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The Kurdish Women'sMovement: A Third-WaveFeminism Within the TurkishContextÖmer Çaha aa Department of Political Science and PublicAdministration, Fatih University, Büyükçekmece,Istanbul, TurkeyPublished online: 25 Nov 2011.

To cite this article: mer aha (2011) The Kurdish Women's Movement: A Third-Wave Feminism Within the Turkish Context, Turkish Studies, 12:3, 435-449, DOI:10.1080/14683849.2011.604211

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The Kurdish Women’s Movement:A Third-Wave Feminism Within theTurkish Context

OMER ÇAHADepartment of Political Science and Public Administration, Fatih University, Buyukcekmece, Istanbul,Turkey

ABSTRACT Based on discourse analysis of journals published by Kurdish feminists, thisarticle analyzes Kurdish feminist movements, which developed throughout the 1990s inTurkey. It goes on to indicate how Kurdish feminism represents an example of a third-wavewomen’s movement within the Turkish context, emphasizing the dual oppression againstwomen, namely for gender and ethnicity. Focusing on the contextual background ofwomen’s oppression, this study draws attention to the exclusion of some women from ageneral and essentialist understanding of women and to the possibility of an ethnic feminismas a way of alternative self-existence for those who are oppressed on grounds other thangender.

Introduction

Kurdish women’s groups who had taken part in the feminist movement throughoutthe 1980s evolved into an ethnic-based feminist movement in the followingdecades. Starting from the beginning of the 1990s, Kurdish women’s groups beganto make their voices heard through publications, foundations, associations or culturalhouses. Fatma Kayhan, the owner and the editor of Roza, the first of the Kurdishwomen’s journals to be published at this time, labels these years as the “Kurdishwomen’s renaissance.”1 The publication of Roza magazine, which started in 1996,encouraged Kurdish women to publish a number of other journals, like Jujin (aname produced by combining the words for woman and hedgehog), Jin u Jiyan(Woman and Life), Yasamda Ozgur Kadın (Free Women in Life), Ozgur KadınınSesi (the Free Woman’s Voice), Ji Bo Rizgariya Jina (For the Emancipation ofWomen). Besides these journals, a number of organizations have been formed byKurdish women to struggle for their rights.

This article carries out a discourse analysis on the journals developed by theseKurdish feminist groups.2 The analyses to be done here, however, concentrates on

Correspondence Address: Omer Çaha, Department of Political Science and Public Administration, FatihUniversity, 34500 Buyukcekmece, Istanbul, Turkey. Email: ocaha@fatih.edu.tr.

Turkish StudiesVol. 12, No. 3, 435–449, September 2011

ISSN 1468-3849 Print/1743-9663 Online/11/030435–15 # 2011 Taylor & Francishttp://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14683849.2011.604211

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the writings published in the three journals (Roza, Jujin, Jin u Jiyan) that define them-selves as feminist. Kurdish women’s groups, as shown below, present their identityand movement as similar to that of the black women’s movements in Europe andAmerica. Roza expresses the likeness and affinity between them and black womenby writing “despite the miles of distance, what we have been experiencing is verysimilar to these people, whose languages, religions and colors are different fromthose of us.”3 Owing to these sentiments, the works of the pioneers of the blackwomen’s movement, like Bell Hooks and Hazel V. Carby, were translated intoTurkish4 and published in Kurdish women’s magazines.5 Departing from thispoint, it is possible to consider Kurdish feminism to be a third-wave women’s move-ment.6 Thus, it is helpful to discuss the main characteristics of the third-wavewomen’s movement in order to understand Kurdish feminism.

Third-Wave Feminism: A Non-White Western Women’s Movement

The question of whether feminism is the name of an overarching movement thatembraces and represents all women or a limited movement that generalizes somewomen’s experiences, perspectives and ways of existence onto all women hasbeen a matter of debate among feminists since the 1970s. This attempt started withblack women’s movements in the 1970s that criticized the first and second wavesof feminism by accusing them of being white Western middle-class women’s move-ments.7 Feminist authors who underlined this idea have gone so far as to accuse theunderstanding of the singular woman in the first and second waves as being ethno-centric and even racist. Bell Hooks, who strongly criticized the white Westernwomen’s movement, states on this issue as follows: “when black people are talkedabout the focus tends to be on ‘black men’; and when women are talked about thefocus tends to be on ‘white women’. Nowhere is this more evident than in the vastbody of feminist literature.”8 According to Hooks, feminist literature has developedthroughout its history a language and a consciousness that identifies womanhood withwhiteness and manhood with blackness. This has naturally paved the way for theemergence of a negative subconscious against the black. It is therefore impossiblefor black feminists to have the same woman problem and even the same perceptionof woman as white feminists.

