Political activism and gender relations: the case of militant women in Kurdistan

Abstract

This paper analyzes current female participation in the Kurdish struggle for independence and against the fundamentalism of the Islamic State, to demonstrate how it has generated a radical change in social relations between genders. This main issue was addressed through the promotion of a new image of women and their social roles, which had previously been nothing more than mother and wife. After a brief overview of the complex history of the Kurdish people and of the role women have played within it, I reviewed the theoretical evolution of the deconstruction of gender, to highlight the permeability of the concept in relation to historical and social contexts. I also analyzed the link between gender and the constitution of the idea of nation, based on the concept of genderification of nationalism. Finally, considering the specificity of Kurdish women as subjugated, subaltern women without
recognized nationality, a definition of the theoretical interconnections between gender, class, race and ethnicity is approached, to contextualize this peculiar reality.