March 8th should be considered not only as a “Historical Day” but also as a multi-layered intersection of the struggle for Women's Labor, Body, Identity and Freedom. It is important to examine both the background of the historical process and the axis pointed out by the importance of the day. Capitalism, Religion-Culture, Political, Social, Economic and Social examinations, the Leninist perspective, the Kurdish national liberation struggle program, the revolutionary-socialist approach and the philosophy of life of Kızılbaş-Alevi will reveal an important perspective.
The historical roots of the Eighth of March can be traced back to the strikes, marches and organizations of working women who stood up against the heavy exploitation they were subjected to under industrial capitalism. Clara Zetkin's proposal for an international women's day, based on the historical and social values of the struggle of women textile workers in New York for better wages, more humane working conditions and political rights, took on an international dimension when the women who took to the streets in Russia with the slogan “Bread and Peace” sparked the revolution. All this shows us the following. March 8th is the symbolic concentration point of the emergence of women on the stage of history not as “victims” but as subjects. In other words, March 8th is not “Women's Flower Giving Day”, but the historical memory of the will of women to break the class, political and cultural chains.
Moving from here to the present, to the issue of the “Value” that the Capitalist system gives to Women, the naked truth is this. Capitalism does not value Woman, it values Woman's labor, her body, her consumer power and her reproduction function. Women are exploited on three main levels in the capitalist system. First, in the field of wage labor, lower wages, precariousness, flexible work and the organization of the informal economy. Second, in the field of invisible domestic labor, such as cooking, cleaning, caring for children and the elderly, the fact that she is relegated to the position of an unpaid and natural servant. Thirdly, the commodification of her body, the marketing of her sexuality, and the fact that she is constantly turned into an object and target of consumption through the beauty and fashion industry. While capitalism puts the woman on display with the discourse of the “Free Individual”, in the background it turns her into a carrier of maximum profit both in the process of continuous production and in the production process. In other words, the “Value” that the capitalist system gives to Women is in fact the value of Women not as human beings, but as a profit-generating tool.
The role assigned to Women by religions and cultures, on the other hand, often serves as an ideologically legitimizing ground for this economic exploitation. Patriarchal interpretations of religion confine Women to the stereotypes of “Honor of the Family”, “Complement of the Man”, “Obedient Wife and Devoted Mother”. A web of control is woven over the woman's body, clothing, voice, laughter, going out on the street, working, inheritance, testimony, in every area of life that concerns human beings. This network is nourished not only by fatwas and written texts that define religious obligations, but also by centuries of male-dominated powers bending and twisting religious discourse according to their own interests. Cultural codes reinforce this. Many discourses have been invented and recorded in the memory of society. Phrases such as “What Will the World Say?”, “The Female Part Doesn't Do That”, “The Woman Listens to Her Man” are invisible chains that suppress the subjectivity of the Woman from childhood. Thus, Religion and Culture often define women in terms of obedience, patience, sacrifice and silence, which plays into the hands of the Capitalist-Patriarchal order, because a woman figure who does not question, does not object and is ready to sacrifice herself functions as the “Ideal, Cheap Labor Force” and the “Ideal Repressed Obedient” both at home and at work.
Lenin's thesis, “Without women there can be no revolution, without revolution women cannot be liberated” adds a revolutionary breaking point to this picture. This sentence points to a twofold reality. First, a real social Revolution is not possible without the active participation of Women, because it is Women who make up half of society, and it is Women who give birth to the other half, and it is Women who suffer the heaviest exploitation. If this sector is excluded from the Revolutionary process, the Revolution will be both incomplete and fragile. Secondly, the full emancipation of Women cannot be achieved only through individual freedoms or legal reforms; the emancipation of Women is possible only through a Revolutionary process in which the relations of production, the property structure and class exploitation are radically transformed. In other words, the Leninist perspective does not reduce Women's Liberation to the discourse of “Equality of Women and Men”, nor does it see it as an identity struggle detached from the class struggle. On the contrary, it understands women's liberation as both the condition and the result of revolutionary transformation.
