Given the widespread violence and suffering in Syria, it’s not unreasonable that outsiders look at the situation as unrelentingly awful. And while the reality of the devastation is undeniable, there is reason for hope in at least one small pocket of the nation: the cantons of Rojava in Syrian Kurdistan, where in the wake of war people are quietly building one of the most progressive societies in the world today.

Revolution in Rojava tells the story of Rojava’s groundbreaking experiment in what they call democratic confederalism, a communally organized democracy that is fiercely anti-capitalist and committed to female equality, while rejecting reactionary nationalist ideologies. Rooted in the ideas of imprisoned Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan, the system is built on effective gender quotas, bottom-up democratic structures, far-sighted ecological policies, and a powerful militancy that has allowed the region to keep ISIS at bay.

This first full-length study of democratic developments in Rojava tells an extraordinary and powerfully hopeful story of a little-known battle for true freedom in dark times.

Michael Knapp, Anja Flach, and Ercan Ayboga

Foreword by David Graeber
Afterword by Asya Abdulla
Translated by Janet Biehl

Chapters include:

*Rojava’s Diverse Cultures
*Democratic Confederalism
*The Liberation
*A Women’s Revolution
*Democratic Autonomy in Rojava
*Civil Society Associations
*The Theory of the Rose: Defense
*The New Justice System
*Democratization of Education
*Health Care
*The Social Economy
*Ecological Challenges