On the (Im)possibility of the Kurdish Queer

Abstract

Scattered across four countries in the Middle East, Kurds are one of the largest stateless nations in the world and have long been portrayed as pawns within imperial interventions in the region, both by some sections of the Left as well as within authoritarian right-wing politics. In parallel, a specific vein of postcolonial theory has treated queer/LGBTI+ activism in the region as “alien,” “foreign,” and even as a Trojan horse of imperialism, an idea that has been taken up, again, by sections of the Left as well as right-wing authoritarian politicians. Adopting the doubly illegitimized subject position of the “Kurdish queer” as its point of departure, this article highlights the importance of taking the situated knowledge and political analyses of Kurdish queers seriously to uncover histories of violence as well as the multiple layers of queer, postcolonial, and decolonial imagination. Doing so, the author argues, puts theory and visions of democracy under productive scrutiny, stretching them in critical directions. The article concludes that an investment in or curiosity for Kurdish queer studies is needed to complicate our understanding of the history and politics of the region, as well as how sexuality and conflict are entangled.