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Contextualizing Kurdish Gender Studies

Decolonial Feminist Knowledge Production and the Genesis of the Kurdish Gender Studies Network

Biçarçovekirina Lêkolînên Zayendî yên Kurdî

Hilberîna Zanîna Femînîst a Dekolonyal û Genesîsa Tora Lêkolînên Zayendî yên Kurdî

Bikontekstkerdişê Cinsîyetnasîya Kurdan

Zanayîşvirazîya Femînîsta Dekolonyalîste û Destpêkê Torra Cinsîyetnasîya Kurdan

ناونیشان: تاوتوێکردنی بەستێنی توێژینەوە جێندەرییەکانی کوردی‬‎

بەرهەمهێنانی زانستی فێمینیستی دژەداگیرکاری و سەرهەڵدانی تۆڕی توێژینەوە جێندەرییەکانی کوردی‬‎
In: Kurdish Studies Journal
Authors:
Necla Açık Middlesex University London School of Law London UK

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Berivan Kutlay-Sarıkaya Brock University Department of Sociology St. Catherine

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https://orcid.org/0009-0002-3057-7575
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Farangis Ghaderi University of Exeter Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies Exeter UK

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Gülay Kılıçaslan Carleton University Department of Law and Legal Studies Unceded Algonquin Territory Ottawa

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Abstract

Established in 2020, the Kurdish Gender Studies Network (KGSN) is an online epistemic community that brings together activists and scholars dedicated to advancing knowledge in Kurdish gender and sexuality studies. This paper aims to introduce the network to a larger public while situating the formation of the KGSN in relation to the growth of Kurdish gender studies (KGS), and the increasing influence of women and queer scholars in Kurdish studies (KS) since 2010. It highlights that both KGSN and KS have been greatly influenced by the conditions shaped by the colonial legacy surrounding Kurdistan and the Kurdish issue while discussing the ways in which Kurdish women’s and gender studies were often marginalized in KS. As Kurdish women scholars and members of the network’s steering committee, we position the trajectory of the network and the evolution of KGS within the broader framework of knowledge production in colonial contexts and address the ongoing struggle to decolonize feminist knowledge production, which, historically, has been dominated by Western-centric epistemologies and methodologies.

Kurte

Tora Xebatên Zayendî ya Kurdî (TXZK) [Kurdish Gender Studies Network, KGSN] civateke epistemîk a online e ku aktîvîst û akademîsyenan tîne ba hev ji bo di xebatên zayenda civakî û cinsî yên kurdî de zanyariyê bi pêş ve bibin. Ev gotar, di navbera avakirina TXZKê ya di sala 2020an de, mezinbûna xebatên zayendî yên kurdî (XZK) [Kurdish Gender Studies, KGS] û bandora akademîsyenên jin û kûîr ên di xebatên kurdî (XK) de [Kurdish Studies, KS] têkiliyek ava dike. Berê, di nav XKê de gelek caran xebatên zayendî û yên jinên kurd dihatin marjînalîzekirin. Her du qad jî bi awayekî sereke, di bin bandora şert û mercên ku mîrateya mêtinger a Kurdistanê û meseleya kurd dorpêçkirî de mane. Analîza me rêgeha torê û veguherîna XZKê di nav çarçoveyeke berfirehtir a hilberîna zanyariyê ya di paşxaneyên kolonyal de bicih dike. Di heman demê de têkoşîna ji bo dekolonîzekirina hilberîna zanyariya femînîst nîşan dide ku bi awayekî dîrokî di bin hukmê epîstemolojî û metodolojiyên navend-rojavayî de mane.

Kilmnus

Torra Cinsîyetnasîya Kurdan (TCK) serra 2020î de awan bîye û komelê epîstemîko onlayn o ke tede çalakîker û akademîsyenê ke waranê cinsîyetnasî û seksualîtenasîya kurdan ser o gureyenê, yenê têhet. Na meqale kena ke hem torre rayapêroyî rê bido naskerdene hem awankerdişê TCK mîyanê averşîyayîşê cinsîyetnasîya kurdan de ca bikero hem zî binawno ke 2010 ra nat tesîrê akademîsyenanê cinî û kwîran (queer) her ke şono warê kurdnasîye de beno berz. Musnîyeno ke şert û mercê Kurdîstanî û mîrasê kolonyalîstan ke mesela kurdan de est o, TCK û kurdnasîye ser o tesîrêdo pîl kerd. Heto bîn ra munaqeşe beno ke cigêrayîşê cinî û cinsîyetî zereyê kurdnasîye de zafane amebî marjînalkerdene. Sey cigêrayoxanê kurdanê cinîkan û endamanê heyetê torr ê aktîfan, ma rayîrê torre û averşîyayîşê cinsîyetnasîya kurdan zereyê çarçewaya zanayîşvirazîye û kolonyalîzmî de ca kenîme û ser o vindenîme ke zanayîşvirazîya femînîste dekolonyalîzekerdiş mucadeleyêko berdewam o. Tarîx de, na zanayîşvirazîye binê serdestîya epîstemolojî û metodolojîyanê bi merkezê rojawanî de bîyene.

