Emine Kara, also known by the nom de guerre Evîn Goyî, (1974 – 23 December 2022) was a Turkish Kurdish militant and political activist who served as president of the . Originally from

Turkish Kurdistan Turkish Kurdistan or Northern Kurdistan () refers to the southeastern part of Turkey, where Kurds form the predominant ethnic group. The Kurdish Institute of Paris estimates that there are 20 million Kurds living in Turkey, the majority of the ...

, she fled to the Kurdistan Region in Iraq in 1994 after her village was massacred. She joined the Kurdish cause in 1988 and participated in the war of the

Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), also known as Rojava, is a de facto autonomous region in northeastern Syria. It consists of self-governing sub-regions in the areas of Afrin, Jazira, Euphrates, Raqqa, Tabqa, M ...

(AANES) against the

Islamic State An Islamic state is a State (polity), state that has a form of government based on sharia, Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical Polity, polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a t ...

in 2014. After sustaining an injury in

Raqqa Raqqa ( ar, ٱلرَّقَّة, ar-Raqqah, also and ) (Kurdish languages, Kurdish: Reqa/ ڕەقە) is a city in Syria on the northeast bank of the Euphrates River, about east of Aleppo. It is located east of the Tabqa Dam, Syria's largest dam. T ...

, she moved to Europe for medical treatment in 2020. She was killed in the

2022 Paris shooting On 23 December 2022, a mass shooting occurred at three Kurdish locations in the 10th arrondissement of Paris, France. Three people were killed, and three others were wounded in and around a Kurdish cultural center on Rue d'Enghien. Investigato ...

Biography

Born in 1974 in

Hilal Hilal or Al-Hilal may refer to: *Hilal ( ar, هلال, ''hilāl''), a crescent ** the crescent Moon visible after a new Moon, determining the beginning of a month in the Islamic calendar * Banu Hilal, a confederation of tribes of Arabia Arts ...

in the Şırnak Province, Turkey, she was the fourth child out of five. Her family moved to Iraq in 1994, where they settled in a refugee camp in Zakho before permanently moving to Makhmur.

Military career

Kara joined the Kurdish militant movement in 1988. She fought and campaigned for

Kurdistan Kurdistan ( ku, کوردستان ,Kurdistan ; lit. "land of the Kurds") or Greater Kurdistan is a roughly defined geo-cultural territory in Western Asia wherein the Kurds form a prominent majority population and the Kurdish culture, Kurdish la ...

in Turkey, Iraq, Syria, and Iran. In 2014, she joined the militias organized to defend an self-declared autonomous area (the later AANES) formed by the Democratic Union Party, which had close links with the Turkish

Kurdistan Workers' Party The Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK is a Kurdish militant political organization and armed guerrilla movement, which historically operated throughout Kurdistan, but is now primarily based in the mountainous Kurdish-majority regions of south ...

, during the Syrian civil war. She took part in the struggle against the Islamic State in

Kobanî Kobanî (, , also rendered , ar, كُوبَانِي, Kūbānī) (Kurdish: Kobanî/ کۆبانی) officially Ayn al-Arab ( ar, عَيْن الْعَرَب, ʿAyn al-ʿArab ), is a Kurdish-majority city in northern Syria, lying immediately ...

and the Battle of Raqqa.

Exile in France

Kara was injured in Raqqa in 2019 and left after the fall of the Islamic State, moving to France, then Germany for medical treatment, before returning to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

in September 2020. She became a teacher and applied for asylum but was refused by the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons in February 2022. The decision was confirmed by the in August 2022, although an appeal was in order. In Paris, Kara continued her commitment to the Kurdish cause, becoming president of the ''Mouvement des femmes kurdes en France''. According to the French newspaper , she was a heroine within the European Kurdish diaspora. She voiced her support for the Mahsa Amini protests during the last months of her life. She was credited with popularizing the slogan

Woman, Life, Freedom Woman, Life, Freedom (, ) or Woman, Life, Liberty is a popular political Kurdish slogan used in both the Kurdish independence and democratic confederalist movements. The slogan became a rallying cry during the protests which occurred in Iran as a ...

, utilized by the women's wing of the

Peace and Democracy Party The Peace and Democracy Party ( tr, Barış ve Demokrasi Partisi, ku, Partiya Aştî û Demokrasiyê, BDP) was a Kurdish political party in Turkey existing from 2008 to 2014. Development BDP succeeded the Democratic Society Party (DTP) in 20 ...

. She also initiated several demonstrations in Paris in support of Mahsa Amini.

Death

On 23 December 2022, Emine Kara was killed in a shooting perpetrated by a right-wing anti-Kurdish extremist. She was participating in a meeting to prepare for a commemoratve march for the tenth anniversary of the

Triple murder of Kurdish activists in Paris Fidan Doğan, Sakine Cansiz and Leyla Şaylemez, Kurdish women's activists, were murdered by gunshots to the head during the night of 9–10 January 2013 in the 10th arrondissement of Paris. Facts During the night between Wednesday 9 and Thu ...

. Two Kurdish men were also killed in the attack. All three are considered martyrs by Kurds.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kara, Emine 1974 births 2022 deaths Kurdish women People's Protection Units Military personnel of the Syrian civil war People from Uludere Deaths by firearm in France