Wendelmoet Hamelink
Biographic Data
| ID | 81415 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Wendelmoet Hamelink |
| GIVEN NAMES | Wendelmoet |
| FAMILY NAME | Hamelink |
| SIGNATURE | HAMELINK W |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Oslo |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3347-5059 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 18 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2014 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Performing Citizenship by “Doing Art”
The murder of Jîna Aminî by the Iranian police in September 2022 led to wide-scale demonstrations. Women in Iranian Kurdistan have developed tactics for creating art and literature that empowers them to fi ght for their rights as women and as Kurds. “Doing art” invites them to cross the border between fictional and real, private and public, and to create negotiations with the patriarchal society and legal system that oppresses them
Challenging the Gender Regime through Small-scale Activism
This article investigates local initiatives among women in Kurdistan/Türkiye and labels them “small-scale activism,” and reports that they offer an alternative to state and party feminism, as well as to civil society organizations. We argue that, through small-scale political acts, women work on several levels simultaneously. First, their actions grow out of a dissatisfaction with the existing gender regime created by an interplay between various…
Resistance in a “sacred geography
A narrative approach to displacement, gender and conflict
This article investigates the stories of Syrian Kurdish women who settled in Scandinavia during the Syrian war, which caused millions of people to leave their houses, families, and country. Although a considerable body of research exists on migration and gender in general, there is much less research available about the motivation for migration out of war and conflict and its gendered aspects. What reasons do Kurdish women give for their escape o…
Kurdish women's activism in Iran
Ayatollah Khomeini’s concept of ‘Islamic government’, and the 1979 Iranian revolution, sought to exclude women from the public sphere and introduced a new hegemony of the Islamic public sphere. For a variety of cultural and political reasons, many Kurds in Iran refused to accept the religious government’s policies. Using the concepts of public and counter-public, the article discusses Kurdish women’s activism and investigates what motivated them …
Small Circles of Empowerment
This article investigates the activities of Kurdish women aimed at protecting and revitalising Kurdish language, which include collecting and publishing folklore, translating into Kurdish, and writing literature in Kurdish. Throughout the 20th century, countries like Turkey, Syria, Iran, and Iraq, in varying degrees, imposed restrictions on the use of Kurdish. Our primary focus is on Turkey because this country has been most repressive toward Kur…
The effect of home ownership on the independence and participation of Kurdish women in society. A quantitative study of Sanandaj in Iran
Housing is a great family asset, especially in developing countries. Since economic resources bring social and political power, home ownership can be very influential in enhancing people's socio‐political power. The benefits of home ownership become even more notable among groups of people who were deprived of such power. In Sanandaj, home ownership shows a much lower rate among women than among men, and it is therefore interesting to know whethe…
Theorising women and war in Kurdistan
In this introductory article to the special issue Women and War in Kurdistan, we connect our topic to feminist theory, to anthropological theory on war and conflict and their long-term consequences, and to theory on gender, nation and (visual) representation. We investigate Kurdish women’s victimisation and marginalisation, but also their resistance and agency as female combatants and women activists, their portrayal by media and scholars, and th…
Index
‘My heart is on fire’
The Sung Home tells the story of Kurdish singer-poets (dengbejs) and the political context in which they perform. Their lyrics, life stories, and live performances offer fascinating insights into cultural practices, local politics and the contingencies of state borders.
Songs Crossing Borders
The Sung Home tells the story of Kurdish singer-poets (dengbejs) and the political context in which they perform. Their lyrics, life stories, and live performances offer fascinating insights into cultural practices, local politics and the contingencies of state borders.
Preliminary Material
‘A language is a life, and art is a bracelet’
‘Decorate your heart with the voice of the dengbêjs’
The Sung Home tells the story of Kurdish singer-poets (dengbejs) and the political context in which they perform. Their lyrics, life stories, and live performances offer fascinating insights into cultural practices, local politics and the contingencies of state borders.
‘It would disappear within a moment’
The Sung Home. Narrative, Morality, and the Kurdish Nation
The Sung Home tells the story of Kurdish singer-poets (dengbêjs) in Kurdistan in Turkey, who are specialized in the recital singing of historical songs. After a long period of silence, they returned to public life in the 2000s and are presented as guardians of history and culture. Their lyrics, life stories, and live performances offer fascinating insights into cultural practices, local politics and the contingencies of state borders. Decades of …
Dengbêjs on borderlands
This article investigates how the Kurdish home, borders and the state are depicted in one of the most important Kurdish cultural expressions in Turkey until 1980: the dengbêj art. The recital songs of the dengbêjs form a fascinating source to investigate how Kurds experienced life on the margins of the (nation-)state. We argue that the songs demonstrate that many Kurds perceived the political geography of the state they officially belonged to as …
The Sung Home. Narrative, Morality, and the Kurdish Nation
The Sung Home tells the story of Kurdish singer-poets (dengbêjs) in Kurdistan in Turkey, who are specialized in the recital singing of historical songs. After a long period of silence, they returned to public life in the 2000s and are presented as guardians of history and culture. Their lyrics, life stories, and live performances offer fascinating insights into cultural practices, local politics and the contingencies of state borders. Decades of …
Resistance in a “sacred geography
A narrative approach to displacement, gender and conflict
This article investigates the stories of Syrian Kurdish women who settled in Scandinavia during the Syrian war, which caused millions of people to leave their houses, families, and country. Although a considerable body of research exists on migration and gender in general, there is much less research available about the motivation for migration out of war and conflict and its gendered aspects. What reasons do Kurdish women give for their escape o…
Dengbêjs on borderlands
This article investigates how the Kurdish home, borders and the state are depicted in one of the most important Kurdish cultural expressions in Turkey until 1980: the dengbêj art. The recital songs of the dengbêjs form a fascinating source to investigate how Kurds experienced life on the margins of the (nation-)state. We argue that the songs demonstrate that many Kurds perceived the political geography of the state they officially belonged to as …
Index
‘My heart is on fire’
The Sung Home tells the story of Kurdish singer-poets (dengbejs) and the political context in which they perform. Their lyrics, life stories, and live performances offer fascinating insights into cultural practices, local politics and the contingencies of state borders.
