MESA Banner
Kurdish Women’s Democratic Experiment in Post-Conflict Northern Syria
Abstract
In my doctoral thesis (2020), I investigated the identificational, sociocultural, and material factors in Kurdish women’s politically motivated, yet militant struggle. Based on my ethnographic research undertaken in Iraq, Europe, and Northern Syria (Kurdish: Rojava), I illustrated different collective and individual aspects of Kurdish women’s choices in becoming militant women fighters. The visits also indicated that women fighters are developing and implementing their own ideals, including ideals for gender, in the process of constructing a new system of self-government for Rojava in this region’s transition from war to peace. In this context, the paper seeks to understand how women's resistance and their pursuit of freedom is carried out in general post-conflict contexts. This is the topic of my postdoc project that I will begin from August 1, 2022, at the University of Central Florida, where I also will be performing fieldwork in Rojava. Based on the previous and upcoming data collection, in the form of observations and interviews with Kurdish and non-Kurdish informants, this paper will examine which ideals and thoughts, Kurdish women’s organisations in the post-conflict period develop, in their attempt to become active participants in political and societal activities with the purpose of creating a democratic form of government. In this analysis, it will be interesting to examine how the radical and political changes that women are leading, are implemented in local communities and how the normative changes of gender roles are experienced in everyday life. Answers to these questions will be sought with reference to the new social movement’s perspective (Della Porta, Donatella & Diani, Mario 2006) and and Judith Butler’s theory of performativity (1990) including supplements from Karen Barad (1998) and Sara Ahmed (2004), to examine the complex interaction between individual motivations, collective dynamics, and the greater political and social contexts. On the practical level, the findings of this case study, especially the analysis of hindrances and strategies for implementation of democracy, will have the potential to feed political debates on what to support in future democratic initiatives practiced by non-institutional and non-elite actors.
Discipline
Political Science
Geographic Area
Kurdistan
Sub Area
Kurdish Studies