‮ناوەڕۆک‬‎

تۆڕی توێژینەوە جێندەرییەکانی کوردی (‭KGSN‬) لە ساڵی٢٠٢٠دامەزراوە. کۆمەڵەیەکی زانستی ئۆنڵاینە کە چالاکوانان و پسپۆرانی تایبەت بە پێشخستنی زانست لە توێژینەوە جێندەری و زایەندییەکانی کوردی پێکەوە کۆدەکاتەوە. ئامانجی ئەم توێژینەوەیە پتر ناساندنی ئەم تۆڕەیە بە خەڵک؛ هاوکات جێگیرکردنی پێگەیKGSNپەیوەست بە پەرەسەندنی توێژینەوە جێندەرییەکانی کوردی (‭KGS‬) و زیادبوونی کاریگەریی لێکۆڵەرانی ژن وكويرلە توێژینەوە کوردییەکان (‭KS‬) لە ساڵی٢٠١٠ەوە. هەروەها تیشک دەخاتە سەر ئەوەی کەKGSNوKSزۆر کەوتوونەتە ژێر کاریگەری هەلومەرجی میراتی کۆلۆنیالیزمی وڵاتانی دەوروبەری کوردستان و پرسی کورد و باس لەو ڕێگایانە دەکرێت کە تێیدا توێژینەوەکانی ژنان و جێندەری کوردی لەKSدا بەزۆری پەراوێزخراون.‬‎

ئێمە وەک ژنانی لێکۆڵەری کورد و ئەندامی چالاکی دەستەی بەڕێوەبەری تۆڕەکە، ڕێڕەوی تۆڕەکە و پەرەسەندنیKGSلە چوارچێوەی بەرفراوانی بەرهەمهێنانی زانست لە بەستێنەکانی کۆلۆنیالیزمدا دادەنێین. هەروەها خەباتی بەردەوامی دژەداگیرکاری بەرهەمهێنانی زانستی فێمینیستی دەخەینەڕوو، کە لە ڕووی مێژووییەوە، کەوتوەتە ژێر هەژموونی زانست و میتۆدۆلۆژیی زاڵی ناوەند-رۆژئاواییەوە.‬‎

1 Introduction

Since its birth in 2020, the Kurdish Gender Studies Network (KGSN) has become a thriving online academic community for individuals interested in Kurdish gender and sexuality studies. The network serves as a platform for the exchange of experiences and knowledge among students, researchers, and activists with a commitment to the inclusivity of diverse identities. KGSN offers scholars and activists a safe, ethical, and collegial space for mentorship in publishing, teaching, and researching on gender relations and sexuality.1 Since its establishment, members have organized numerous online lectures, panel discussions, workshops, and reading groups in English and Kurdish. The network has become a beacon for those aspiring to articulate a decolonial feminist discourse deeply rooted in Kurdish women’s lived experiences and histories, while advancing Kurdish gender studies (KGS) as an academic field of inquiry. KGSN connects Kurdish studies (KS) scholars who critically engage with the nationalist, racist, and colonial dimensions of Western, anthropocentric,2 liberal feminism. Decolonial feminist approaches and methodologies have provided these scholars and activists with a theoretical framework to reclaim epistemic agency, asserting their visibility in KS and the broader decolonial discussions.

The authors of this article are members of the KGSN’s steering committee. We are among an increasing number of Kurdish women scholar-activists in diaspora, focusing on issues ranging from state violence, forced migration, and incarceration to literature and activism with a particular focus on women and gender relations. Sharing our observations from years of activism and research in and on Kurdistan and beyond, in this article, we discuss the birth and evolution of KGSN as a space for decolonial feminist theory and praxis in spite of the ongoing colonial conditions dominating Kurdistan and studies on Kurds and Kurdistan.3 The network’s immediate impetus was the interventions of a group of anonymous women against sexual harassment and male violence in KS that set off conversations about “safe spaces” for women scholars in KS in summer 2020. The sudden shift to virtual life at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, ironically, facilitated the mobilization and coming together of scholars, students, and activists regardless of geographical dispersion, national boundaries, citizenship, financial capability, and other factors that had previously limited their mobility, exchange, and collectivity. This critical use of virtual space by KGS scholars and activists gave birth to KGSN and in doing so overcame some of the material and socio-legal conditions that had hitherto isolated KGS scholars, in turn, strengthening their position within KS.

KGSN has a longer lineage, however. The network is rooted in decades of struggles by Kurdish women who have grappled with the dual challenge of resisting external colonial forces while simultaneously confronting internal patriarchal dynamics in both domestic and public spheres, including in the academic realm. This is why we believe contextualizing the formation of KGSN is important not only for Kurdish gender studies, but also for advancing the ongoing struggle to decolonize feminist knowledge production that historically has been dominated by Western-centric epistemologies and methodologies.