The criticism of feminism made by the black women’s movement can generally besummarized as follows: Western feminism attempts to universalize the perspective ofmiddle-class white Western women by rendering it a common perspective for allwomen. The woman problem naturally becomes an issue viewed from the lens ofthe white Western woman. This perspective results in an attitude that ignores the pro-blems of the woman who has been subordinated due to subjective reasons withindifferent historical and sociological contexts.9 The black woman’s world-view,expectations from life, class understanding, family relations, perception of beauty,view of body, view of children and opinions on contraception are highly differentfrom those of the Western white woman. These differences stem not only from theblack woman’s race but also from her class position that she has been experiencing

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for ages. Indeed, the point that constitutes the image of black woman in the subcon-scious of white Western feminism is this subjective historical experience undergoneby black women.10 The Black feminist author G. Joseph strikingly underlines thisfact as follows: “white women might have in common with black women as muchas black women have in common with black men. Moreover, the black manresembles the black woman more than the white woman does, because the slaveryhistory, that is, the crown of racist oppression leveled at all blacks.”11

According to black feminist women, Western white feminists are intensely preju-diced against them. First of all, white feminists believe in a myth that black womenare strong. The image of the black woman who was once a slave lies beneath thismyth. In other words, the subconscious of the Western white woman has an “operat-ing system” that continues to see black women as slaves. In this respect, this subcon-scious considers black women and black men to be siblings both biologically andpolitically and sees the black man to be the image of father for black women. Thisis based on the prejudgment that black women have not been able to separate them-selves from men and, thus, they are unable to develop a feminist movement.12

According to black feminists, this opinion of Western white middle-class womenwill never fade away and, thus, these two groups of women will never be able tocome together. Since race constitutes a natural and the highest wall between thetwo groups, it cannot be overcome, and it will never be possible to go beyond it.Some black feminists argue that the real power that oppresses them is whitewomen. For example, black feminist Hazel V. Carby states that “the white womanhas a power that always oppresses the black woman.”13

The criticisms directed by the black women’s movement to the first- and second-wave women’s movements had a broad repercussion among different women’smovements.14 Given attention to the contextual subordination of women, some fem-inists have focused, in the last decades, on the issue of woman from the spiral of dualconcepts such as “gender and culture,” “gender and history,” “gender and society,”“gender and ethnicity,” “gender and race,” “gender and class,” “gender and religion,”etc.15 The sociologists Floya Anthias and Nira Yuval-Davis occupy a special place inrespect to their attempts to ground the feminist struggle in a special context.16 Payingattention to the contexts of the diverse ways of women’s oppression, they havepointed to the difficulty of defining common universal women’s rights.17 Departingfrom the US case, they emphasized that women are relegated into a secondary pos-ition within many different social and cultural contexts. A woman might be subordi-nated not only as a woman but also as a Jew, a Muslim, a minority member, animmigrant, a black or a foreigner. Women who do not fall into one of the whiteand Western groups are naturally subjected to two kinds of relations of oppression.A Western-originated women’s movement is unable to comprehend the individualproblems of all of these women’s groups. They assert that each woman’s groupmight eventually have their own way of emancipation and self-existence.

When one considers the discussions raised by the advocates of the third-way fem-inists, it becomes really hard to argue that there is no holistic feminist approach inTurkey. The feminist movement that emerged in Turkey after 1980 attempted to

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analyze feminism and the women’s problems largely through the framework and dis-course that had been developed in the West. Since its birth, the women’s movement inTurkey has viewed the woman problem within common patterns for all women, eventhough it has dealt with some of women’s local problems, such as sexual abuse, honorkillings, the inequality of women and men, etc.18 Therefore, it has long remainedindifferent to other lifestyles and different ways of existence. It is a reality thatwomen’s subordination in Turkey stems not only from the patriarchal culture butalso from ethnic, religious, cultural and class-related reasons.19 The history of thewomen’s movement in Turkey is, unfortunately, strictly confined to a holisticapproach. The movement that was initiated largely by middle-class Turkishwomen seems to be the only picture of the women’s movement in Turkey. The possi-bility that this movement might have different voices, colors and aspects is usuallyignored. The Kurdish women’s movement is one of these voices.

The Political Background of the Kurdish Women’s Movement

Kurdish women have long experience of being politically active. Kurdishwomen became politically active in the leftist movements of the 1960s and 1970s.Politically active Kurdish women, as did their counterpart men, struggled for social-ism.20 At this point, it is important to note that although revolutionary women hadorganizational experience in the leftist movements, they gained their experienceonly while in the shadow of movements initiated by men.21 Women in the male-based organizations were generally characterized as sexless militants.22 Indeed,women were able to take part in the leftist movements of the 1970s only by beingpurified from their genders, or in other words, by being masculinized.23 The word“sister” (bacı) in the expression “all of my love is my people, all women are mysisters” that was widespread among the revolutionary leftist movements of theperiod points to the figure of a woman whose sexuality and individuality areignored.24

During the 1980s, the Kurdish ethnic movement increasingly prioritized the ethnicproblem over socialism.25 It is a matter of fact that the armed movement developedthrough the PKK after 1980 and the political Kurdish movement developed through aseries of ethnic-based political parties beginning in the early 1990s have carriednumerous women from behind the walls of their houses to the public sphere, to thestreets. It would not be wrong to argue that these activities gradually laid the foun-dations of the Kurdish women’s movement.26 Kurdish women, who used to stay intheir houses and be fully obedient to their husbands, today stand upon their rights,struggle for their languages, cultures and identities, and all these things create an indi-vidual consciousness and an independent personality in them. Some of these womeneventually moved from an ethnic struggle to the struggle for women’s rights.27

However, it has often been emphasized in the magazines published by women thatthis idea had always been suppressed or at least delayed by men. An article coveringthis issue in Roza indicates how the Kurdish political movement suppressed thedevelopment of a women’s movement, stating “we were present there with our

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Kurdish identities, not as women. Even mentioning the sexist oppression that wewere experiencing was sometimes considered to be a luxury. They wanted us tostall our problems by saying ‘this is not the time for this, you are exaggerating etc.’”28

