The 8th Women's Art and Literature Festival
The 8th Women’s Literature and Art Festival was held in Qamişlo, in North and East Syria (Rojava), on March 1 and 2.
Organized by the Cizre Region Culture Board and with the support of the culture and arts committees, the festival is held every year in the run-up to March 8, International Women’s Day.
The festival’s first edition was held in Qamişlo in 2015, where 15 literary and artistic women participated. This year, at the Mihemed Şêxo Culture and Art Center, 100 women attended to showcase their literary writing and to exhibit their arts and handicrafts.
This year the festival’s slogan was “Jin, Jîyan, Azadî, em ê hunera şoreşê birêsin” (Woman, Life, Freedom, we will weave an art revolution).
On the first of the festival’s two days, the Darsin Women’s Theater Group presented a play titled Women, Life, Freedom. Poems in Arabic and Kurdish were read, as well as short stories in Arabic. The new film Berbû by Sevinaz Evdike was screened.
On the second day, another play was performed, poems were read in Syriac, and the evaluation committee made a speech and awarded prizes.
Because of the February earthquakes, the organizers had canceled events with singing or dancing.
Sources: Şînda Ekrem, “Hundred Women Attended Al-Qamishli Literature and Art Fest,” March 2, 2023.
“8th Women’s Art and Culture Festival kicks off today in Qamishlo,” ANF, March 1, 2023,