Early Kurdish Nationalism and Women's Imagination

This article explores an aspect of the micro-politics of the 'new Iraq' by examining the under-studied topic of the Iraqi-Kurdish women's movement. Drawing on interviews with women activists in Erbil and Sulaymaniyah, we describe and analyze their activities, strategies and objectives in relation to Kurdish nationalism and feminism, focusing on the period since 2003. Rather than conceptualizing nationalism and feminism as either contradictory or compatible frames of reference for these activists, we understand debates among women activists as attempts to 'narrate' the Kurdish nation, particularly in response to the realities of the 'new Iraq'. We contend that nationalism per se is not an obstacle to women's rights in Iraqi Kurdistan. Rather, it is the failure, until now, of women activists to engage with the disjuncture between nation and state that could limit the achievements of their struggle.

Nations & Nationalism, 2018

Feminist scholars have documented with reference to multiple empirical contexts that feminist claims within nationalist movements are often side-lined, constructed as " inauthentic " and frequently discredited for imitating supposedly western notions of gender-based equality. Despite these problems, some feminist scholars have pointed to the positive aspects of nationalist movements, which frequently open up spaces for gender-based claims. Our research is based on the recognition that we cannot evaluate the fraught relationship in the abstract, but that we need to look at the specific historical and empirical contexts and articulations of nationalism and feminism. The specific case study we draw upon is the relationship between the Kurdish women's movement and the wider Kurdish political movement in Turkey. We are exploring the ways that the Kurdish movement in Turkey has politicised Kurdish women's rights activists, and examine how Kurdish women activists have reacted to patriarchal tendencies within the Kurdish movement.

Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication, 2011

Th is article explores an aspect of the micro-politics of the 'new Iraq' by examining the understudied topic of the Iraqi-Kurdish women's movement. Drawing on interviews with women activists in Erbil and Sulaymaniyah, we describe and analyze their activities, strategies and objectives in relation to Kurdish nationalism and feminism, focusing on the period since 2003. Rather than conceptualizing nationalism and feminism as either contradictory or compatible frames of reference for these activists, we understand debates among women activists as attempts to 'narrate' the Kurdish nation, particularly in response to the realities of the 'new Iraq'. We contend that nationalism per se is not an obstacle to women's rights in Iraqi Kurdistan. Rather, it is the failure, until now, of women activists to engage with the disjuncture between nation and state that could limit the achievements of their struggle.

European journal of Turkish studies

One of the distinctive characteristics of the Kurdish movement 1 in post-1980 Turkey is the fact that the movement has been successful in mobilizing women in masses. Women's participation in Kurdish rebellions is not unprecedented. There were women participants among the revolting forces in Kurdish rebellions of the late 19 th and early 20 th centuries. However, these women were exceptionally low in numbers, and they consisted mainly of wives, daughters, and relatives of the leaders of the revolts. After 1980, in contrast, women participated in the Kurdish movement to such a degree that the gender composition of the movement in general was seriously affected. Throughout the 1990s, many women went up to the mountains in order to join the 'guerrillas.' In the legal field, women started to take active roles in civil society organizations that opposed human rights violations and in pro-Kurdish political parties. Within these organizations, women reached influential positions both in decision-making and in administration, and were even elected as mayors and deputies. Besides these activities, women's success in bringing up questions regarding women's equality and injecting these questions into the political agenda of the Kurdish movement has led some to analyze Kurdish women's dynamism within the context of black feminism. 2 From Kawa the Blacksmith to Ishtar the Goddess: Gender Constructions in Ideol...

THIRD WORLD QUARTERLY, 2021

The article explores the relationship between theory and practise in terms of gender-based equality and justice within both the armed units as well as the political-legal movement linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Turkey and transnationally. An analysis of the historical developments of both political ideology and mobilization reveals the radical shift towards a stated commitment to gender-based equality that has taken place within a wider political transformation from a nationalist independence movement to a movement pursuing radical democracy. The article focuses on the dialectical relationship between the writings of the founder of the PKK, Abdullah Öcalan, and the struggle of Kurdish female militants and political activists to challenge male hegemony and patriarchal gender norms. We recognize the centrality of Öcalan's writings in the shift away from the emphasis on national liberation to the idea of radical democracy with gender equality at is centre. However, our main argument developed in the article is to recognize the importance of women's resistance and struggle to implement gender-based equality while we also highlight gaps between ideological pronouncements and everyday practises. Throughout the article we refer to Kurdish women fighters' and activists' personal experiences within the movement, which they themselves refer to as discrimination, forms of exclusion or marginalization.