We situate the formation of KGSN in relation to the growth of Kurdish gender studies and the increasing influence of women and queer scholars in Kurdish studies since 2010. Historically, both KS and KGS have developed under ongoing colonial conditions surrounding Kurdistan; conditions that have led to the heavy policing and criminalization of knowledge production on Kurds in Kurdistan and beyond.4 The Kurdish diaspora have played a crucial role in the development of KS5 and KGS, and in challenging the criminalization and marginalization of Kurds and studies on Kurds and Kurdistan. To date, both fields occupy marginalized positions in academia; a situation that is influenced by the colonial conditions in Kurdistan and the coloniality of academic institutions and knowledge production in the Global North. For KS scholars originating from Kurdistan, the restrictions on their research and teaching persist even after they leave the region, as they are often racialized as migrants and subjected to epistemic injustice and inequalities.

Since the turn of the twenty-first century, and particularly since 2010, a new wave of scholarship, by Kurdish diaspora and non-Kurdish scholars has emerged in both KS and KGS. Influenced by social movements such as the Rojava Revolution, along with critical epistemologies and methodologies, as well as the “decolonial turn” in academia, this new scholarship has challenged prevailing knowledge production on and power dynamics in KS. KGSN was born from within this context through the activism of Kurdish women scholars. Its inception goes beyond academic endeavours alone; it is a political practice of challenging dominant narratives and de-centring knowledge production on Kurdish women.

In what follows, we contextualize the establishment of KGSN and the growth of KGS within the larger theoretical framework of decolonial knowledge production and practices,6 particularly decolonial feminism.7 We first provide an overview of the development of KGS as an academic field. We highlight the increase of KGS scholarship by way of a brief quantitative analysis of academic publications in KS and KGS; this increase in knowledge production, as we argue, played an important role in the establishment of KGSN. In the second part, we discuss the formation of KGSN from its predecessor, the International Kurdish Women’s Studies Network (IKWSN) to its current form as the Kurdish Gender Studies Network. The network has emerged out of a need to create alternative spaces for knowledge exchange and intellectual solidarity among women and queer scholars of KS who are committed to challenge existing colonial power structures dominating conventional academic spaces. It is thus not coincidental that the recent women scholars’ critique of sexual harassment and misuse of power within KS played a pivotal role in the creation of KGSN. Both KGS and KGSN have emerged from and actively engaged in the politics of recognition and the struggle against oppression, marginalization, and silencing, significantly contributing to critical knowledge production in both academia and political activism.8

2 Decolonial Feminism and Kurdish Gender Studies

Decolonial theory seeks to challenge and deconstruct the dominant Eurocentric ways of thinking, knowing, and acting that have been historically imposed on non-Western societies. Decolonial knowledge production underscores the importance of contextualizing knowledge within its historical, social, and political milieus; it entails the cultivation of alternative epistemologies that challenge and dismantle the dominance of Western knowledge systems by prioritizing the voices and perspectives of marginalized and oppressed communities, particularly those who have been historically silenced by colonialism.9 Decolonial feminism, in turn, draws particular attention to the coloniality of gender; that is the interconnectedness of colonialism and patriarchy.10 It advocates for concrete actions that disrupt and transform oppressive patriarchal and colonial structures and foster spaces of collective resistance and solidarity among women from indigenous and other marginalized communities. As Walsh and Mignolo argue, exposing the relations among knowledge, social practices and societal action are crucial to decolonial practices. This means, we need to engage with

[the] central questions of the decolonial how and the decolonial for; that is, on the one hand, the question of how decoloniality is signified and constructed in and through praxis. Of interest here is how those who live the colonial difference think theory, theorize practice, and build, create, and enact concrete processes, struggles, and practices of resurgent and insurgent action and thought, including in the sphere of knowledge, territory-land, state, re-existence, and life itself. And, on the other hand, the question is how this praxis interrupts and cracks the modern/ colonial/ capitalist/ heteropatriarchal matrices of power, and advances other ways of thinking, knowing, theorizing, analyzing, feeling, acting, and living for us all—the otherwise that is the decolonial for.11

Knowledge production has been inherently intertwined with the broader context of anticolonial resistance and the political subjectivity of those who produce knowledge. This is particularly notable among the emerging scholars from Kurdistan and the surrounding region. A significant portion of these scholars have pursued education at esteemed institutions and have conducted some or all of their postgraduate studies at universities in the Global North in order to achieve “epistemic inclusion.”12 Despite being multilingual (in Kurdish, Turkish, Arabic, and/or Persian) and fluent in one or two European languages (primarily English, German, and French), many emerging scholars in KS face epistemic exclusion as migrants and women of colour.13

As Piller et al. argue, the dominance of English as the medium of knowledge communication is reflected not only in the publication of research content, but also in the formulation of theoretical frameworks and the application of methodological approaches that have created material underpinnings of epistemic inequalities.