Another factor that has fed the Kurdish women’s movement goes back to the fem-inist movement that emerged in Turkey after 1980. Kurdish women, whose politicalattitudes had been shaped by socialist and ethnic struggles, were swift to take theirplaces in the emerging feminist women’s movement. The feminist movement thatdeveloped in Turkey encouraged Kurdish women to become gender-conscious, toseparate themselves from men’s organizations, to be organized on their own anddefine and express their identities as feminists. A woman writing in Roza puts thisinto words as follows: “we learned a lot from Turkish women. We learned how toperform an action by ourselves, to act with solidarity and to place reliance.”29 In asimilar fashion, a woman writing in Jin u Jiyan states that they learned fromTurkish feminists “that the private is political, that all women of the world aresisters and how the woman consciousness can be raised,” though their opinions onand solutions offered for the woman problem are different.30

Despite this influence, Kurdish women’s groups advocate the idea that Turkishfeminists show indifference to their problems through ignoring the subjective pro-blems of Kurdish women under the general template of feminism. Kurdishwomen’s magazines intensively express their reproachful claims that Turkish femin-ists try to suppress Kurdish women’s attempts during protests to hold banners writtenin Kurdish or shout slogans in Kurdish, by accusing them of nationalism.31 Kurdishwomen’s groups whose identities have been shaped within the feminist movementindicate that they have been obliged to part ways with other feminist groups overtime due to the problems they had had with them.32

The climax of the events that separated Kurdish women from other feminists andprompted them to form another organization occurred in 1989 during the activities tocelebrate the International Women’s Day on March 8. A group of Kurdish womenwanted to carry banners written in Kurdish and give a speech in Kurdish.However, the intolerance of the organization committee to this demand promptedwomen to begin another quest.33 In June 1990, Kurdish women’s groups formedan independent “Kurdish Women’s Group.”34

Kurdish Women’s Magazines and the Ethnic Voice of Feminism

As indicated above, the first Kurdish women’s magazine with an explicit feministidentity was Roza. The magazine began to be published in March 1996 and 17issues were published by the early 2000s. Although the schedule was not alwaysadhered to, an attempt was made to publish the magazine bimonthly. The name ofthe magazine was inspired by one of the pioneers of the Marxist struggle, Rosa Luk-semburg. Hatice Yasar, the writer of the journal, argues that Kurdish women sufferthe same fate as Rosa, who was oppressed and sentenced to death due to her dualidentity as a “woman” and a “Jew.” She also claims that they are similarly oppressed,alienated and despised for being “women” and “Kurds.”35

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The women who were publishing Roza argue that they are excluded by Turkishfeminist groups since they are Kurdish and they are also excluded by the Kurdish pol-itical movement since they are feminists.36 In this respect, the magazine positioneditself as anti-racist and anti-sexist by using the expression “a Kurdish women’s maga-zine against sexism and racism,” just below the name Roza. Here, the challenge isdirected to Kurdish men through the term sexism and to Turkish feminist womenthrough the term racism. Roza accuses Turkish women not only of being “womenof the oppressor nation” but also of being racist women. The magazine, on theother hand, defines Kurdish men as sexists who are the transmitters of the patriarchalculture. According to Roza, it is inevitable for the Kurdish women’s movement tobecome at odds with both these two powers.

Jujin, which followed Roza, was published by women who left but mostly fol-lowed the footsteps of Roza. Jujin is a word formed through the combination of“Juji,” which means hedgehog, and “jin,” which means woman in Kurdish. It sym-bolizes the assembly of woman and hedgehog, which has spines for self-defense.37

The magazine published ten issues in total between 1996 and 2000. Although pub-lished bimonthly, Jujin sometimes had to be released irregularly. Although Jujindid not significantly differ from Roza in terms of its discourse and its view of thewoman problem, some differences were notable. While Roza predicated the subordi-nation of women on gender and ethnicity, Jujin claimed that there exist three mainfields of oppression for Kurdish women: nation based, class based and genderbased. From this point of view, the magazine put emphasis on the thesis that thesolution for the woman problem depended on “her ethnic, class and sexualemancipation.”38

Another Kurdish women’s journal, Jin u Jiyan, published its first issue in March1998 in Istanbul. The magazine was published for two years and drafted a total of13 issues. Jin u Jiyan, unlike Roza and Jujin, concerned itself with problems practi-cally experienced by women. In this respect, it included writings focusing onwomen’s health, their legal problems, human rights violations and practical infor-mation necessary in everyday life for women. On the back pages of the magazine,allusive caricatures prepared from a feminine perspective were regularly published.It is seen that criticisms in these caricatures were generally directed to the traditionalstructure of Kurdish society, to the state, to the male-dominant system and to thepatriarchal system.39

Having an egalitarian feminist outlook, Jin u Jiyan approached the womanproblem from a broader perspective compared with the other journals. The followingare underlined in an article specifying the magazine’s principles: Jin u Jiyan per-ceives women’s rights to be the human rights and fundamental freedoms of humanityin its entirety. In this respect, it upholds the implementation of all international agree-ments, particularly the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discriminationagainst Women. It makes efforts for Kurdish women to get all their rights prescribedby these agreements. In order for Kurdish women to overcome the subordination theyare subjected to due to their identities, it helps them to realize their own potentials byproviding all kinds of support at the written and practical levels. To this end, it

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challenges all traditional moral values and customs that enslave women, and it con-siders the fight against them to be among its primary objectives.40

Jin u Jiyan, like the other two magazines, developed a critical attitude towardKurdish political parties and their practices that excluded women, and viewswomen’s problems from a feminist point of view. It could be asserted that the predo-minant approach of Jin u Jiyan was to consider national problems to be its own, but alsoto look at these matters with the eye of the oppressed.41 In a way, Jin u Jiyan predicatedthe problems experienced by Kurdish women on subjective reasons, but also tended tosee them as a part of the problems experienced by women generally.42 The journal, ingeneral, believed that Kurdish women were oppressed not only by gender-, class- andethnic-based reasons, but also by the patriarchal values of the Kurdish society.

