The Kurdish Women’s Movement

With careful attention to the history and theories of the movement, immersive observations from distinct field sites, and insightful interviews from the ground, Dilar Dirik’s book The Kurdish Women’s Movement presents a masterful account of the movement from its start in the 1970s to the recent political conflicts in Bakur, Rojava, and Bashur. The book lays out the principles and practices of this organized struggle against colonial states and oppressive mentalities and illuminates the painful losses and glorious resistance of Kurdish women, inviting the reader on a journey of revolutionizing life.Dirik explains her primary aim in the book as “to introduce the scope and scale of the revolutionary Kurdish women’s liberation movement’s political vision and practice from its own viewpoint, with the hope of building bridges between struggles for liberation” (xix). Engaged with ideas and practices of other system-critical social movements, and with a sincere and bold embrace of the question of “revolution,” The Kurdish Women’s Movement not only accomplishes this objective but models a paradigm change for knowledge production about social movements.In the following, I first analyze the epistemological and methodological choices in the book, because I believe that they present a much-needed example for decolonial knowledge production in the social sciences. Then I discuss the book’s monumental task of introducing the history, theories, and practices of the Kurdish women’s freedom movement to broad audiences.Despite decades of critiques against positivist approaches to the study of marginalized communities in social sciences, many academics continue to treat movements as their “object” of study. Dirik’s book presents a vigorous alternative as she engages with theories and practices of the movement on its own terms while making connections to related literature and political debates with much intellectual rigor. In this way it builds a bridge between the movement and academic literatures on social movements, feminisms, Indigenous knowledge production, and more. Several tropes in the book provide a road map toward decolonial knowledge production about antisystemic movements.To start, Dirik boldly reclaims debates about revolution, overlooked in much academic discussion of social movements. From sociological literature about types and stages of movements to discussions of power, resistance, and subjectivity in cultural anthropology, academics have used conceptual frameworks distanced from movement philosophers, concepts, and political debates. Dirik engages with the Kurdish women’s freedom movement on its own terms and with great attention to critical debates on revolution and freedom. As she identifies the importance of organized struggle, autonomous organizations, and ongoing revolutionizing against systems of oppression, from global organizations to the “private sphere” and the individual psyche, she cultivates hope in free societies and “revolutionary love” (99). This careful adoption of an epistemological framework for revolutionary change invites the reader to challenge preconceived categories of analysis that restrict our capacities to imagine a different world.Dirik’s choice of research fields reflects the critique of the nation-state model developed by the Kurdish freedom movement. While many researchers confine their study to the Kurdish regions under the colonial rule of a single nation-state, The Kurdish Women’s Movement masterfully connects the many actors and organizations of this cross-border movement. Like a spider carefully weaving a net, Dirik makes no simplistic leaps or quick conclusions while she connects Bakur, Bashur, and Rojava by following the organizational connections and passages built by the movement. Thus she offers a different geographic imaginary free from nation-states instead of reproducing the borders of colonial states that separate Kurdish populations. With the emancipation of ISIS-controlled Arab-majority areas, such as Mambij, Dirik illuminates the complexity of real political life in light of theories and practices of “democratic confederalism” and “democratic nation” (72).Another important decolonial trope in the book is a nuanced take on “critique.” Dirik exhibits here a sharp sense of the movement long criminalized by nation-states and global alliances like NATO. As she analyzes the realities on the ground in different contexts and engages with political discourses, she offers an alternative to two types of critique: a utopian academic approach ready to problematize any derivation from theory without due attention to the political context and historical transformations—namely, ongoing war, occupation, and criminalization; and a decontextual apolitical framework that treats all discontent about the movement as equally valid, including those of reactionary factions and groups threatened by the promises of justice and equality, especially gender empowerment in this case.A fine example is her discussion of Osman Öcalan, a former leading commander in the militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), “who was regularly interviewed and quoted by media as ‘critic’” but who “for the Kurdish women’s movement embodies the patriarchal mentality that tried to send them [women] back into the home” (54). Another example is the chapter on women’s solidarity in Mambij, where Dirik differentiates the legitimate demands and criticisms of the citizens from the protests