English is not a neutral language that is equally open to everyone but that is racialized as a white language. As a result, research by women of color is less likely to be published in the first place and, if it is, it is less likely to be cited and to have impact. The barriers to participation in the “academic game” are even higher for scholars based in institutions of the Global South.14

While the opportunities to conduct research on Kurds for students and scholars from the region have remained relatively brief and constrained, there have been positive developments in Kurdistan and the surrounding region. These include the proliferation of Kurdish women’s organizations affiliated with the Kurdish Women’s Movement, the development of Jineology (Kurdish: jineolojî; science of woman and life) as a theoretical framework, the establishment of the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq in 1992, the constitutional reforms in Turkey from 1999 to mid-2010s,15 and the Rojava Revolution starting in 2012. These advances offered opportunities to activists and scholars in and from the region; a new wave of scholar-activists has emerged which have broadened and diversified the trajectory of Kurdish studies. What sets apart these emerging scholars (i.e. those from Kurdistan and the region) from the established diaspora Kurds and Western academics is lived experience. The emerging scholar-activists have experienced living and navigating the complexities of developing knowledge that challenges the “Eurocentric, male-dominated, and positivist nature of dominant strands in the fragmented social sciences” in their research and activism under authoritarian regimes.16 In contrast to scholars who may visit Kurdistan sporadically and observe developments from afar, these emerging scholars coming from Kurdistan or from a background in activism maintain substantial social, political, and academic connections with and in Kurdistan and the region. They arguably offer a distinctive perspective from the “field” to the debates in KS.17 A significant number of these scholars, however, face challenges in establishing institutional connections, from obtaining funding to locating suitable supervisors or mentors, and on to grappling with issues of residency, housing, and employment that are essential to sustaining their livelihood. For these scholars and other KS scholars from the diaspora who come from socially disadvantaged backgrounds, or have been partly educated in Kurdistan and the region, the coloniality of language and knowledge production further marginalizes them vis a vis established KS scholars and academics in the institutions of the Global North.18

Despite “serious, systemic obstacles to the creation and dissemination of knowledge”19 about Kurds in such colonial context, KS has been growing steadily and has established itself as a field on its own, with conferences, research centres, and academic journals devoted solely to Kurdish studies. KGS, while still in its infancy, has also been growing progressively. Nonetheless, unlike other area studies (such as Turkish, Iranian, and Arab studies), KS and KGS still remain marginal academic fields, with no institutional support of a nation state to expand and provide a secure career path for their scholars, particularly those in Kurdistan. This situation further limits funding opportunities for Kurdish scholars to maintain research institutions, academic programmes and centres, research clusters and hubs, as well as publication in academic journals. The 2013 establishment of the Kurdish Studies Network (KSN) sought to counter this marginalization; the network has since provided an important platform for exchange and support for KS scholars including scholars focusing on gender and sexuality.20 Carrying out research on Kurds has therefore never been solely an academic undertaking; it is also a political, thus a contentious activity. Kurdish studies and Kurdish gender studies have a strong footing in anticolonial struggles of Kurds, driven by movements and individuals critical of colonial practices of assimilation and the denial and oppression of Kurdish identity, culture, and political organizations.

3 The Emerging Field of Kurdish Gender Studies

For a long time, research on Kurdish gender issues and women was scarce in comparison to research on Kurds in general.21 The first sporadic studies on Kurds and Kurdistan were carried out by Western Orientalist scholars, diplomats, and travellers in the late nineteenth century. Russian “Kurdology” emerged with a primary focus on Kurdish culture, history, and linguistics.22 In the second half of the twentieth century, from the 1950s to the 1970s, exiled Kurdish students, activists, and intellectuals in Europe played a pivotal role in shaping the field of KS, whether through individual efforts in academic institutions or as part of the exiled Kurdish political organizations and movements.23 The rising anticolonial political movements in Kurdistan and beyond contributed to knowledge production through alternative venues such as workshops, teach-ins, reading groups, movement journals, and the studies of these movements. By the late twentieth century, these activities helped shifting the landscape of knowledge production in KS.

Research conducted outside of Kurdistan and the region, coupled with the growth of diaspora in Europe and North America, have played a crucial role in the development of KS. Since the 1980s, and particularly the 1990s, Kurdish diaspora have experienced significant geographical expansion and growth in numbers due to several bouts of the forced displacement of Kurds. Consequently, countries with large labour immigration from Turkey/Northern Kurdistan and refugee populations from all parts of Kurdistan such as Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Canada, the United States, and Australia have become hubs for KS research.24 Western and non-Kurdish scholars have also played an important role in advancing KS, especially during the times when conducting research and publishing on Kurds could lead to persecution and imprisonment.25