In short, it could be stated that these three magazines published by groups ofKurdish women focus on similar problems, but differed with respect to details.Although there are notable differences between the magazines in terms of language,style and priorities, it can be argued that the main problems focused on and the per-spectives and attitudes developed for these problems are the same. The commonpoints on which the three magazines put emphasis can mainly be summarized asfollows: the values that stem from Kurdish traditions and pave the way for the sub-ordination of women, forced migration, education and language policies beingpursued by the state in the eastern and southeastern Anatolia Regions, the assimila-tion problem experienced by Kurdish people, problems experienced by women incities, historical Kurdish woman figures, tortures and rapes that women claim to besubjected to while in custody, women’s experiences in childhood and adolescence,pressures they suffer within their families, news from the women’s movement andthe International Women’s Day activities. Such themes are intensively covered bythe three magazines.

A Movement Against the Dual Victimization of Women

Kurdish women’s groups develop critiques of the state, of its assimilation policies, ofthe pillars of these policies, of Turkish feminism, of the traditional values of theKurdish society and finally of the men who take part in the Kurdish politicalmovement. According to women’s groups, Kurds have been subordinated by beingassimilated, ignored, denigrated and expelled, even though the Kurdish populationconstitutes around one-third of the entire population of Turkey. According towomen’s magazines, while a dimension of the Kurdish woman question is generallyconnected to women’s problems, another dimension is connected to the problemsexperienced by the Kurds as a nation.43 The victims in the ground of the conflictthat emerged around the Kurdish question have mostly been women. Among thevictimizations experienced by women, the problems of rape, torture and migrationare especially given prominence. Women’s magazines argue that governmentofficials raped Kurdish women and that the state has been trying to intimidatewomen by turning this into a deliberate policy.44

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As a result of the policy, one of the areas of victimization has been forcedmigration. According to the magazines, the state intended to depopulate the regionby burning down villages and forests and evacuating villages by force.45 Accordingto Jujin, millions of people have migrated from the region to big cities.46 The maga-zines argue that the aim lying beneath the forced migration of the people of the regionto big cities was to change the Kurdish question from being a national problem into aminority problem with cultural and ethnic bases. The argument that the state has beentrying to dissolve and assimilate by driving them to big cities via forced migration iswidely covered by the magazines.47 All of the three magazines published articlesasserting that the group victimized by the migration policy in the harshest way iswomen and published the opinions of victimized women. A significant portion ofwomen who had taken part—though to a limited degree—in their own economiclives and pursued “happy” lives in their gardens and fields with fresh air in their vil-lages, encountered financial difficulties under terrible conditions in shantytowns,shacks and nylon or tin houses in big cities.48 Also, Kurdish women living in bigcities are inevitably being relegated into secondary positions, excluded and oppressedsince they do not speak the language of their environment.

One of the most important criticisms about the state set forth by the magazines isthat the state pursues a policy to assimilate Kurdish society in general, and Kurdishwomen in particular, through education. Through educational institutions, Kurdishsociety is being deprived of its native language and, thus, is subordinated. Thewomen’s magazines claim that the essential value that brings the individual and anation into being is the native language. They believe that the education process inTurkey, however, alienates Kurdish people and women from their personalitiesand their national identities. Roza asserts that the educational policy pursued bythe Turkish government is indeed aimed at annihilating Kurdish society by stating“colonialist and fascist governments have primarily attacked a nation’s languageand put it under a ban when they wanted to exterminate or assimilate thatnation.”49 Women, considering the idea that “the fundamental phenomenon thatmakes a human being an individual and a part of a society, a nation and then the uni-verse is the mother-tongue,” underline that the deprivation of Kurdish children in theeducational processes of their native language diminishes their personalities andrenders them maladaptive to others.50

According to these magazines, the transmitters of the native language in Kurdishsociety, as is the case in all societies, are women. Therefore, the issue of whetherwomen take part in the education process or not is of utmost importance. An ideashared by all the three magazines is that Kurdish men forget their own languageand culture by being assimilated through military service and schooling, whileKurdish women are able to carry out the task of transmitting the Kurdish languagesince they stay out of the educational system. The education of Kurdish women inTurkish will sever the language tie between them and the next generations.51 Fromthis point of view, Kurdish women’s magazines react strongly to the activitiesaimed at Kurdish women initiated by the state in different parts of the regionthrough the agency of Multi-Purpose Social Centers (Çok Amaclı Toplum Merkezi,

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ÇATOM) which work on such issues as literacy, law, health, women’s income-gen-erating employment, women’s initiatives, pre-school education, reading rooms forchildren, social support, social responsibility and socio-cultural activities.52 Theybelieve that centers like these aim at assimilating Kurdish women who transmittheir culture and language to the future generations as the most important elementof their national characteristics.53

Another contested issue was that of birth control. According to Kurdish women, thiswas yet another move to decrease the Kurdish population at large. They entered into adiscussion with Turkish feminists on this issue and accused them of not being able tocomprehend the severity of the problem. According to them, birth control methodswere also used against black women. They claim that this is genocide. It is thepolicy of killing those who cannot be killed by weapons, in the mother’s womb.54

Indeed, it is underlined in three Kurdish women’s magazines that motherhood and fer-tility are not sanctified. However, they react to the intervention of the state in woman’sbody for other purposes. Based on this, Kurdish feminists discuss with Turkish femin-ists who support centers like ÇATOMs. While Turkish feminists see ÇATOMs as amedium for the articulation of Kurdish women in the public life, Kurdish feministsbelieve that this project will serve the assimilation of Kurds.55 According to Kurdishfeminists, the problem is not only the problem of Kurdish women’s confinement to tra-ditional roles, but also the problem of dissolution of a nation as a whole.