In this paper we provide an analysis of Kurdish women's organizing in the diaspora, highlighting the tension between "homeland" and "host-land" nationalisms, patriarchy, and feminism. This is the first feminist-transnational study of the experience of Kurdish women participating in a modern nation-building process in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq in the period of 1991-2003. The study is based on fieldwork among Kurdish women in Canada, Britain, Sweden, and Iraqi Kurdistan. We have analyzed the activities of four women's organizations in the diaspora and have traced the impact of these organizations on the events and politics unfolding in the region. We have also observed and documented the impact of homeland politics on these diaspora organizations, paying special attention to the gendered influence exerted by Kurdish political parties. The theoretical contributions of this paper are twofold: One, we argue that diaspora should be understood as a historical rather than only a cultural phenomenon. Second, diaspora and transnationalism are both historical and political categories of social organization which involve a complex of national, international, and transnational political-economic relations.

Kurdish women’s battle continues against state and patriarchy, says first female co-mayor of Diyarbakir. Interview , 2016

The prominence of Kurdish women in Rojava (western Kurdistan/northern Syria) inspired us initially to understand the historical role of women in the Kurdish political movement. We were also interested in the role of Kurdish women in challenging traditional patriarchal society and rules. As part of this wider project, we wanted to hear the thoughts of Gültan Kışanak, the female co-mayor of Diyarbakır, the largest Kurdish city in southeastern Turkey.

The Kurdish female fighters of the YPJ/ YJA-Star women’s guerrilla units have in recent events gained global recognition as one of the prime group of combatants fighting against the extremist terror group, Isis. The West’s impression of the Kurdish female fighters as a phenomenon has largely brought to light the question of why the idea of a woman as a fighter in war proves to be something sensationalised, and widely perceived as unconventional. The emergence of the Kurdish female fighter thus brings into question the issue of gendered militarization, and the understanding of the ideological field of war as heavily masculinised. This dissertation is an enquiry into the understanding as to how and why the implementation and preservation of gendered hierarchies exist within the field of war. Through the examining of feminist theories concerning war as gendered, in providing an insight into the ideological and political beliefs of Kurdish movement, and through the studying of testimonials from YPJ/ YJA-Star women combatants, this dissertation aims to illustrate the Kurdish female fighter as challenging gendered militarization. The findings of this piece of research work can be regarded to substantiate to the idea that gendered militarization results in detrimental consequences such as sexual violence and rape against women in war torn countries. This dissertation also contributes to the understanding of the political views behind many Kurdish female fighters, and the PKK movement, as advocating gender equality.

The history of the Kurdish movement is also a story of women. In a society highly underdeveloped and feudal as Kurdistan, women have been always experiencing a double oppression (triple when we adopt the Marxist theory emphasizing class oppression). However this condition has allowed them to be, on one hand, less subject to the policies of assimilation of their governing administrations, while on the other hand it gave them an additional motivation to mobilize. The means of emancipation were their political and military involvement as they found an opportunity to change their condition-even against men-in struggle. Facing these contradictions, the PKK and it's chief, Abdullah Ocalan, paid lot of attention to women's conditions, trying to mobilize women within the Kurdish movement. The concept of women's liberation was originally borrowed from the historical experience of Marxism-Leninism, but the successive stage of the analysis went beyond the communist conception. PKK theorized the need to delete the foundations of patriarchy and of sexist violence in order to achieve a real change in society. In doing so, feminism become one of the pillars of the Democratic Confederalism that was theorized by Ocalan and then implemented in the Kurdish areas of Turkey partially and in Syrian Rojava increasingly.