Systemic obstacles such as lack of funding and institutional support and the criminalization of the Kurdish issue and those who produce knowledge on the issue have impeded the creation and dissemination of knowledge about Kurdish women; obstacles that persist today, particularly in different parts of Kurdistan.26 For example, in Rojhilat (Eastern Kurdistan) and Iran, the opportunities for conducting research on Kurdish gender relations are very limited, except for the efforts of a few individual scholars who primarily publish in Persian, English, and French.27 It was not until the late 1990s that the first gender-focused academic events were held. This includes the workshop entitled “Kurdish Women’s Studies,”28 and the lecture series titled “Kurdistan; Gender Relations and Global Interaction Processes,”29 which took place at the Free University of Berlin in 1996. Following this, the first international conference on “Women, Violence and the Politics of Mobilizing Resistance: The Case of Kurdish Women” was held in Paris in 2002.30 Albeit limited, the events were also attended by Kurdish women activists and NGO s from Kurdistan and the region as well as from the diaspora. The culmination of these events was the publication of the first edited books on gender in Kurdistan.31 The majority of the articles on Kurdish women in these volumes, however, were authored by Western scholars,32 some by Kurdish male scholars,33 and only a few by Kurdish women34 or women from the region.35 While this does not diminish the value of their work, it underscores that Kurdish women themselves had limited agency in knowledge production until the turn of the twenty-first century.

The increase in the number of Kurdish women scholars has happened at the time when the Kurdish Women’s Movement has strengthened its network across the Middle East and Europe to advance its anticolonial, antipatriarchal, and anticapitalist agenda. Starting in the 2000s and gaining momentum from 2010 onwards, opportunities for research on Kurds expanded in Europe, North America, Kurdistan, and the surrounding region. In Northern Kurdistan/Turkey, a new cohort of KS scholars emerged focusing their research on gender and Kurds, while the Kurdish Women’s Movement was advancing the Jineology as a theoretical framework against the Eurocentric, male-dominated, and positivist understanding of knowledge production.36 Some of these researchers were able to pursue postgraduate studies and postdoctoral opportunities in universities in the Global North.37 In the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, three gender studies centres have since been established. In 2011, in close collaboration with the University of Bristol, the Gender and Violence Study Centre was established at the University of Sulaimani. The centre was co-funded by the British Council and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KGR).38 In 2015, two other centres were born: Choman Hardi established the Centre for Gender and Development Studies (CGDS) with a focus on teaching, research, and community development at the American University of Iraq-Sulaimani (AUIS). In 2017, CGDS introduced the first minor program in gender studies in Iraq that at the time of writing still remains the only academic minor program on gender in the country.39 The other centre, the Kurdistan Centre for Gender Studies was established at Soran University in Erbil Governorate. The centre was born out of the joint effort of the KRG High Council for Women’s Affairs, the Ministry of Planning, and Soran University; it was co-funded by the United Nations (UN) Women and Development Programme (UNDP). Farangis Ghaderi, one of the coauthors of this article, served as the Centre’s first director and observed how a mixture of bureaucratic challenges, power dynamics between partners, and conflicts between the Centre and the High Council for Women’s Affairs posed serious obstacles to this initiative. Despite these promising initial developments, funding to sustain these centres dwindled, partly due to the 2015 expansion of Daesh (ISIS) in Iraq, the ensuing humanitarian crisis, and the decrease in oil prices.

In 2017, the University of Rojava established the Jineology Department in the Faculty of Jineology, Social Sciences, and Literature in Rojava (Western Kurdistan/Northeastern Syria). The Jineology Department offers a bachelor programme in Jineology; its faculty offers courses on various subjects including “history, philosophy, ecology, the role of women in religion and beliefs, sociology of freedom, ethics, aesthetics, research methods, methods to collect data, and pedagogy. The most important course is the theory of equality and liberation of women. This course is both a theoretical and practical course.”40 Jineology emerges from the decolonial contributions of Kurdish women to knowledge production and is multi-faceted: “Jineology is often described as being many things at once, a worldview, a form of knowledge production, a set of methods for interpretation, a struggle for meaning, giving, and an organizational effort.”41 The University of Rojava Jineology Department has indeed become the first academic institution at which scholars and activists discuss and study these aspects of Jineology. Besides translating key sociological texts from critical race theorists, anticolonial, and decolonial scholars into Kurdish-Kurmanji, the university has also offered online summer schools and seminars in collaboration with scholars at universities in the Global North and from outside of Rojava. Despite limited resources and the precarious situation of the Rojava administration, the university is currently working on building capacity. The impact of these efforts on KGS is likely to become more evident in the near future.

In the diaspora, the establishment of KS centres in Europe and North America has significantly enriched the scholarship on Kurds and Kurdish women. These include the 2006 establishment of the Centre for Kurdish Studies at the University of Exeter (UK), as well as the establishment of the Kurdish studies section at Jagiellonian University (Poland) and the Kurdish Political Studies Program (KPSP) at the University of Central Florida (US) in 2008. In 2021, the University of Toronto offered an undergraduate course entitled, Kurdish Women: History, Resistance, and Popular Culture. Additionally, in September 2023, the University of Toronto launched the Near and Middle East Civilizations (NMC) Kurdish Studies Initiative. Alongside these centres and programs, international Kurdish studies conferences have increasingly featured presentations and panels on gender. There were few presentations on gender at the first and second international Kurdish studies conferences organized by the University of Exeter’s Centre for Kurdish Studies in 2009 and 2012.42 This situation gradually changed by the late 2010s. In 2019, the third international Kurdish studies conference (Middlesex University London) included one panel on gender, while the 2023 international Kurdish studies conference at the London School of Economics (LSE) had five panels dedicated to gender.43 The 2023 LSE conference also demonstrated progress in terms of gender balance in the overall programme; half of the total 107 paper presentations were presented by women scholars and post-graduate students.