The role assigned to women in the national liberation program of the Kurdish people opens up a historically very important field of experience in this context. Especially in the last forty years, women in the Kurdish liberation movement have rejected their role as mere “supporters” or “sacrificing mothers in the background” and have risen to a position of subjectivity in every field from armed struggle to politics, from local governance to ideological production. The slogan “Jin, Jiyan, Azadi” expresses a perspective that places women's freedom at the center of national liberation. Here, the woman is defined not only as the “Honor of the Nation” but also as the founding subject of the liberation process of the nation. Practices such as the co-presidency system, women's quotas, women's assemblies, women's defense units are efforts to secure women's freedom on a programmatic and organizational level. This is a model in which the national liberation struggle and the Women's Liberation Struggle feed each other and draw strength from each other.
The programmatic view of the Revolutionary-Socialists on the Women's Question, on the other hand, has historically fluctuated but has a clear direction. On the one hand, for a long time within the classical Socialist movement, reductionist approaches such as “Class Struggle First, Women's Question Later” were seen, and the Women's question was treated as a secondary, secondary, “Postponed After the Revolution” issue. However, both theoretical and practical experiences have clearly shown that wherever the women's question is postponed, even within the revolutionary struggle itself, it has emerged as a picture of the reproduction of the patriarchal structure, problems such as sexist division of labor within the organization, male-dominated decision-making mechanisms, invisibility of Women Comrades have emerged. For this reason, Contemporary-Democratic Revolutionary-Socialist programs have been forced to address Women's liberation no longer under an “Additional Title”, but as an integral component of the class struggle, within the constitutive axis of the Revolutionary strategy. Tools such as women's commissions, independent women's organizations, bylaws against sexual harassment and violence, principles of equal representation, etc. must be the concrete expression of this programmatic transformation.
The value of women in the Kizilbash-Alawi philosophy of life has both a historical depth and a reason for its existence. In the Kizilbash-Alawi path, the woman is seen not only as a “wife” or “mother”, but also as half of the path, the mirror of truth, and the equal soul of the community. The understanding of “Woman-Man One Life” is evaluated from a point of view that rejects the hierarchy between the sexes and comprehends existence not through binary oppositions, but through unity and balance. In Cems, men and women sit side by side, knee to knee; this is not just a ritual detail, but a declaration of equality, a real acceptance of their existence. In the Kizilbash-Alevi tradition, women's word, testimony, intellect and intuition are considered indispensable in the path's search for truth. This constitutes a historical line of resistance against both Feudal-Patriarchal Culture and patriarchal interpretations of Religion.
Of course, in practice, these principles have not always been fully adhered to, and there have been contradictions due to historical oppression, assimilation and patriarchal codes that have crept in, but the Philosophical-Spiritual core positions Women as equal partners in truth. When we consider all these axes together with the historical process of the Eighth of March, the following framework emerges. The Eighth of March is not only a day to commemorate strikes, marches and revolutionary exits of the past, but also a day of consciousness when we question and redefine how capitalist exploitation, religious-cultural patriarchal codes, national liberation struggles, revolutionary programs and belief-philosophy worlds view Women. While the capitalist system commodifies Women, Religion and Culture see it more appropriate to force Women to obey the male-dominated system.
The Revolutionary-Socialist Struggle platform, on the other hand, sees Women as the founding subject of the Revolution. The Kurdish national liberation program emphasizes that the freedom of Women is intertwined with the freedom of the nation. The Kizilbash-Alevi philosophy of life, on the other hand, understands Women as half of existence and the mirror of truth. This is the day when Women are re-declared not only as the “Claimant of Rights” but also as the subject who builds History, Revolution, Culture, Faith and the Future. There can be no Revolution without Women, there can be no Women's liberation without Revolution. But at the same time, it is worth adding that without the liberation of women, society cannot be liberated, and without the liberation of society, women cannot be truly liberated. We can connect it with the deep discourse of the Kizilbash-Alevi way, with that sentence that comes from its place. The truth is not complete until the man and woman become one.