 It's day six of the war here in northeast Syria and things have been moving so quickly that we've barely had a chance to keep up with what's happened across the region. Before the death and suffering that we've already witnessed in the short time, one event has hit me harder than any other and two days on I'm still struggling to process it. Hevrin Khalef was the co-president of the Future Syrian Party, a party founded under the banner of decentralized democratic pluralism. The FSP exists to represent the progressive movement that Rojava is so famous for in the Syrian national parliament in Damascus. She was highly respected and universally loved here in her hometown of Derik, where I have also made my home. Three days ago, while driving on the main east-west M4 highway between Surikhania and Dela Bayad, Hevrin's car was stopped by Turkey's proxy forces, the so-called National Army. On camera, they dragged her from her car, repeatedly assaulted her and then shot her multiple times. The footage they recorded shows these militants in their Turkish army uniforms and with the flag of Turkey on their arm patches using the already mutilated bodies of Hevrin and her friends for target practice. This war crime, filmed and broadcast across social media, was celebrated in the Turkish press with one outlet referring to it as a successful operation to neutralize a terrorist. These murders on the M4 highway since shockwaves throughout northern Syria. Today, a memorial for them was held in the city's main east centre and I went along to pay my respects. Almost a thousand people turned out, including soldiers who had returned from the front line specifically to form a guard of honour for the ceremony. Her death is significant in many ways, but for me I think it most poignantly represents a microcosm of this time we find ourselves in. A young, hopeful woman, having tirelessly worked to carve out a radical plan for democracy, mercilessly slaughtered on camera by a NATO-backed butcher cheered on from the sidelines by other men. Hevrin is fast becoming a symbol for what people, particularly women here are fighting for and her mother's powerful words during the funeral are becoming a rallying call for the resistance. There will undoubtedly be more Hevrin's in the coming days and weeks. For each one there will be more and more Syrian women during the resistance to fight for this better world they have already given so much to create.