4 The Increasing Volume of Publications in Kurdish Studies and Kurdish Gender Studies

The increase of women and queer scholars and the growth of Kurdish gender studies go hand in hand with the increase in academic knowledge production in both KS and KGS. Publication of research findings, theories, and methodologies are a key cornerstone of academic work. The volume, quality, and impact of publications are indicators of the vitality and advancement of an academic discipline; they serve as a historical record of the development and evolution of a discipline. To assess the development of KGS in relation to KS, we examined academic publications on the topics in two leading academic databases, namely, Scopus and Web of Science (WoS). It is important to highlight that these large databases do not give us a comprehensive picture of publications in KS and KGS. Both databases primarily index publications from the Global North and in European languages, with English being the dominant language. This means neither sets of databases fully capture knowledge production in Kurdish language and by academics and scholars who “are positioned at the wrong side of the global epistemic line.”44 This is reminiscent of

the continued Euro-American domination in the content of science [that] is regulated by an inside/outside binary which reproduces the old North/South and West/East hierarchies. Global science is characterized by homogenous knowledge cultures and inequality in which Anglo-American language, institutions, disciplinary and publication regimes, agendas and topics are setting the agenda and standards upon which all are measured.45

Keeping these limitations in mind, we believe an analysis of the largest databases can still give us a good indication of the trajectory of KS and KGS. We searched both WoS and Scopus databases for publications (journal articles, review articles, book chapters, and book reviews) in social sciences, arts, and humanities with keywords in the title and abstract relevant for KS and KGS.46 Table 1 below provides a summary of the search results for both databases. As we see, Scopus has a much wider coverage of KS (5,961) and KGS (830) publications compared to WoS (2,440 and 362 respectively).47 Scopus also covers a longer period of time, with indexing the first relevant KS publications in 1834 and KGS publication in 1987. WoS covers a more contemporary time with the first publications going back to 1971 and 1994 for KS and KGS respectively.

Table 1

Summary of type and number of publications in WoS and Scopus

Kurdish studies

Kurdish gender studies

WoS

Scopus

WoS

Scopus

Total publications:

2,440

5,961

362

830

Documents

Article

1,769

2,861

335

371

Book

0

191

0

37

Book chapter

0

771

0

82

Book review

470

0

13

0

Date of coverage

1971–2023

1834–2023

1994–2023

1987–2023

Source: Scopus and Web of Science databases, retrieved 31 October 2023

One clear advantage of WoS over Scopus is that WoS categorizes the publication in broad disciplines. Figure 1 shows the percentage of KS and KGS publications across various disciplines in WoS, from public health to social sciences, women’s studies, history, and area studies. The graph only includes the top ten disciplines for both fields, and for illustration purposes, we merged together some disciplines such as sociology, anthropology, and ethnic studies.

As Figure 1 illustrates, in KGS, the majority of publications fall under public environmental occupational health (PEOH)48 (18.5 percent), followed by women’s studies (15.8 percent) and political science/international relations (14 percent).49 In KS, area studies50 account for the most common field of publications (30 percent compared to eight percent of KGS publications). The second most common fields of publications for KS includes sociology, anthropology, and ethnic studies (26.7 percent).51 The proportion of publications for political science and international relations is similar (14 percent) for both KS and KGS.52

To have a comparative image of the timeline of publications in KS and KGS that are indexed in Scopus and WoS, we broke down all the relevant texts based on their year of publication. For illustrative clarity, we grouped publication years into broad categories until 1979, and after that, into five-year intervals.

d24997911e1262

Figure 1

Proportion of publications in KS and KGS in WoS disciplinary categories

Citation: Kurdish Studies Journal 1, 1-2 (2023) ; 10.1163/29502292-00101012

Web of Science database, retrieved 31-10-2023

As we see in Figure 2, in both databases, publications in KS have a much longer history, spanning nearly two centuries, whereas publications related to KGS began in the mid-1990s. We see a steady increase in the number of publications in KS from 2000 to 2020, after which, there is a slight dip in publication. The numbers still remain relatively high compared to numbers for KGS. As mentioned earlier and evident in the graph, KGS publications commenced in the late twentieth century, with a gradual increase in the early 2000s, and gaining momentum from 2010 onwards, accompanied by another notable boost in numbers since 2018.

