Emine Kara

Kara joined the Kurdish militant movement in 1988.[3] She fought and campaigned for Kurdistan in Turkey, Iraq, Syria, and Iran.[4] 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, during the Syrian civil war. She took part in the struggle against the Islamic State in Kobanî and the Battle of Raqqa.[4]

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 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 Cour nationale du droit d'asile in August 2022, although an appeal was in order.[2]

In Paris, Kara continued her commitment to the Kurdish cause, becoming president of the Mouvement des femmes kurdes en France.[2] According to the French newspaper Libération, she was a heroine within the European Kurdish diaspora.[2] She voiced her support for the Mahsa Amini protests during the last months of her life.[5] She was credited with popularizing the slogan Woman, Life, Freedom, utilized by the women's wing of the Peace and Democracy Party.[6] She also initiated several demonstrations in Paris in support of Mahsa Amini.[6]

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.[2] Two Kurdish men were also killed in the attack.[5] All three are considered martyrs by Kurds.[7]