Kurdish women’s magazines not only criticized the state from the perspective of anethnic stance, but also criticized the traditional structure of Kurdish society, its socio-cultural values and the Kurdish political movement. All three magazines hold thetraditional values prevalent in Kurdish society responsible for women’s oppression,subordination and suicides, and fight against these values through their writings.They argue that the traditional feudal values prevailing in Kurdish regions strengthenthe male-dominant values and render woman a commodity that can be bought andsold.56 Men who take part in the Kurdish political movement and who have identitieslike “revolutionary,” “progressive” and “leftist” are strongly criticized by women.57

This criticism is based on the beliefs that revolutionary or national political movementshave always ignored women’s gender-based problems, that they masculinize womenand that they relegate women into a secondary position being unable to get rid of theirtraditional values.58 The above-mentioned men are criticized in an article published inRoza as follows: “yes, men are the slaves of the Turkish state, but we, sisters, are theslaves of the slaves and we are those women fighting for a so-called asexual utopia.”59

Reactions to the Essentialist Understanding of Women

Kurdish feminists, when their general approach to the woman problem is considered,do not have a feminist perspective different from the dominant feminist approach inTurkey. They have the same stance as the dominant feminist understanding on issueslike gender equality, women’s consciousness and women’s emancipation andfreedom. However, as discussed before, Kurdish women’s groups do not perceivewoman as a “singular” gender positioned against man. On the contrary, they have

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a perception of woman as having different sociological colors within certain contexts.When the difference of contexts is considered, the point where Kurdish feminism pro-duces and positions itself naturally differs from that of the dominant feminist under-standing. In the dominant feminist understanding, there exist, roughly, two differentgenders, that is, man and woman. Therefore, “the other” of woman is naturally man.

However, “the other” of those women who constitute Kurdish feminism is not manalone. While one pillar of “the other” for Kurdish feminists is men, the other isTurkish women. In this respect, it would not be wrong to argue that the Kurdish fem-inist movement deals a blow to and invalidates most arguments of the feminist under-standing, which see woman with an integrated and singular identity, from the insideof it.60 Kurdish feminists express in the following way why they need to presentthemselves as ethnic feminists:

Why do we define our feminism with an ethnic identity by prefixing the word“Kurdish”? We want to primarily differentiate ourselves from Turkish feminism.The feminism “performed” in Turkey without ethnic identity is automaticallyunderstood as Turkish feminism. Women of other ethnicities are ignored, thus,the common feminist discourse serves for those women in the dominant ethnicity,and our differences are covered up. Besides, it implies a political stance against therejection of our Kurdish identity. Therefore, we need to name our feminism assuch. We experience gender segregation in this society intertwined with racism.61

Kurdish women’s groups argue that “we are demanded to approach the problem onthe basis of only womanhood, and our national identity, which is vital for us, is beingignored for the sake of universal sisterhood.”62 They indicate that they—being thewomen of the oppressed nation—have numerous other problems, additional tothose problems stemming from womanhood, such as war, abuse, rape, forcedmigration, humiliation and assimilation; and even though they have always insis-tently underlined that they cannot differentiate between all these problems, Turkishfeminists always ignore the second part of the problem.63 Turkish feminists areunable to grasp this since they look at the issue from a “general” and “essentialist”perspective.64 Moving from this they accuse Turkish feminists of being colonial-ists.65 Some Kurdish women’s groups argue that their relationship with Turkish fem-inists is that of “the oppressed and the oppressor.” A woman writing in Roza, forexample, voices this idea in the following way:

It becomes apparent that our similarities with Turkish women are less than ourdifferences. Feminism, which struggle for the common oppression of allwomen, has developed through the knowledge produced by white Westernwomen. The Turkish feminist movement, too, has been supplied by thissource and shut its ears to a feminism that was developed through differences.66

Kurdish feminist women’s opinions on numerous issues differ from those ofTurkish feminist women. First of all, while Turkish feminists approach motherhood

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with suspicion, since it reinforces traditional roles; Kurdish feminists, although theyhave similar reservations, strive to protect it by considering it to be the strongholdof a culture and a language that are on the verge of evanescence. Second, Turkishfeminists see modern education as a bridge for women’s personal development;Kurdish feminists, by contrast, though they attach importance to women’s edu-cation, perceive the education given in Turkey as the destructive act of a nation.Third, Turkish feminists make much of the articulation of women into the publicsphere; Kurdish feminists, however, think that integration in the public spherecauses women to vanish within the parameters of the dominant culture and, thus,to be assimilated.

It is possible to find numerous more differences between these two feministapproaches in addition to these points. In an article published in Roza, the differencesbetween Kurdish and Turkish feminists are elucidated as follows:

Our agenda, our priorities, our resistance tactics and strategies normally differfrom those of the women of the dominant nation. State practices have alwaysbeen on the top of our agenda. Rapes, racist pressures, violence experiencedby women under custody or in villages . . . Domestic violence has never beena campaign subject of top priority for us.67

While the family has been subjected to the immediate attack of Turkish feministwomen since it included violence and reinforced the invisibility of women and thecontinuation of the traditional roles, it has been a secondary concern for Kurdish fem-inist women.

