The Kurdish Women's Freedom Movement

Abstract

On 30 July 1996, Zîlan, a female PKK guerrilla, detonated a bomb in the middle of a military parade in Dersim. Beforehand she sent a letter to the exiled party leader Abdullah Öcalan in Damascus that stated: I want to be part of the total expression of the liberation struggle of our people. By exploding a bomb against my body I want to protest against the policies of imperialism which enslaves women and express my rage and become a symbol of resistance of Kurdish women. Under the leadership of Apo [Öcalan], the national liberation struggle and the Kurdish people, will at last take its richly deserved place in the family of humanity. My will to live is very strong. My desire is to have a fulfilled life through a strong action. The reason for my actions is my love for human beings and for life! (Letter excerpt, Zîlan 1996) 1

Kurdish gender politics: Funeral ceremonies of female fighters

“…The content of these speeches is mostly about the sacrifice the fighters made for their nation, homeland, and humanity, as well as their dedication to the leader, Apo. Kaser (2021) reports similar observations in funeral ceremonies she observed in the Makhmur camp in Iraq. Afterwards, the family members accept condolences for days at a marquee set near their house or at a condolence house built by the municipality as a public service.…”

“…Although Jin, Jiyan, Azadî (Women, Life, Freedom) increased in popularity over time, it was not a popular slogan then. Recent publications informed by ethnographic data from fieldwork conducted around the same time as the funeral ceremonies discussed in this work also do not report using this slogan (Dirik, 2021;Kaser, 2021). A popular song called Wheel of the Revolution (Çerxa Şoreşê) is sung by the crowd, who repeat the last two words of each refrain following a singer.…”

“…Regarding there being no critical reactions to funeral ceremonies, in which, traditionally, women used to walk behind their male relatives, it could be argued that the sacred status of the dead as martyrs opened a channel for women to operate without being confronted by social norms. However, what perhaps fundamentally drove this change was agency outside the domestic circle, where women could organize and intervene to challenge male domination in the political sphere and in the public domain in the ongoing struggle rather than postponing gender equality for the sake of national liberation (Kaser, 2021; Merdjanova, 2021).…”

“…As Ocalan had influential authority over the PKK and many other Kurdish organizations, including legal parties, his power was inevitably invested in hierarchical relations, as he seemed to the public to be the only person leading the movement. However, it was also true that women gained powerful positions because of Ocalan's authority, directing the organization, both men and women, to struggle for women's rights (Dirik, 2021; Kaser, 2021). This dilemma about Ocalan's leading position as a man in the Kurdish women's movement remains a question and requires further discussion.…”

“…However, in the Kurdish case, as well as in some other similar cases, such as the Zapatistas (Marcos, 2014), a national movement and its discourse operate as a channel for pursuing a gender‐egalitarian agenda with a focus on women's liberation from social modes of oppression. Although more recent publications have focused on the gender characteristics and dynamics of the Kurdish movement in detail (Dirik, 2021; Haner et al, 2020; Kaser, 2021; Merdjanova, 2021; Tezcür, 2020), its social impact has been left uninvestigated.…”