Songs Crossing Borders
The Sung Home tells the story of Kurdish singer-poets (dengbejs) and the political context in which they perform. Their lyrics, life stories, and live performances offer fascinating insights into cultural practices, local politics and the contingencies of state borders.
Preliminary Material
‘A language is a life, and art is a bracelet’
‘Decorate your heart with the voice of the dengbêjs’
The Sung Home tells the story of Kurdish singer-poets (dengbejs) and the political context in which they perform. Their lyrics, life stories, and live performances offer fascinating insights into cultural practices, local politics and the contingencies of state borders.
‘It would disappear within a moment’
The Sung Home. Narrative, Morality, and the Kurdish Nation
The Sung Home tells the story of Kurdish singer-poets (dengbêjs) in Kurdistan in Turkey, who are specialized in the recital singing of historical songs. After a long period of silence, they returned to public life in the 2000s and are presented as guardians of history and culture. Their lyrics, life stories, and live performances offer fascinating insights into cultural practices, local politics and the contingencies of state borders. Decades of …
Theorising women and war in Kurdistan
In this introductory article to the special issue Women and War in Kurdistan, we connect our topic to feminist theory, to anthropological theory on war and conflict and their long-term consequences, and to theory on gender, nation and (visual) representation. We investigate Kurdish women’s victimisation and marginalisation, but also their resistance and agency as female combatants and women activists, their portrayal by media and scholars, and th…
Small Circles of Empowerment
This article investigates the activities of Kurdish women aimed at protecting and revitalising Kurdish language, which include collecting and publishing folklore, translating into Kurdish, and writing literature in Kurdish. Throughout the 20th century, countries like Turkey, Syria, Iran, and Iraq, in varying degrees, imposed restrictions on the use of Kurdish. Our primary focus is on Turkey because this country has been most repressive toward Kur…
The effect of home ownership on the independence and participation of Kurdish women in society. A quantitative study of Sanandaj in Iran
Housing is a great family asset, especially in developing countries. Since economic resources bring social and political power, home ownership can be very influential in enhancing people's socio‐political power. The benefits of home ownership become even more notable among groups of people who were deprived of such power. In Sanandaj, home ownership shows a much lower rate among women than among men, and it is therefore interesting to know whethe…
A narrative approach to displacement, gender and conflict
This article investigates the stories of Syrian Kurdish women who settled in Scandinavia during the Syrian war, which caused millions of people to leave their houses, families, and country. Although a considerable body of research exists on migration and gender in general, there is much less research available about the motivation for migration out of war and conflict and its gendered aspects. What reasons do Kurdish women give for their escape o…
Kurdish women's activism in Iran
Ayatollah Khomeini’s concept of ‘Islamic government’, and the 1979 Iranian revolution, sought to exclude women from the public sphere and introduced a new hegemony of the Islamic public sphere. For a variety of cultural and political reasons, many Kurds in Iran refused to accept the religious government’s policies. Using the concepts of public and counter-public, the article discusses Kurdish women’s activism and investigates what motivated them …
Performing Citizenship by “Doing Art”
The murder of Jîna Aminî by the Iranian police in September 2022 led to wide-scale demonstrations. Women in Iranian Kurdistan have developed tactics for creating art and literature that empowers them to fi ght for their rights as women and as Kurds. “Doing art” invites them to cross the border between fictional and real, private and public, and to create negotiations with the patriarchal society and legal system that oppresses them
Challenging the Gender Regime through Small-scale Activism
This article investigates local initiatives among women in Kurdistan/Türkiye and labels them “small-scale activism,” and reports that they offer an alternative to state and party feminism, as well as to civil society organizations. We argue that, through small-scale political acts, women work on several levels simultaneously. First, their actions grow out of a dissatisfaction with the existing gender regime created by an interplay between various…
Resistance in a “sacred geography
Turkey's Politics and Society (13 works) · Political science (9 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Law (8 works) · Politics (8 works) · Art (7 works) · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies (7 works) · History (6 works) · Islamic Studies and History (6 works) · Gender Studies (4 works)