Kurdish Women Research Articles

Beauty for Harmony

Abstract Beauty can be a source of self-making within a political community, and that self can display moral autonomy via publicly visible and invisible practices while still adhering to a community. At a time of transition during the early 2000s from militarized resistance to urban civil politics, radical democracy, and gender ideals, older militarized notions of the Kurdish self, body, and beauty were changing. In a context of heightened visibility within the movement, women active in the Kurdish movement responded by recrafting their femininities, using beautification practices as a modern, urban, and empowering political tool. But beautification of the new self also entailed often sticky negotiations over the moral boundaries between the self and the movement, producing anxieties over what and who should constitute the moral. As women's actions, public roles, and visibilities became important indicators of the Kurdish movement's political success, their beauty practices and beautiful visibilities came to be viewed through the urgent need for moral unity. Central to Kurdish women activists' experience of and response to the political and social transformations going on around them, the integration of beauty practices into their politics placed moral autonomy at the center of the construction of new models of Kurdish femininity.

An Epidemiological Study of Female Breast Cancer in Sulaymaniyah City, Iraqi Kurdistan

Introduction: The present study was aimed at describing the epidemiological characteristics of female breast cancer and explore its main risk factors in Sulaymaniyah city, the Kurdistan region of Iraq.Material and Methods: The present case-control study was conducted in Sulaymaniyah, the Kurdistan region of Iraq from 2012-2014 in two hospitals. The study sample consisted of 150 women with breast cancer and 150 healthy women. Required data including sociodemographic and lifestyle factors, medical history, and reproductive factors were collected using a questionnaire through face-to-face interviews.Results: The mean age of the cases and controls was 47.89±10.98 and 47.38±10.87 years respectively. Low level of education was a risk factor for breast cancer, such that breast cancer was significantly less prevalent among women with university education than those with lower education (P=0.001). The likelihood of developing breast cancer in women with a positive family history of cancer was significantly higher (P=0.003). Also, women with rural residency, unemployment, low income, early age of menopause, multigravida (+3), history of abortion, duration of feeding the first and second babies, and obesity were at a significantly higher risk of developing breast cancer (P<0.05).Conclusion: The Kurdish women in Iraq, develop breast cancer at age range of 40-50 years. Women with low level of education, a positive family history of cancer, rural residency, unemployment, low income, multigravida (+3), history of abortion, and obesity need to be taken into special consideration in order to diagnose breast cancer early and adopt appropriate interventions.

An ethnography of Gazete Sujin: Women-centred journalism of Kurdish women

In this commentary the news practices of Kurdish women media has been examined in terms of gender and human rights-based journalism. The work emphasizes the significance of an ethnographic method on studying a minority media since it discusses that the method broadens perspectives in order to understand different dynamics of news making process. This study is mainly based on the author’s MA dissertation which focused on a Kurdish women news portal, Gazete Sujin, in 2017.

Mir-320b rs755613466 T>C and mir-27a rs780199251 G>A polymorphisms and the risk of IVF failure in Kurdish women.

In vitro fertilization failure is not only the cause of despair among couples and individuals undergoing the treatment, it has also been contributing to the impediment of assistive reproductive technologies' development. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been linked to significant events in the reproduction course. The identification of miRNA polymorphisms may provide a good lead for the potential of diagnosis and treatment of unidentified in vitro fertilization (IVF) failure causes. The aim of our study is to explore the association between miRNA polymorphisms (mir-320b T>C and mir-27a G >A) and IVF failure. Our case-control study consisted of 200 Kurdish women in total, 100 with IVF failure and the other 100 control who have had at least two successful pregnancies and no history of pregnancy loss, we used tetra amplification refractory mutation system PCR to identify the polymorphisms within the groups. The TT genotype of mir-320b was found more frequently in IVF failure patients when compared to the healthy women (OR 8.07, CI 2.18-29.78, P = 0.001) and T allele was more present in the case group (OR 1.83, CI 91.04-2.12, P = 0.034), however mir-27a seemed to show no association with IVF failure in regards to genotype and allele frequencies. The difference in genotype and allele frequencies of mir-320b of the two groups may indicate that it has an effect on the target mRNAs and alter the implantation of embryo during IVF cycles.

