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Imagining and Sense of Belonging in Diyarbakır: when ‘Health’ and Kurdishness Encounter Political Conflict and Biomedical Domain.
Abstract
This paper contributes to the debate on the worlds of imagination upheld by Kurds by presenting the theme of ‘health’ as a fundamental part of individuals’ and communities’ everyday life. I engage with the ongoing health care transformation in Turkey and its application in the south-eastern context, where it is not possible to dismiss state violence which represents the strongest form of inequality suffered by the Kurdish population, simultaneously affecting their very own health. From their inclusion into the national health care system through the ‘universal’ coverage -the green card system- to the ongoing transitional moment characterised by the expansion of the private sector, I analyse how women and men perceive and imagine ‘health’ and how this has been changing in relation to economic, social and historical transformations in the Kurdish region. I would like to present part of my ethnographic fieldwork – conducted between 2011 and 2012 - in Diyarbakır province, where I interviewed doctors’ union, health professionals and several other actors inside the governmental institutions. By doing so I will portray how the interviewees and these organisations advocate for the betterment of ‘health’ for Kurdish women and men in south-eastern Turkey. I will not consider Kurds as an homogeneous group and I will look at ‘health’ as a result of a complex construction where several factors interplay in order to show how, through collaboration with and criticisms of state institutions, women and men actively imagine and fight for new trajectories in which they can also express their sense of belonging. I argue that, once taken together, this socio-political interplay draws a clear image of how ‘health’ is constructed and imagined in the Kurdish region with references to the political conflict and through a strong discourse on the biomedical domain which reinforces the perception of inequality inside the system itself. Furthermore the hegemony of the biomedical system is silently questioned in the private sphere through the practices of local medicines in the everyday life not just as a solution to inadequate medical care, but also as a significant way to define ‘health’.
Discipline
Anthropology
Geographic Area
Kurdistan
Sub Area
Health