From Kawa the Blacksmith to Ishtar the Goddess: Gender Constructions in Ideological-Political Discourses of the Kurdish Movement in post-1980 Turkey

Abstract

The Kurdish movement in post-1980 Turkey successfully mobilized Kurdish women. Themes related to gender equality have gained importance especially in late 1990s, when Kurdish women started to participate actively in the Kurdish movement. In the same period, the mythological sources of Kurdishness as a political identity were changed. Building on feminist studies exposing the interaction between ethnic/nationalist processes and gender relations, this article aims to examine the Kurdish movement’s ideological discourse from a gender perspective. By analyzing Ocalan’s writings during the 1978-1999 period, the article argues that there is a mutual interaction between the Kurdish movement’s ideological political and women’s agency in political participation. The paper shows that the left-wing and secular characteristics of the Kurdish movement facilitated women’s participation in the movement and that women’s participation affected both the importance of gender equality within the ideological and political discourse of the Kurdish movement and within its organizational structure. The paper concludes by pointing out the limits and contradictions of the movement’s discourse on gender equality.