Mehmet Gurses. Anatomy of a Civil War: Sociopolitical Impacts of the Kurdish Conflict in Turkey

Reviewed by: Anatomy of a Civil War: Sociopolitical Impacts of the Kurdish Conflict in Turkey by Mehmet Gurses Vera Eccarius-Kelly Mehmet Gurses. Anatomy of a Civil War: Sociopolitical Impacts of the Kurdish Conflict in Turkey. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2018. xi + 179 pp. Cloth, $65. ISBN 978-0472131006. Anatomy of a Civil War, an empirically rich, methodologically rigorous, and politically relevant study, successfully evaluates the decades-long Kurdish struggle for equality by placing the armed conflict between the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Turkish state at the center of its analysis of social change. Mehmet Gurses convincingly posits that Kurds in Turkey have experienced a full-fledged civil war, and he rejects the use of terminology that is frequently used to marginalize and criminalize Kurdish resistance to state repression. Gurses concludes that opportunities for peace will not emerge as long as the Turkish state apparatus circumvents fundamental and meaningful sociopolitical and cultural reforms for Kurdish communities. While some may disagree, Gurses persuasively argues that the formation of a separate Kurdish state entity may be one of the only logical and remaining options for Kurds to create lasting (positive) peace. Gurses offers a straightforward organizational structure to enhance the use of his data, which is embedded in the larger theoretical analysis. His book provides four interwoven segments to guide the reader through a complex set of questions. Focusing on the impact of violence committed against noncombatants, Gurses explores the sociopolitical consequences of the decades-long civil war in Turkey. He pursues several essential and frequently interconnected questions to identify patterns of collective change that have reshaped Kurdish values and norms and contributed to organizational capacities for protest and direct action. The central questions around which the book is organized are related to (1) whether war can engender more positive attitudes towards women; (2) if exposure to war can create a deeply engaged and democratically-oriented citizenry; (3) how civil war contributes to forging a national identity; (4) if war between two same-faith groups can reshape the minority’s relationship with particular faith traditions; and (5) if civil war conditions can encourage secularization. The first part of the book is dominated by an impressive discussion of the existing body of literature related to civil wars and ethnic conflict. Here Gurses connects the specifics of the Kurdish conflict to numerous other global examples ranging from Latin to African case studies. Part two examines a wide variety of existing theories that link the democratizing potential of wars to micro-level experiences with civil wars. The third segment, a particularly compelling part of the book, contextualizes how war dynamics shape gender relations within Kurdish communities. Gurses demonstrates that Kurdish women have become visible in all areas of public life over the past three [End Page 188] decades through their involvement in activism, their roles as elected officials, and their contributions as armed combatants. Furthermore this section proposes that civil war experiences have created essential conditions for change, which in predominantly Kurdish provinces have advanced democratization and secularization movements. The final part of the book scrutinizes the literatures of ethnic conflict and peace to examine salient obstacles to achieving peace in the Turkish-Kurdish conflict (among them are linguistic and cultural patterns of repression and social prejudices held by Turks against Kurds). In an effort to test for all five questions, Gurses relies on a mixed methodological approach that allows for an examination of the underlying causes for social and political changes that appear to manifest within Kurdish cities. He relies on a large data set of 2,100 interviews carried out in three Kurdish majority provinces in Turkey, namely Diyarbakır, Van, and Sanlıurfa. Both Diyarbakır and Van provinces were selected for the study because they have been at the center of the armed conflict between PKK combatants and the Turkish government. Tens of thousands of internally displaced people from the countryside arrived in the major regional cities resulting in a precarious economic situation for the predominantly Kurdish population. As a result, pro-Kurdish parties have risen to an influential political position in both provinces. In contrast, Sanlıurfa, is a more ethnically diverse province with a sizeable...

Pregnancy complications in women of Russian, Somali, and Kurdish origin and women in the general population in Finland

Objective:We compared the prevalence of gestational diabetes and hypertensive disorders in the most recent pregnancy among women of Russian, Somali, and Kurdish origin and women in the general population in Finland.Methods:The study groups were selected from population-based samples of 18- to 64-year-old women. The women were of Russian (n = 318), Somali (n = 583), and Kurdish (n = 373) origin or from the general population (n = 243), and had given birth in Finland between 2004 and 2014. The data were obtained from the National Medical Birth Register and the Hospital Discharge Register. Data on gestational diabetes and hypertensive disorders were extracted based on relevant International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision codes. The main statistical methods were logistic regression analyses adjusted for age, parity, body mass index, socioeconomic status, and smoking.Results:The prevalence of gestational diabetes was 19.1% in Kurdish, 14.4% in Somali, 9.3% in Russian, and 11.8% in the general population. The prevalence of hypertensive disorders was 5.4% in the general population, 3.8% in Somali, 3.1% in Kurdish, and 1.7% in Russian. When adjusted for confounders, Kurdish women had two-fold odds for gestational diabetes (odds ratio = 1.98; 95% confidence interval = 1.20–3.32) compared with the general population, but the odds for hypertensive disorders did not differ between groups.Conclusion:Women of Kurdish origin were more likely to develop gestational diabetes. Studies with larger samples are required to confirm these findings to develop prevention strategies for later development of type 2 diabetes. Future research including other migrant groups is recommended to identify differences in pregnancy complications among the women in migrant and general population.