These findings suggest a wide array of journals and disciplines have been publishing various scholarly texts in areas relevant to both KS and KGS. The presented data does not necessarily imply all authors are classified as KS scholars, however. We need a more detailed qualitative analysis of these publications to assess their methodological and theoretical contributions to KS and KGS. Overall, the quantitative analysis presented here shows that KS has experienced significant growth since 2010, solidifying its status as an independent field. This is also evident in the proliferation of academic journals, conferences, research centres, and dedicated MA programmes in KS, as discussed above. While KGS is still in its early stages, the increasing number of publications and the establishment of the Kurdish Gender Studies Network suggest a steady expansion of this field.

d24997911e1317

Figure 2

Number of KS and KGS publications in Scopus and WoS from 1843–2023

Citation: Kurdish Studies Journal 1, 1-2 (2023) ; 10.1163/29502292-00101012

Scopus and Web of Science databases, retrieved 31-10-2023

5 The Genesis of the Kurdish Gender Studies Network

As mentioned earlier, the establishment of the KGSN mirrors the burgeoning interest of KS scholars in gender studies and the rising presence of women and queer scholars in KS. Several other factors also contributed to the formation, or rather, reconstitution of the KGSN in October 2020. These include the escalating influence of the Kurdish Women’s Movement creating alternative spaces for knowledge production through activism, the formation of the International Kurdish Women’s Studies Network (IKWSN) in the late 1990s, and the interventions by an anonymous group of women addressing sexual harassment in KS in 2020.

The IKWSN was born out of the proliferation of collective academic activities around the Kurdish issue in the late 1990s. Following the 1997 workshop and lecture series on Kurdish women at the Free University of Berlin, Shahrzad Mojab (University of Toronto) and a group of junior scholars and activists initiated IKWSN in the same year.53 Its foundation was “a response to a growing need for opening a space for Kurdish women in international debates on women’s rights, women’s studies, and promoting gender justice among the Kurdish communities in the diaspora and the Middle East.”54 The primary objective of IKWSN was to serve as “a forum for exchange of experience and knowledge among those who are interested in and work for improving the lives of Kurdish women.”55

The network was set up in the early stages of KGS, at the time when conditions for doing research in Kurdistan were almost non-existent. Most of the research on women in Kurdistan or on Kurdish women in the diaspora was conducted by postgraduate students and scholars in the Global North, only a few of whom were from the region.56 The network also included women activists outside of academia, some of them were based in Kurdistan and the broader region, such as those who published the first feminist Kurdish journals Roza and Jujin,57 while others were based in the diaspora. Members based in Europe and North America predominantly conducted IKWSN’s activities. They had the advantage of being proficient in English, having academic affiliations, and the means to attend networking gatherings held in Berlin, Paris, and London, and other international events between 1996 and 2002.58 This situation created a power disparity that resulted in vocational and locational divisions and tensions between “academics” and “activists,” as well as between those situated in Europe and North America and those in Kurdistan and the region. This gave rise to impassioned debates on positionality and representation, and while there were occasional exchanges and collaborations among a few network members, the network activities gradually waned by 2008. As the IKWSN ceased to exist, the Kurdish Studies Network (KSN) provided an important forum for women and queer people within KS to stay connected.

6 Decolonial Feminist Intervention

The International Kurdish Women’s Studies Network (IKWSN) was born out of the need to address gender-based discrimination and to make visible the work of and on Kurdish women. Almost three decades later, in 2020, gender-based discriminatory practices among scholars in KS became a catalyst for reconstituting the defunct network. Power abuse and sexual harassment in academia are a continuation of the broader structural and societal gendered inequalities.59 The state violence against women in the colonial contexts throughout the four parts of Kurdistan cannot be separated from the concerns of sexual harassment in academic spaces. In fact, some of the scholars from Kurdistan who experienced state violence due to their anticolonial struggles have also been navigating the challenges posed by sexual harassment and power dynamics in academia and particularly in KS.

On 26 July 2020, on behalf of an anonymous group of women scholars within KS, Shahrzad Mojab circulated a statement60 on the Kurdish Studies Network (KSN) listserv. Mojab pointed out that some of the “egregious cases” discussed by this group of Kurdish women scholars had been known within a small circle for years but remained a “hushed” matter.61 The statement pointed out that survivors of sexual harassment who speak out are often re-victimized. This occurs through the invalidation of their testimony as slander and the distortion of the boundaries of consent and coercion. They face being shunned for being victims of abuse and risk losing the support of their academic colleagues. Moreover, abusers may launch a counter-attack and seek support, often successfully, from senior members, both women and men, within their department or faculty. This serves to legitimize the sexual violence experienced by women scholars.

Despite calls to “name and shame,” the group remains anonymous and rejects involvement in the “individualizing logics of the complaint process”62 as described by feminist scholar Sarah Ahmed arguing that this is not merely an individual conflict or dispute between equal partners but a systemic problem that requires a collective approach. The statement circulated on behalf of the anonymous women scholars condemned “any form of male violence and sexual harassment” and called on academics in KS to stand in solidarity with victims of sexual harassment.63 The discussion on the KSN email listserv called for concrete actions and led to the accumulation of ideas among women scholars on how to build solidarity and strengthen their position within KS.64 This involved reconstituting the Kurdish Gender Studies Network (KGSN),65 hosting seminars and webinars on gender relations in all areas of KS, and strengthening the position of young women scholars in KS through mentoring, providing support for publication, recruiting women as editors and reviewers, and inviting them to chair and discuss papers at conferences and events. These suggestions were deliberated upon at the inaugural online forum on 9 October 2020 that officially marked the formation of the Kurdish Gender Studies Network.66

In 2023, at the LSE Kurdish Studies Conference, a group of women scholars affiliated with KGSN distributed a statement titled “Êdî bese! Endi beso! Enough is enough!” among conference participants (Figure 3). They urged presenters and chairs to stand in solidarity with the ongoing discussions on sexual harassment in KS.

