The Status of Women in Kurdish Society and the Extent of Their Interactions in Public Realm (original) (raw)

The Rise of Kurdish Women's Self-Organization During Kurdish Struggle History in Rojava 1

This article seeks to show that high visibility and participation of women in Rojava (Syrian Kurdistan) is not just due to the requirements of mobilization for a total defensive war against ISIS. Rather, it is the culmination of a historical process within a wider and multifaceted freedom movement. After 1987, women from Rjava, were mobilized and participated in Kurdish straggle. They took significant steps after 2000 including the building of woman-specific organization within the Democratic Union Party (PYD), which was founded in 2003. In fact, what happened in the recent war with ISIS in Rojava, accelerated the realization of the ideas proposed by the imprisoned leader of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) Abdullah Ocalan, long before the start of the civil war in Syrian, drawing systematically from a continuous struggle that has been inspired by those ideas elsewhere in Kurdistan, especially in Bakur (Turkey's Kurdistan).

The Roots of the Kurdish Women's Revolution

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.

Kurdish Women's Struggles with Gender Equality: From Ideology to Practice

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.

Kurdish women’s battle continues against state and patriarchy

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.

Women in the Kurdish Movement

2020

The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.

The Rojava Revolution: Women's Liberation as an Answer to the Kurdish Question

The following paper aims to analyze the historical background of the current happenings such as the Kurdish endeavors towards independence and the strengthening of feminist thought, as well as cultural and political circumstances which put into motion a series of events that ultimately lead to a radical change in the political and social climate of the present day Syria. In the midst of a civil war, the Kurdish people seized the opportunity to fight for their own sovereignty in northern Syria, or as it is known by the Kurds – Rojava. Rooted in the strongly progressive idea of Democratic Confederalism designed by a Kurdish nationalist leader and the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) founder Abdullah Öcalan, the Rojava Revolution is often deemed one of the greatest social experiments of our time. Even though the implementation of Democratic Confederalism may be in itself enough to highlight the importance of this revolution in the context of today's Middle East, what is of even greater significance is the blossoming of women's rights in Rojava. Another one of Öcalan's pivotal ideas, known as Jineology (the science of women) puts none other than women at the very center of the revolution. By observing the work of the all-female Women's Protection Units (YPJ) it is clearly evident that the aforementioned ideology manifests itself in practice, not only in the battlefield, but in everyday life as well. In this paper I will try to provide an overview of the historical circumstances that allowed for a spark that started the fire of the Women's Revolution within one of the most patriarchal societies and among one of the most repressed minorities in the world today and further examine the significance of the current situation in Rojava.

Falling from Grace: Gender norms and gender strategies in Eastern Turkey

This article calls for a critical scholarly engagement with women’s participation in the Kurdish movement. Since the 1980s, women have appropriated the political sphere in different gender roles, and their activism is mostly seen as a way of empowerment and emancipation. Albeit legitimate, such a claim often fails to account for the social and political control mechanisms inherent in the new political gender roles. This article presents the life stories of four Kurdish women. Although politically active, these women do not necessarily define themselves through their political activity. Thus they do not present their life story according to the party line, but dwell on the different social and political expectations, state violence and the contradicting role models with whom they have to deal on a daily basis. Therefore, the status associated with their roles, especially those of the “new” and emancipated woman, does not necessarily represent their own experiences and subjectivities. Women who openly criticize the social and political constraints by transgressing the boundaries of accepted conduct face social as well as political sanctions.