Comrades of Jina Amini (Rehevalen Jîna Amini)
Produced by Dilan Pepule Azadi, 2023
Screening at the Love, Art and Revolution Film Festival
An animated short film made by a group of women and artists in Rojhelat (East Kurdistan) in Iran, Rehevalen Jîna Amini/Comrades of Jîna Amini, will screen at the Love, Art and Revolution Film Festival in Sydney on April 27–29.
Jîna (Mahsa) Amini was the 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman who was killed in September last year by Iran's so-called “morality police” for allegedly not wearing her headscarf properly. Her brutal killing sparked a popular uprising that continues to challenge the despotic Islamic fundamentalist regime under the now iconic slogan: “Jin Jiyan Azadi!” (“Woman, Life, Freedom!”)
The film was created to support the campaign by the Green Left Party, which is running in the upcoming May 14 Turkish general election. The Green Left Party (Yeşil Sol Parti, YSP) is the electoral vehicle through which the left and pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) — the third largest party in the outgoing parliament — will contest the elections.
The HDP has been forced to take part in this election through the YSP because of relentless repression by the Recep Tayyip Erdoğan regime. HDP members, leaders, parliamentarians, mayors and other local government representatives have been arrested, imprisoned and removed from democratically elected positions. There is an ongoing court action to close down the HDP.
The underground collective that made the film goes by the pen name “Dilan Pepule Azadi”. They told Green Left they made the film because, “as comrades of Jîna Amini, we are activists who have been struggling for a long time with the perspective of Jin, Jiyan, Azadi. We know very well that the same struggle has been going on in Bakur [North Kurdistan in Turkey] for over 40 years.
“We are aware that this struggle has brought many gains to Kurds in general and women in particular. These gains are now under great pressure.
“The success of the Green Left Party is the success of women. The success of the Green Left Party will herald the spring in the Middle East, especially in Iran. This success would be a gift to the world.
“We wanted to salute the struggle of the Green Left Party and it is in this context that we launched the animated film Comrades of Jina Amini.
“Wherever there is an oppressive regime, we will be the comrades of those who resist. Greetings to the comrades whose hearts, thoughts and work are in favour of the left. Greetings to the beautiful people who insist on socialism!”
Comrades of Jina Amini will screen on April 28 and will be introduced by a speaker and dancers from the Sydney Kurdish Youth Association.