Teaching Chicagoans That In Rojava Resistance Is Life

                        There’s an old adage: The Kurds have no friends but the mountains.



                        Rojava is a complete inversion of the nearby Islamic State in deed and law.     In Rojava, women fight alongside men and are equal in both status and     power, radical democracy plays out in the streets, and environmental     protection is enshrined in law. The Connecticut-size patch of land far     north of Aleppo has flourished as a secular oasis amid the chaos of the     Syrian conflict that has left an estimated 500,000 people dead.



                        “They just want their land, and to be left alone to rule themselves,” Fonda     says. Rojava doesn’t have nationalistic aspirations, according to Fonda,     despite the popular aspirations of its neighbor. The autonomous Kurdistan     Regional Government in northern Iraq plans to hold a referendum on independence this year.



                        “I remember I was on a mission once in a Humvee,” Fonda recalled. “A YPJ     patrol jumped on the Humvee, then jumped off, running faster than I could, with RPGs and big heavy machine guns. I will always remember the bravery,     confidence and courage of the YPJ.”