DISPERSED NATIONALISM: War, Diaspora and Kurdish Women's Organizing

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.

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.

2020

Aven Aziz, Houzan Mahmoud, Rega Rauf and Shara Taher respond to the recent blog “Blaming the Feminists: Attempts to Debilitate a Movement”, in a call to highlight the importance of diaspora activism and to situate some historical and current work of diaspora feminists and the many achievements by academics and grassroots activists who have brought Kurdistan and its diaspora closer to gender equality

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.

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.

In the past, the main focus of migration studies was the investigation of influences of immigrants on the host society and their integration into the country of settlement. However, transnationalism studies currently place much greater emphasis upon the other side – which is the effect of living in diaspora, in the society of origin with trans-border citizenship. The cultural, social and political interactions and connections between Sweden as a country of settlement and Kurdistan (especially Iraqi Kurdistan), create a transnational social space where the members of the Kurdish elite can play a major role in improvement of Kurdistan. From here, their adoption of a double identity makes it possible for them to permanently define and redefine their position in Swedish society while simultaneously participating in the inherent development of Kurdistan. The merging of the members of the Kurdish elite’s discourse in rebuilding of democracy and development with regard to reconstruction, leads to more focus on the role of diaspora and understanding the Swedish Kurdish elite’s impact on “functionalizing” and major contribution in the current state of Kurdistan. The ways of expression, increasing academic value, multicultural behavior, and the elite’s activities in civil society organization in between two or several states, their appearance in the international scene, experiences of living in both host / home societies, and multi-relations in a diasporic context continuing and re-adjusting national identities are essential indications of trans-border identity formation of Kurdish diaspora. After the liberation of Kurdistan (northern Iraq), members of the Kurdish elite experienced transnationalism mainly through transferring their success in performing various activities for their homeland and at the same time integrating more into the host countries that received them. During this research, the researcher met and interviewed a number of members of Kurdish elites who had very interesting stories about the Kurdish diaspora, and more especially the important role they play in the transnational space that connects the Kurdish homeland to many European countries and the United States. Using a phenomenology method, the researcher classifies the elements that can characterize the practices of Kurdish diaspora elite as transnationalism. Sweden is one of the main countries where the Kurdish elite diaspora gathered and are organized to contribute to the development of Kurdistan. Since the Kurdish diaspora is the largest nation that lacks a state, the Kurdish diaspora has formed a long-distance nation in host country.

The Kurdish diaspora has been transnationally active and efficient in terms of raising awareness of the plight of the Kurds in Europe and elsewhere. However, there is a clear need to situate the current analysis of the diaspora in the context of rapidly changing political landscapes that includes both local and global power relations conditioning the diaspora’s transnational participation, political mobilisation and action. This special issue contributes to the abundant stream of research by including articles that touch upon various issues regarding Kurdish diasporic behaviour. We hope this will provide new openings for scholars working on the Kurdish diaspora. We present articles from diverse disciplines in social sciences including sociology, anthropology, and political science. This interdisciplinary approach not only enriches the analysis related to Kurdish diaspora mobilisation, but also highlights new perspectives emerging from this initiative.

The Kurdistan Region of Iraq is often considered a patriarchal and patrilineal society, where strong gender inequalities exist. However, in the last few decades the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) has seen considerable changes, with significant impacts on gender power relations. In this sense, the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), in association with international organizations, has been changing its legal framework and creating several associated measures in order to improve and to create more opportunities for women's empowerment, to enhance gender equality, to increase women's safety, and to combat honour killings and other types of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). Within this context, the aim of this paper is to analyse the structural changes carried out by the KRG in relation to its gender politics and their impact (or lack thereof) on women's everyday lives, particularly in terms of political participation and SGBV. We argue that the KRG's gender politics is part of a wider process of "modernization" and democratization of the region, aimed at a desired international recognition of the KRI as a nation-state, in a context where foreign states and inter/transnational (non)governmental organizations, and particularly the United Nations, play a major role in the region. Our data is based on three "focus groups" held in February 2020 with high qualified women, working in (non)governmental organizations and/or in academia; and document analysis of Kurdish online media, of legal documents, plans and directives, and of reports produced by regional, national and international (N)GOs and foreign states.

Flux: International Relations Review, 2021

The struggle of Kurdish women at large has been, as many media outlets suggested, an extraordinary and unique example of women’s status in the Middle East. In contrast to the widespread, surface-level narrative of Kurdish women’s empowerment, a complex political, socio-historical background of Kurdish statelessness has intensified women’s empowerment or oppression. This essay will demonstrate how nationalist ideology, autonomous spaces, and violent conflict may provide the conditions for a 'double revolution' and/or 'double oppression' of stateless Kurdish women through the lens of statelessness. These three features of statelessness intersect with unique features of the stateless Kurdish populations across the Middle East to determine a woman’s status. More specifically, the case of Syrian Kurdistan exemplifies a 'double revolution' while Iraqi Kurdistan exemplifies a case of 'double oppression' for Kurdish women.