‘Here I can live a good life’: inside the Syrian commune where men are banned

The gates of Jinwar are guarded but inside is a peaceful refuge created by women escaping war and hardship. Photographer Matteo Trevisan documents life here and at other female-led communities in the country’s north-east

A mother carrying a rifle on her shoulder and gripping a walkie-talkie stands guard at the entrance to Jinwar, a women-only commune in Syria. Beyond the gate, about 30 mud-brick houses dot the desert landscape, their gardens filled with flowers, vegetables and fruit trees.

The village, just outside the city of Qamishli in Syria’s predominantly Kurdish north-east, is a burst of colour amid the dust. Opened in 2018, Jinwar has become a refuge for women from across the region – Kurds, Arabs and Yazidis among them. Some residents arrived after losing husbands to Islamic State (IS); others left abusive marriages in search of safety and independence. It describes itself as “a place for women who want to live a free life with other women and children, women who do not want to get married, women who lost their husbands in war or who were facing violence in their families”.

Vegetable harvest in Jinwar, where the women cultivate much of their own food, growing aubergines, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, onions and garlic

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