Kurdish Women's Day in Aleppo Amidst Ongoing Tensions and Uncertainties

Kurdish Women's Day in Aleppo

On a crisp late winter Saturday, the Kurdish community of Aleppo celebrated International Women's Day in a fortified public park, a stark reminder of the city's tense atmosphere despite the official end of the civil war three months prior.

The recent sectarian violence in Latakia, where over 1,000 people were killed, underscored the fragility of peace. The clashes pitted the new Syrian government's security forces, dominated by veterans of the Sunni extremist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), against remnants of Bashar al-Assad's regime, largely composed of Alawites.

In Aleppo, Kurdish forces controlled their neighborhoods, determined to defend their autonomy. The Women's Day festival, held in a dusty park enclosed by a two-meter-high wall and guarded by dozens of Kurdish fighters, reflected their desire for a more liberal culture. However, concerns remained about potential clashes with the new Syrian government and its allies, particularly Turkey, which had repeatedly attacked the larger Kurdish autonomous region in eastern Syria.

The attack on the checkpoint the following day, reportedly by HTS-affiliated gunmen, underscored the precarious situation faced by the Kurds in Aleppo and the ongoing challenges to peace in Syria.