دور المناهج الدراسية في ترسيخ الصورة النمطية للمرأة الكوردية

دور المناهج الدراسية في ترسيخ الصورة النمطية للمرأة الكوردية

Jineolojî: pensamiento crítico y prácticas emancipadoras desde el Kurdistán

The struggle of Kurdish women in the PKK encouraged the emergence of Jineoloji, the Science of Women, like a critical mode of thinking to the dominant Western knowledge against what they consider as a historically women´s oppression process. This paper considers that way of thinnkig as a breaking project with the ways of understanding and producing life under capitalism, and explores this epistemic model as a tool to transform power systems recognizing Kurdish women as political subjects. Jineoloji proposals and practices inside and outside Kurdistan are also analyzed to offer evidences for this arguments.

Bushra El-Turk and Eleanor Knight, Silk Moth Grimeborn, 9 August 2019

When Eleanor Knight began researching her libretto for Silk Moth, she had to decide how to frame an opera about honour violence. Meeting women whose lives it had ruptured through the Iranian and Kurdish Women's Rights Organisation, she confronted the usual images that accompany the dozen-or-so honour killings per year in the UK media. Between the ‘old, faded school photos’ that illustrate victimhood and the male perpetrators with ‘blankets over their heads … shoved into waiting police cars’, she saw a gulf of painful complexity. ‘What’, she asks, ‘of the mothers?’.

The Intersectional Dynamics of Political Violence and Gender in the Kurdish Conflict

AbstractWhat is the relationship between social, historical, and political dynamics and gender in the use of violence? This research uses the Kurdish conflict to examine this question. On the basis of empirical examples about Kurdish women, it focuses on ethnic identity, patriarchy, social class, generation, and politicization within their historical and spatial variations. It argues that gender dynamics do not operate alone but intersect in many ways with these dynamics to influence political violence. It concludes that the way these dynamics engage with each other depends on the subjectivation process taking place within a historically contingent horizon.

Gendering Resistance: Multiple Faces of the Kurdish Women's Struggle

The article explores the Kurdish women's movement in Turkey by bridging two forms of resistance: those of guerrilla women fighters and of activist women. Based on my extensive ethnographic and archival research, I ask how women under conditions of war engage in different modes of resistance. In what ways does the “heroic resistance” of guerrilla women resonate with and/or contradict the everyday, “ordinary” struggles of activist women? The potent image of the Kurdish guerrilla woman that emerged in the early 1990s is constitutive of many other modes of political subjectivities, even among women who do not or cannot become guerrillas. One of those subjectivities is that of the activist woman. My analysis suggests that women's activism opens up a middle ground of action between “heroic” and “ordinary” resistance by reconciling revolutionary politics with everyday activism around gender‐based violence, democracy, and human rights. Although both revolutionary movement participants and scholars of revolutionary resistance often contrast the “ordinary” with the realm of armed resistance, this article challenges this dichotomy. I take the two realms of resistance—the ordinary and the heroic—as the core constituents of revolutionary resistance, and I reconsider the gendered interplay between them.

Enacting intersectional multilayered citizenship: Kurdish women’s politics

Focusing on the institutional aspects of the Kurdish women’s movement in Turkey since the 1990s the article shows how it established a consciousness within the Kurdish national movement that gender equality is a cornerstone of democracy and ethnic rights. We frame this through theories of enacting intersectional multilayered citizenship and identify three key interventions: autonomous women’s assemblies, women’s quotas in pro-Kurdish rights parties and the co-chair system where all elected positions within the pro-Kurdish parties are jointly occupied by a male and female. These have achieved a better representation of women in formal politics, rendered gender equality and sexual violence legitimate subjects of politics and contributed to establishing an aspiration for a more dialogic political ethos. While the women’s movement’s close affiliation with the Kurdish national movement has been highly effective, it also in part circumscribes gender roles to fit its agendas.

