, English, and Arabic.

Journey of Truth with Nagihan

One of the names who contributed labor from the stage when the magazine began its publishing life was Nagihan Akarsel. Nagihan Akarsel, who was a member of the Jineolojî Research Center and also an Editorial Board Member of Jineolojî Magazine, enriched the magazine with her writings until October 4, 2022, when she was murdered in Sulaymaniyah. While Nagihan’s writings became a reference for social knowledge, in her article “The Archaic Voice of the Age: Jin” that she wrote before being murdered, she said the following about Jineolojî: “Since Jineolojî is based on ‘jin,’ which is a voice from the heart, it seeks its knowledge and methods in the texture of the soil, in the pores of society, in the harmony of life. And it gradually reaches the definition of meaning science as women raise their voices, embrace life, rely on society, discover nature, and understand the universe.”

You can access Jineolojî Magazine’s website at this link: https://www.jineolojidergisi.com/

Rojda Yıldız: Jineolojî emerged as a reaction to the existing world

Rojda Yıldız, Editorial Board Member of Jineolojî Magazine, stated that they are celebrating the magazine’s 10th year, despite the pressures.

Expressing that Jineolojî has a widespread field of work and that the magazine constitutes only a part of this, she said, “Jineolojî is a work that grows with workshops, trainings, and research. Jineolojî emerged as a reaction to the existing world. The existing world formed a system by excluding women. It did this by causing a serious massacre of truth. The existing system says that people need to be governed, that women must submit by their nature, and that nature must be under human service. Everything has a limit, everything is determined by laws, laws are created for someone’s needs. Is a life outside of this possible? And how should one think in this new life? Jineolojî created itself with this question and answer.”

‘There is a system built on the theft of women’s knowledge’

Rojda Yıldız, noting that society’s characteristic of having a self-governing structure, was taken away from society by the mechanical paradigm positivism of especially the last 500 years, and given to a certain clique, said, “Thus, a thought systematicity was organized. This system is built on the theft of women’s knowledge. Mythology drew a ‘gossipy, curious, cunning’ woman profile, beliefs drew a faith that women should obey men, philosophers characterized women as ‘deficient in reason,’ science positioned women as objects to be captured and conquered just like nature. Of course, Jineolojî was not the first to oppose all these. The feminist struggle made serious criticisms and breakthroughs, but Jineolojî is a science that emerged with a system proposal beyond all these.”

Regarding the science of Jineolojî, she said, “Everyone has a need to make sense of life, but the system says this happens through consumption. Jineolojî says it happens through producing more spirituality by socializing. In this sense, it has an approach that tries to reinterpret both male-female and social relations and tries to bring truth to light.”

‘Our aim is to reunite the social knowledge that women produce with women’

Rojda Yıldız, referring to the aim of Jineolojî Magazine, said, “Our aim was to reunite that social knowledge that women produce with society, with women,” while expressing that they live in an age where women are excluded from knowledge and science, and that knowing and producing is attributed only to a certain elite group.

‘It encompasses mental transformation’

She continued as follows: “Our concern was to try to explain that none of the knowledge in life, the knowledge that women produce at home, is worthless, only the system sees it this way. This addresses a difficult issue that also encompasses a mental transformation. We have an aim to present and discuss a different way of living and thinking to people. The magazine was a way to bring this aim together with wider masses. The magazine reached many women in 10 years. In the feedback we received, we saw that women began to see that the knowledge they produce every day in their homes and in society is valuable. This is very important because it means a source of self-confidence for these women again. The magazine’s 10th year also turned into a work where it systematized and institutionalized itself. The writing experience was also very important for women. Women’s writing had been forbidden for many years. Especially writing in the field of science and knowledge was seen as a scary, difficult area. During this process, countless women wrote to us. A mother at home perhaps couldn’t write herself, but we listened to her and wrote it, we carried the experience of a university student, a teacher, everyone to the dossier. This was also a method of breaking the pattern of ‘only certain people can write’ in the current academic system from a women’s perspective.”

‘Looking holistically is one of the magazine’s most fundamental issues’

Rojda Yıldız, emphasizing that another feature that distinguishes Jineolojî Magazine from other magazines, is its holistic approach to topics, said, “The modern science system, that is, Positivist scientism, claims that it can reach the truth by dividing issues into the smallest parts. In this sense, fragmentation is one of the methods of turning hypothesis into thesis. For example, if you want to examine the mental health of the human body, it tells you to examine only psychology and put aside the remaining sociological, cultural, global aspects, this is a flawed perspective. However, looking holistically is one of the magazine’s most fundamental issues. Whatever the dossier, we tried to look at and write about that topic from everywhere in that dossier. If we were going to discuss ethics-aesthetics, we discussed ethics-aesthetics in the economy too. We discussed ethics-aesthetics in health too. We discussed ethics-aesthetics in women’s life, in human relations. If we were going to discuss economy, we didn’t put historical economy aside, we discussed that too. It was important to be able to present a holistic framework. In this sense, a Jineolojî method was also established. Now a mental structure has begun to form where women cannot discuss an issue without addressing history and sociology when they start discussing it. This creates a more holistic way of thinking method in people. The magazine also became the written archive of this.”

‘We will reach more women’

She also referred to the aims of the editorial board in the upcoming process, on the occasion of the magazine’s 10th year, saying, “Of course, there were shortcomings in this process. More women could have been reached, more religious and oppressed groups could have been reached. We have set this as an aim for ourselves on the occasion of the 10th year. Jineolojî also turned into the embodied form of the saying ‘the caravan gets organized on the road.’ It caught a heritage where it developed and grew between when we started the magazine and the current point. The magazine is 10 years old, it’s an exciting process for all of us, like a child growing up. Both exciting and hopeful. Jineolojî came to these days with women’s labor, we hope that in the upcoming process the magazine will be read by more social segments.”

Source: https://jinhaagency.com/tr/dosya/jineoloji-dergisi-10-yasinda-kadindan-calinan-bilginin-yeniden-kadinla-bulusmasi-1-52134