Kurdish Feminism: A Women’s Movement with a Dual Identity

The distinctive feature of Kurdish feminism is the fact that Kurdish women havealways presented themselves with a dual identity. Women in the Kurdish women’smovement argue that they are not only women, but also the members of a nation.The editor of Roza Fatma Kayhan pronounces that she cannot prefer one of her iden-tities over the other, and that she can only continue her existence with two identitiesthat complement and reinforce each other:

I came into the world without my approval. I could not get rid of any of thesetwo identities even if I wished to do so. I am Kurdish and I am woman. I ambeing Kurdish like a woman and experiencing womanhood like a Kurd.Neither of these two identities is above the other.68

Kurdish feminists argue that being members of the oppressed nation has not causedthem to ignore the domination and oppression of Kurdish men over them. In thisrespect, it is insistently emphasized that Kurdish women should be possessed withthe desire to simultaneously fight against two enemies.69 Hatice Yasar, an authorwriting in Roza, explains this situation as follows:

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The Kurdish woman is in a war to protect her two identities and none of thesetwo identities can be relegated to a secondary status for any reason. Both ofthese emancipation struggles should be fought together and collaterally.70

In the women’s magazines, the prevailing idea is that women’s individual andgender-based interests go together with their national interests. In this respect,while a struggle for existence is fought around woman’s identity as a “subject,” itis believed that another struggle should be fought on the other hand for a sociologicaland political base that will foster this identity.71 A woman writing for Roza expressesthis idea through the following words:

It is apparent that Kurdish women are in a fight for their feminine and nationalidentities. It is necessary to see the common ground of these two identitystruggles in the positioning against dominant relations. The “oppressednation” and the “oppressed gender” are two problems that have similaritiesand need to be viewed as equal to each other.72

It could be stated that the junction of these two types of oppression constitutes theKurdish feminist identity. In other words, the Kurdish feminist identity has been con-structed upon the meeting point of these dual oppressions.

As stated above, while Kurdish women struggle for the rights of Kurdish womenon the one hand, they also struggle for the national base in which she exists, on theother. One of the factors that will protect the existence of the national base is fertilityand “motherhood” as an institution.73 Kurdish feminists, who consider motherhoodas an institution that keeps a society alive, instead of a natural biological and psycho-logical state, often glorify it for this reason. Motherhood is consecrated especially inthose groups whose positions are close to the axis of ethnic struggle. Names likeSaturday Mothers and Peace Mothers are correlated to this understanding.

Kurdish feminist women defend the institution of motherhood since not only is it ameans of the perpetuation of national existence, but it also renders the woman’s bodyautonomous, that is, prevents it from entering into the sphere of influence of anypower. It is necessary to indicate here that “body” politics has a significant role inthe Kurdish feminists’ struggle. However, the ways they perceive of the body andthe reasons for which they protect it differ from those of Turkish feminists inseveral respects. While the body, for Turkish feminists, is the center of women’sown sexual preferences or something that should not be subjected to the interferenceof power, traditional culture and men, according to Kurdish feminists, it is somethingthat needs to be protected, not only for themselves, but for the survival of a nation.74

For Kurdish women, it is through a woman’s body that a nation creates and re-createsitself with all its values. Therefore, keeping the female body away from the involve-ment of power is an extremely important field of struggle for them.75 But, the eman-cipation of the body is not something serving women only, but a means of salvationfor an ethnic group as well.

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Conclusion

As analyzed above, the Kurdish women’s movement has evolved within the corridorsof the leftist movements of the 1970s and ethnic movements of the 1980s. But it is amatter of fact that to express women’s problems and give priority to them in theiragenda, Kurdish women must develop a feminist consciousness and outlook thatborrows from the Turkish feminist movement, which developed in the aftermath ofthe post-1980s. Turkish feminism has motivated and encouraged Kurdish feministwomen to present themselves as women and struggle for their particular interest inde-pendent of any other movement. Despite that connection, the Kurdish women’smovement has differentiated itself not only from the feminist movement of the1990s, but also from the ethnic Kurdish movement to which they owe their politici-zation. This indicates that Kurdish feminism stands as a reactionary movement inaddition to being a natural evolvement of a certain political and ideologicalmaturation.

Two groups to which Kurdish feminists react are Kurdish men in general andTurkish feminists in particular. They strongly refer to the grounds of theirdouble oppression as stemming from the attitudes of these two groups. Theyclearly express that, while Turkish feminists want them to forget their ethnic iden-tity, Kurdish men force them to forget their gender identity.76 However, none ofthese identities can be easily left by these women, given the fact that they areKurdish and women together. As has been evident in the writings of the leadersof this movement, Kurdish feminism seems to be a challenge to the man-based hol-istic understanding of ethnic struggle on the one hand, and to the essentialist under-standing of women projected by Turkish feminism on the other. The demands anddiscourses raised by Kurdish feminism, as a version of a third-way women’s move-ment developed within the Turkish context, indicate that women are not doomed toa single way of emancipation; on the contrary, depending on different social, econ-omic and cultural contexts, they have alternative ways of emancipation and self-realization.