A study of Kurdish women’s tragic self-immolation in Iran: A qualitative study

Self-immolation is one of the most painful methods of suicide which is widespread among women in Kurdish regions of Iran. The present study aimed to explore the causes and sociocultural groundwork of choosing self-immolation methods by women in Kurdish regions of Iran.This present study was conducted using a qualitative approach and conventional content analysis. The research population included women who self-immolated and were rescued in Kurdish regions of Iran. The data collection method was a deep interview as well as observation. The sampling method was based on objective and snowball sampling. The data collection continued to theoretical saturation, the number of participants reached 25 in the end, and Lincoln and Guba criteria were used to strengthen the research. From the analysis of the data obtained in this study, the 8 sub-themes related to cause of suicide attempt from the participants’ viewpoints including unbridled coherence, lack of supportive social and environmental structures, economic pressure, aggravation of violence, humiliated ego, dominance of modern values over the local and indigenous ones, incoherent family, and giving up on changing conditions as well as 6 sub themes based on the cause of choosing the method of self-immolation including protesting, frightening the family, catching more attention, championing and showing courage, inducing more guilty feelings in the family and society, fashion or imitation, and easy access were revealed. Self-immolation is one of the most important problems in the Kurdish regions of Iran, which is rooted in various economic, social, psychological and cultural causes. To reduce this social harm, there is a need for comprehensive programs that cover all dimensions.

A qualitative assessment of women\u2019s perspectives and experience of female genital mutilation in Iraqi Kurdistan Region

BackgroundFemale genital mutilation (FGM) is prevalent in Iraqi Kurdistan Region, but there is a lack of adequate knowledge about how the practice is perceived by the women population who are the direct victims of the practice. This study aimed to assess the knowledge, beliefs, and attitude of a sample of Kurdish women of FGM and identify the main enabling factors for performing this practice and the barriers to ending it.MethodsThis qualitative study was based on six focus groups involving a sample of 51 women. We used a topic guide to lead discussions, which included questions on women’s perspectives of different aspects of FGM such as the reasons for practicing it, the positive and negative consequences, the continuation of the practice and tackling this problem in the community. Content analysis was used for the qualitative analysis of the data.ResultsThe women had poor knowledge about different aspects of FGM particularly concerning the procedure and the consequences. The mutilated participants revealed the devastating experience of the pain and the psychological effects they have experienced. Reducing sexual desire, having halal (permissible by Allah) hands, and religious requirement were the main reasons for practicing FGM. Reduction in women’s sexual desire and the related social problems with the husband were the main problems identified to be associated with FGM. Most women did not support the continuation of FGM practice, but some women still think that FGM should be left to the people’s preference. The participants identified raising people’s awareness, active involvement of religious leaders in prevention efforts and the issuance and enforcement of legislation against FGM as the primary measures to reduce FGM practice.ConclusionPassing through FGM at childhood is an overwhelming experience with long-term effects for women. There is still a significant segment among the women population that do not oppose the continuations of FGM and need religious and scientific evidence against FGM. Some reasons for practicing FGM are deeply embedded in the culture and traditions, and there is a need for extensive efforts to raise the awareness of the population and change their thoughts and behavior about FGM.

Written narratives from immigrants following a prenatal diagnosis: qualitative exploratory study

BackgroundExpectant parents often have optimistic expectations of the obstetric ultrasound examination and are unprepared for a diagnosis of foetal anomaly. Research that gives voice to the experiences of immigrants faced with a prenatal diagnosis is scarce, and there is a need for more exploratory research that provides insights into the experiences of these persons. The aim of this study was to explore narratives of experiences of immigrants with Arabic or Sorani interpreter needs when presented with a prenatal diagnosis of foetal anomaly.MethodsA web-based tool with open-ended questions was distributed via Arabic and Kurdish non-profit associations and general women’s associations in Sweden. Responses were received from six women and analysed with qualitative content analysis.ResultsThe analysis resulted in three themes: (1) an unexpected hurricane of emotions, (2) trying to understand the situation though information in an unfamiliar language, and (3) being cared for in a country with accessible obstetric care and where induced abortion is legal.ConclusionsImmigrant women described an unexpected personal tragedy when faced with a prenatal diagnosis of foetal anomaly, and emphasised the importance of respectful and empathic psychological support. Their experiences of insufficient and incomprehensible information call attention to the importance of tailored approaches and the use of adequate medical interpreting services. There is a need for more descriptive studies that investigate decision-making and preparedness for induced abortion among immigrants faced with a prenatal diagnosis.

