Jineology - The Kurdish Women's Movement [Published in the Journal of Middle East Women's Studies Volume 12:2] (original) (raw)
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"Women, Life, Freedom": The Struggle of Kurdish Women to Promote Human Rights
The Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK), one of the most important secular socio-political movements of the Middle East, has addressed gender issues since its foundation in the late 1970s. However, the question of women's freedom acquired a central position after the 2000s, when the PKK underwent a deep ideological and structural transformation. A foundational tenet is "democratic confederalism", based on a democratic, ecological and gender-emancipatory system. For Abdullah Ocalan, the main leader of the PKK, democracy and freedom can only be achieved through the emancipation of women. Kurdish women have appropriated Ocalan's ideas and to a considerable extent, succeeded in promoting the empowerment of women and advancement of gender equality in the Kurdish societies directly influenced by the PKK: the diaspora and territories in Turkey and Syria. Although they still face a continuous and dual struggle against gender and ethnic oppression, Kurdish women have reached a high political status. As "guerrilleras", members of parliament, and human rights activists, they have disseminated the principles of gender equality throughout Kurdish society. In addition to adopting gender parity in all social, political and military Kurdish organizations, women established autonomous bodies within those organizations, which function through a strong transnational network from the battlefields in Kurdistan to the diaspora. Within this network, female activists in Europe play a central political role. They are the ones who are directly committed to gaining international political leverage, and with this aim the use of human rights conventions as a platform for dialogue constitutes an essential step forward. Furthermore, they play a major role in formulating Kurdish claims in universal terms backed up by human rights instruments.
The Kurdish Women's Movement: Challenging gendered militarization and the nation-state
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.
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.
2020
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The theory and practice of the Kurdish Women's Movement: Interview
openDemocracy, 2019
We took the rare opportunity to talk to an editor of the Jineoloji Journal in Diyarbakir about theoretical and practical activities of the Kurdish women’s movement in Turkey. The journal is one of the few remaining initiatives by the Kurdish movement that have not been shut down in the wake of the 2015-2016 military offensive by the Turkish state on predominantly Kurdish cities or otherwise repressed since the 2016 failed coup attempt. The latter was followed by massive repressions and the imposition of Ankara-appointed trustees in charge of Kurdish-majority municipalities (kayyum).
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 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.