Notes

1. Fatma Kayhan, “8 Mart 99: Milli ve Resmi!” Roza, Vol. 16 (1999), p. 24.2. Necla Acık, “Ulusal Mucadele, Kadın Mitosu ve Kadınların Harekete Gecirilmesi: Turkiye’de Çagdas

Kurt Dergilerinin Bir Analizi,” in Aksu Bora and Asena Guldal (eds.), 90’larda Turkiye’de Feminizm(Istanbul: Iletisim, 2002), pp. 301–4.

3. Berivan, “Irkcılıgı fark etmek,” Roza, Vol. 16 (1999), p. 11.4. Kurdish women’s journals are published in Turkish. Although they motivate women to write in

Kurdish, unfortunately they cannot find more than one or two short articles written in Kurdish foreach issue of the journals. This is because the writers of the journals are not able to write in Kurdish.

5. For example see Hazel V. Carby, “Dinle Beyaz Kadın! Siyah Feminizm ve Kadın DayanısmasınınSınırları!,” Xozge Tesi (trans.), Roza, Vol. 7 (1997), pp. 12–14.

6. Jennifer Drake identifies third-way women’s movements as “third-wave women’s coalitions” sincethey criticize the Western-originated first- and second-wave feminisms with one voice in unison.See Jennifer Drake, “Third Wave Feminism,” Feminist Studies, Vol. 23, No. 1 (Spring 1997), p. 102.

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7. As it is well known the “first-wave” women’s movement developed after the second half of the nine-teenth century has become the name of the struggle to render women equal to men in the public sphere.However, the second-wave women’s movement, which developed after the 1960s, emphasized thedifference, rather than the similarity of men and women.

8. Bell Hooks, Ain’t I A Woman: Black Women and Feminism (Boston, MA: South End Press, 1992),p. 7.

9. See Kimberly Springer, “Third Wave Black Feminism?” Sings: Journal of Women in Culture andSociety, Vol. 27, No. 4 (Summer 2002), pp. 1059–82.

10. For a severe criticism of white Western feminism, see Bell Hooks, “Black Women: Shaping FeministTheory,” in Joy James and T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting (eds.), The Black Feminist Reader (Massachu-sets and Oxford: Blackwell, 2000), pp. 131–45.

11. Quoted from G. Joseph by Necla Akgokce, “Feminizmin Otekileri; Siyah Feministler,” Roza, Vol. 10(1997), p. 14.

12. Springer (2002), pp. 1074–75.13. Hazel V. Carby, “White Women Listen! Black Feminism and the Boundaries of Sisterhood,” in Heidi

S. Mirza (ed.), Black British Feminism: A Reader (London and New York: Routledge, 1997), p. 46.14. See Elaine J. Hall and Marnie Salupo Modriguez, “The Myth of Postfeminism,” Gender and Society,

Vol. 17, No. 6 (2003), pp. 878–902.15. One such example is Karen Offen’s article entitled "Defining Feminism: A Comparative Historical

Approach," Sign: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, Vol. 14, No. 1 (1988), pp. 119–57.16. See Floya Anthias and Nira Yuval-Davis, “Contextualizing Feminism: Gender, Ethnic and Class Div-

isions,” Feminist Review, Vol. 15 (Winter 1983), pp. 62–75.17. Idem, “Introduction,” in Floya Anthias and Nira Yuval-Davis (eds.), Woman-Nation-Sate (London:

Macmillan, 1989), pp. 7–8.18. For a discussion on Turkish feminism see Yesim Arat, “From Emancipation to Liberation: The Chan-

ging Role of Women in Turkey’s Public Realm,” Journal of International Affairs, Vol. 54, No. 1(2000) pp. 107–27.

19. Nilufer Gole, “The Gendered Nature of the Public Sphere,” Public Culture, Vol. 10, No. 1 (1997),pp. 61–81.

20. Interview by Hande, “1970–1980 Arası Kadın Grupları II: Rızgari ve Alarızgari Kadın Grubu II,”Jujin, Vol. 3–4 (October 1997), p. 13.

21. Hande, “1970–80 Yıllarında Kurt Gruplarında Kadınlar (DDKAD),” Roza, Vol. 2 (1996), pp. 3–5.22. Interview by Hande, “1970–1980 Yıllarında Kurt Kadın Grupları: (DDKAD) 2,” Roza, Vol. 3 (1996),

p. 30.23. Hande, “1978–1980 Arası Kadın Çalısmaları: DDKAD,” Jujin, Vol. 1 (December 1996–January

1997), p. 17.24. Belgin, “Fitne Unsuru Kadın,” Jin u Jiyan, Vol. 2, No. 9 (2000), p. 34.25. See Hasan Cemal, Kurtler (Istanbul: Dogan Kitapcılık, 2003).26. Hande, “Kurt Kadınının Oncelikli Kimligi,” Roza, Vol. 1 (1996), p. 6.27. Roza, “Kurt Feminizmi,” Roza, Vol. 15 (1999), p. 6.28. Roza, “Sevgili Kurt Kadınları,” Roza, Vol. 1 (1996), p. 4.29. Yelda, “‘Kadın Orgutlenmesi’nden Once Kadın Dayanısması,” Roza, Vol. 2 (1996), p. 30.30. Belgin (2000).31. Jin u Jiyan, “Dayanısma ve Orgutluluge Dair. . .,” Jin u Jiyan, Vol. 13 (2001), pp. 4–5.32. Roza (1996).33. Ibid.34. Ibid.35. Hatice Yasar, “Kadın ve Siyaset ve de Roza,” Roza, Vol. 1 (1996), p. 8.36. Aysegul, “Seni Seviyorum, Roza,” Roza, Vol. 3 (1996), p. 5.37. Jujin, “Merhaba Sevgili Kadınlar,” Jujin, Vol. 1 (1996), p. 1.38. Songul, “Kurt Kadını ve Goc,” Jujin, Vol. 2 (1997), p. 41.39. Jin u Jiyan, “Panorama 2000,” Jin u Jiyan, Vols 11–12 (December 2000–January 2001), p. 27.