Archived Voices, Acoustic Traces, and the Reverberations of Kurdish History in Modern Turkey

AbstractThis article investigates how middle-aged to elderly Kurdish women in Turkey engage with large collections of Kurdish music recordings in their possession. Framing them as archives, women mobilize these collections as central elements in a larger, ongoing Kurdish project of historical critique, which seeks to resist hegemonic state narratives that have long denied and marginalized Kurdish voices. While recognizing the critical intervention such archives make, the article contends that, to be heard as “history” with a legitimate claim to authority, subaltern voices often have to rely on the very hegemonic forms, genres, and discourses they set out to challenge. This means that subaltern projects of historical critique walk a fine line between critique and complicity, an insight that nuances narratives that would approach subaltern voices predominantly from a perspective of resistance. At the same time, this article argues that a more complete picture of subaltern archives requires us to attend to the voices they contain not just as metaphors for resistance or political representation but also as acoustic objects that have social effects because of the way they sound. By outlining the affective qualities that voice recordings held for the Kurdish women who archived them, the article shows how their collections participated in carving out specific, gendered subject positions as well as forging a broader Kurdish sociality. Paying attention to history's “acoustic register” (Hunt 2008), this suggests, promises to open up perspectives on subaltern historiography that go beyond binary frameworks of resistance and domination, critique and complicity.

Risk factors assessment of breast cancer among Iraqi Kurdish women: Case-control study

Background:To our knowledge, there is no international publication on risk factors of breast cancer among Kurdish women. There are several risk factors of breast cancer may differ in different geographical cultures. The aims of this study are to assess the established and probable risk factors of breast cancer among Iraqi Kurdish women as well as to investigate the effect of some Mediterranean food items on this issue.Materials and Methods:This retrospective case-control study was constructed in Sulaimanyah governorate-Iraq. Data were collected regarding socio-demographic characters, established risk factors, and dietary habits of 338 cases that were registered in Sulaimanyah Breast Center during January 2015-February 2019 with collection of same items for 338 age-matched controls.Results:The marriage was appeared to be a protective factor with (OR = 0.596, CI: 0.364-0.974, P = 0.039). Age at menarche ≥14 years has a protective effect with (OR: 0.326, P = 0.027) and 152 cases (45.0%) had menarche at ≤12 years compared to 56 controls (16.6%) with (P = 0.000). Numbers of children ≥ 3, regular exercise, and breastfeeding for >48 months duration have protective role. Consumption of fast foods and some Mediterranean foods weekly >2 times are risk factors, while taking stewed meat weekly one time, fish weekly ≥1 time, fruit daily>1 time and vegetables daily≥1 time, and black tea daily >3 cups have preventative effect on breast cancer.Conclusion:Among Kurdish women, some items of Mediterranean food have the same causative effect as fast food items. Marriages, consumption of stewed meat, fish, fruit, vegetables, and black tea may have preventative effect.

Post Facto Denial of Suicidal Intent in Suicide Attempts by Self-Burning in Kurdish Women

Post Facto Denial of Suicidal Intent in Suicide Attempts by Self-Burning in Kurdish Women

Militância política e relações de gênero: o caso das mulheres militantes no Curdistão*

Resumo Este artigo pretende analisar a participação feminina atual na luta curda pela independência e contra o fundamentalismo do Estado Islâmico, a fim de demonstrar como ela gerou uma mudança radical nas relações sociais entre os sexos. Essa questão principal foi abordada através da promoção de uma nova imagem da mulher e do seu papel social que não era mais só aquilo de mãe e esposa. Depois de uma breve visão geral sobre a complexa história de povo curdo e, consequentemente, do papel que as mulheres têm desempenhado dentro dela, tentei retomar a evolução teórica da desconstrução do gênero, com o objetivo de destacar a permeabilidade do conceito em relação ao contexto histórico e social. Além disso, tenho analisado a relação entre gênero e a constituição da ideia de nação, a partir do conceito de genderification do nacionalismo. Por fim, considerando a especificidade das mulheres curdas como mulheres subjugadas, subalternas e sem nacionalidade reconhecida, é abordada uma definição das interconexões teóricas entre gênero, raça, etnia e classe, a fim de contextualizar essa realidade peculiar.

From Religion and Resources to Conflict: the Yazidis and ISIS

The Yazidis, surely one of the most unknown communities in the Middle East, made it to the front page of international media in 2014 when the Dáesh added them to their long list of victims. However, it was not the first time in history that this community suffered direct attacks and discrimination for their religion. On October 5, Iraq celebrated the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to one of its citizens, Nadia Murad, awarded for her fight against the use of sexual violence as a weapon in armed conflict. With this, Murad placed her people, the Yazidis, a religious minority in northern Iraq, in the center of hundreds of articles in the international press. Murad was also the first Kurd to win the award, which made her, as stated by the leader of the Kurdistan National Party, a symbol of firmness for Kurdish women and youth.