page_title: Jineology
section_title: Etymology and definition
hierarchical_section_title: Jineology / Etymology and definition
caption_attribution_description: English: YPG's female fighter with a standard uniform
context_page_description: Jineology, the science of women, or women's science, is a form of feminism, of gender equality, advocated by Abdullah Öcalan, the representative leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party and the broader Kurdistan Communities Union umbrella. From the background of honor-based religious and tribal rules that confine women in Middle East societies, Öcalan said that "a country can't be free unless the women are free", that the level of woman's freedom determines the level of freedom in society at large.
  Jineology is a governing ideology and agenda in the Federation of Northern Syria - Rojava.
context_section_description: In Kurdish, the word Jin both means woman and comes from the root Jiyan, meaning life.
  In Liberating life: Women's Revolution (2013), Abdullah Öcalan writes:
  The extent to which society can be thoroughly transformed is determined by the extent of the transformation attained by women. Similarly, the level of woman’s freedom and equality determines the freedom and equality of all sections of society. . . . For a democratic nation, woman’s freedom is of great importance too, as liberated woman constitutes liberated society. Liberated society in turn constitutes democratic nation. Moreover, the need to reverse the role of man is of revolutionary importance.
  The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)'s Women’s Liberation Ideology describes jineology as "a fundamental scientific term in order to fill the gaps that the current social sciences are incapable of doing. Jineology is built on the principle that without the freedom of women within society and without a real consciousness surrounding women no society can call itself free."
  Öcalan has said "a country can't be free unless the women are free", the level of woman's freedom determines the level of freedom in society at large. To put into context the environment this comes from, violent oppression of women exists in both traditional Kurdish culture and in the region in general, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) being the most radical emanation of Namus-based subjugation of women. 
  On a wider scale, proponents of jineology consider capitalism to be anti-women and thus jineology to be inherently anti-capitalist.
caption: Member of the Women's Protection Units (YPJ) with a standard uniform
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