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40. Ibid., p. 29.41. Jin u Jiyan, “8 Mart Yaklasırken. . .,” Jin u Jiyan, Vol. 1 (1999), p. 3.42. Jin u Jiyan, “Yeniden Merhaba,” Jin u Jiyan, Vol. 3 (June 1999), p. 1.43. Neval Kutlu, “Sessiz Çıglık Surmemeli,” Jin u Jiyan, Vol. 2 (1999), p. 3.44. Ibid., p. 4.45. For the forced migration and its multi-faceted results, see TESEV, Zorunlu Goc ile Yuzlesmek: Tur-

kiye’de Yerinden Edilme Sonrası Vatandaslıgın Insası (Istanbul: TESEV, 2006).46. Jin u Jiyan, “Zorunlu Goc ve Zorunlu Gocun Kadınlar Uzerindeki Etkileri,” Jin u Jiyan, Vol. 6 (1999),

p. 6.47. Sehriban Ozdemir, “Gocun Kadın Yuzu,” Roza, Vol. 14 (1998), p. 16.48. Jin u Jiyan, “Zorunlu Goc ve Zorunlu Gocun Kadınlar Uzerindeki Etkileri: 2,” Jin u Jiyan, Vol. 7

(1999), p. 6.49. Canan, “Kadın ve Anadil,” Roza, Vol. 1 (1996), p. 24.50. Sureyya, “Çocuk Kurt Olursa,” Jin u Jiyan, Vol. 1 (1999), p. 21.51. Canan, “Ikinci Kez Dag Çicekleri Yaratılmak Isteniyor: (ÇATOM, TOKAP),” Jujin, Vol. 7 (1998),

pp. 2–5.52. For detailed information on ÇATOMs, see http://www.gap.gov.tr/Turkish/Sosprj/catom.html

(accessed September 15, 2010).53. Bercem Dost, “Degisen Bir Sey Yok,” Jin u Jiyan, Vol. 1 (1999), p. 8.54. Bawer, “Çatom’ların Oteki Yuzu!,” Roza, Vol. 13 (1998), pp. 4–5.55. Handan Koc, “Kadrınları, Mahsus Gazete Yoluna Devam Ediyor,” Interview by Omer Suvari. see

http://www.zipIstanbul.com/170pazartesi.htm (accessed September 15, 2008).56. Dılsah, “Kurt Kadını ve Cinsellik,” Jujin, Vols 3–4 (1997), p. 22.57. Cevahir, “Mucadelede Kurt Kadını,” Roza, Vol. 5 (1996), p. 7.58. Zelal, “Kurt Erkeklerine veya Erkek Kurtlere,” Roza, Vol. 6 (1997), p. 14.59. Sibel Dogan, “Evet, Erkekler Turk Devletinin Koleleri Ama Biz Bacılar Kolelerin Kolesiyiz. . .,” Roza,

Vol. 2 (1996), p. 6.60. For a detailed study on the distinction of Kurdish feminists from their Turkish counterparts through the

“language” and “motherhood,” see Zeynep Kutluata, “The Politics of Difference Within the FeministMovement in Turkey as Manifested in the Case of Kurdish Woman/Feminist Journals,” UnpublishedMaster Thesis (Istanbul: Bogazici University, 2003).

61. Roza (1999), p. 3.62. Jin u Jiyan, “8 Mart Yaklasırken. . .,” Vol. 1 (1999), p. 4.63. Songul Tanrıkulu, “Dilimi Bilsen Beni Anlayabilir misin?” Jujin, Vols 3–4 (1997), p. 26.64. Fatma Kayhan, “Kurt Kadınlarına Batırılan Dikenler,” Roza, Vol. 13 (1998), p. 3.65. Sema, “Kolonyalist ‘Turk Feminizmi,’” Jujin, Vol. 7 (1998), p. 6.66. Fatma Kayhan, “Kadın Kurtulus Hareketinin Stratejileri II,” Roza, Vol. 10 (1997), p. 35.67. ibid., p. 4.68. Fatma Kayhan, “Kole Koylu Annelerimiz ve Biz Ozgur Kentli Kadınlar,” Roza, Vol. 2 (1996), p. 11.69. Aysegul, “Bir Ask Yetmez,” Roza, Vol. 1 (1996), p. 23.70. Yasar (1996).71. H. Çelebi, “Ozde mi Sozde mi?” Jin u Jiyan, Vol. 9 (2000), p. 13.72. Sema, “Kurt Kadın Kimlikleri,” Roza, Vol. 2 (1996), p. 18.73. Ebru, “Kadın Bedeninin Kamusal Denetimi: Dogurganlık ve Ulusal Yeniden Uretim,” Jujin, Vol. 10

(2000), pp. 10–12.74. Cevahir, “Bagımsız Kurt Kadın Hareketinin Onemli Bir Ayagı: Kendi Bedeni Uzerinde Soz ve Karar

Sahibi Olmasıdır!,” Roza, Vol. 10 (1997), pp. 20–23.75. Ebru, “Kadın Bedeninin Kamusal Denetimi,” Jujin, Vol. 10 (2000), p. 10.76. Roza (1996).

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