of the Turkish-backed groups whose power is threatened by the solidarity between religious and ethnic groups and women’s empowerment. As she discusses Arab women’s participation in organizations of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria system and the absence of women in protests depicted on TV programs, the importance of contextualizing critique and paying attention to standpoints and power relations becomes more relevant (289). This example of an analysis, critical yet politically aware, is crucial for decolonial knowledge production about antisystemic movements (15).The final trope of decolonial knowledge production in the book that I will discuss here is the care and respect for women’s own narratives and their conceptualization of revolution and revolutionary change. The long quotes from the interlocutors reflect ideas and practices of the movement from below with great attention to detail. From women’s autonomy (42) to Öcalan’s leadership and comradery (90–98), to revolutionizing love and democratic family (100), to the cochair system and women’s leadership (182–89), and to self-defense in Women’s Protection United (236), every concept and practice is explained through women’s experiences and interpretations. Many authors claim to write from below, but only a handful accomplish this by giving space, respect, and attention to their interlocutors to open their worldviews to the reader. The chapter “Şengal: From Feminicide to Women’s Autonomy” is the highlight of Dirik’s careful and respectful research that brings to life women like Hedar, Viyan, Arîn, and Özgür, many of whom have died for the women’s revolution (252–74). Anyone who cares about decolonizing methodologies and revealing women’s standpoints should read this inspiring, albeit painful account of Kurdish women revolutionaries.As the book illuminates, the Kurdish women’s movement has spanned over five decades and a geography separated under four nation-states that colonized Kurdish populations. Under constant threat of these states and much careful discussion, deliberations within the movement, and at times ideological contentions and shifts, the movement covers a vast territory. In this sense, The Kurdish Women’s Movement sets itself the enormous task of introducing the movement with much success.The summary of a rather long historical period spanning from early Kurdish history to the construction and transformations of the Kurdish freedom movement, presented in the section titled “History,” contextualizes the recent revolutionary thought and practices developed by the women’s movement. The history of the broader movement, from its formation in Bakur in the 1970s and its anticolonial critique of the Turkish Left, as well as transformations starting in the late 1990s, are presented more as a historical context than a detailed historical narrative. Despite its brevity, “History” successfully introduces critical debates and shifts in the broader Kurdish freedom movement and mindfully contextualizes a rather detailed and rich recent social history of the women’s movement in the 2000s. This recent social history, presented in the long section titled “Practices,” lays out a wide array of practices and experiences, from women’s involvement and transformation of the pro-Kurdish political parties in Bakur to the building of women’s autonomous structures and protection units in Rojava and Shingal, and to women’s solidarity and the first women-led organizations in a post-ISIS Mambij. Both the section on history and the layered and complex historical narratives in the section on practices provide a contextualized social historical account, distinguishing the book from simplistic, orientalist, and distanced accounts of this important movement.The Kurdish Women’s Movement covers a wide range of theoretical concepts and debates. From Öcalan’s critique of the “dominant male”; to his theories of “democratic confederalism”; to jineoloji, which includes epistemological debates on scientific knowledge; to practical implications, such as women’s self-defense, the conceptual framework introduced is extensive. Dirik accomplishes a tremendous task by introducing these concepts to the reader and, most important, illuminating the embodiment of these ideas in the practices of the movement. While the section on theory introduces key concepts, such as women’s liberation ideology, democratic nation, and jineoloji, it is most illuminating to see these concepts come to life when narrators like Narîn, Özgür, and others discuss practicing these ideas in more complex real-life situations. Narîn’s discussion of the tensions between revolutionary leadership and self-organization (87), Besê’s depiction of liberation and revolutionary love (103), and Meryem Kobanê’s explanation of self-defense beyond the battlefield (237) reveal a deep revolutionary imagination and practice on the ground.Given the richness of these theoretical debates and the complexity of practices in a movement trespassing borders and ideological canons, I look forward to reading Dirik’s further research into many of these concepts and practices. Until then, The Kurdish Women’s Movement should be read by all academics and activists alike as a decolonial manifesto on a revolutionary movement in an age when “it’s either the system or us” (311, as quoted from the coordinators of the Zapatista Women for the Second International Gathering of Women Who Struggle)

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