The statement asserted that sexual harassment is intertwined with power abuse, creating a hostile and toxic environment in KS. This, the authors argued, constitutes a barrier to the professional growth for many young colleagues.

Lasting colonial legacies have marginalized Kurdish studies as a discipline and have shaped power dynamics and structures in the field, thereby enabling power abuse, sexual misconduct, exclusion, and silencing. This makes it more difficult to speak out, seek support or file formal complaints. Many of our colleagues have been forced to endure untenable situations while the perpetrators have been able to establish academic careers and gather credentials without being held accountable.

Sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, invading someone’s personal space, or sexually directed remarks, gendered belittlements and other forms of sexism in academic spaces are serious violations of our profession. We demand that all academics working in the field of Kurdish studies stand against any form of power abuse and sexual harassment and challenge the culture of complicity and complacency around this.67

These interventions have encouraged more women to come forward and share their experiences informally with members of KGSN. At the time of writing in fall 2023, KGSN is holding a reading group on sexual harassment and power abuse aiming to keep the discussions going and build a community that takes a stand against sexual harassment and power abuse in KS.

d24997911e1503

Figure 3

Êdî bese! Call for Action poster

Citation: Kurdish Studies Journal 1, 1-2 (2023) ; 10.1163/29502292-00101012

Poster design by Wendy Hamelink

Since 2020, the network has organized monthly events, including lectures, seminars, presentations, panels, workshops and reading groups on various topics related to Kurdish gender and sexuality studies.68 These online activities have created opportunities for Kurdish gender studies scholars to create an epistemic community and forge solidarities in a field in which scholars have been marginalized not only in KS but also vis-a-vis other academic fields and areas studies. The goal is to make visible the work of KGS scholars and build solidarity among women and queer people in KS.

KGSN has also organized events in Kurdish languages to counter the marginalization of artists and writers who lack access to the global language of English. As Trahar et al. have aptly pointed out, “academics are urged, even bullied, to publish in English-language journals that are mainly North American or British in origin.”69 The prevalence of English as the language of science and academic writing has further marginalized Kurdish as a minority language.70 Kurdish academics, activists, and artists often find themselves excluded from research events due to their limited proficiency in English. For some Kurdish women poets, writers, and activists, the Kurdish language holds special significance as a means of expressing their experiences as women; a fact that regrettably remains overlooked in both KS and KGS. Kurdish women are actively involved in the revitalization of the Kurdish language and the production of indigenous knowledge.71 The KGSN Kurdish language events have challenged the absence and marginalized status of Kurdish and promoted its use as a language of academic discourse. For example, the KGSN series, Meet the Author aims at challenging the invisibility and silenced voices of Kurdish women in both academic and cultural spheres, highlighting the diversity of Kurdish women’s intellectual oeuvre and their languages. The invited authors include both literary and academic personalities with no institutional affiliations, which is particularly significant in the context of knowledge production dominated by European languages and by publishers and research institutions in the Global North as discussed earlier.

The Method Café and Work-In-Progress workshops are other examples of addressing the needs of students and early career researchers. Both online spaces aim to tackle epistemological and methodological challenges in research on Kurdistan. In these workshops, participants delve into topics such as decolonizing knowledge, activist scholarship, the political implications of research, critical assessments of insider-outsider dynamics in research, and the overarching ethical considerations linked to knowledge creation.72 The workshops offer a crucial opportunity for participants to openly present and discuss their research and provide an important space for mentoring, without the constant need for external validation, particularly in the broader academic sphere in which power imbalances and intellectual exploitation persist.73

The reading groups aim at enhancing participants’ understanding and knowledge of methodological and theoretical approaches on topics important to Kurdish gender studies. The first reading group, which ran on a monthly basis parallel to the KGSN lectures and seminars in 2021–2022, was on decolonial methodologies and approaches. The selected readings helped participants (including the authors) to delve deeper into the realms of indigenous feminism and decolonial feminism, and helped them identify not only the shared forms of oppressions that Kurdish and indigenous women have historically endured, but also the forms of resilience and resistance they have practiced in their struggles against colonization, discrimination, and erasure in different geographies and temporalities. These movements and their narratives of social transformation often receive limited attention and remain on the periphery of dominant academic debates. Critical concepts, such as “coloniality” are at times decontextualized, losing much of their political significance.74 A major goal of the reading group is to motivate participants to integrate these debates and discussions emerging from praxis and theories in various parts of Kurdistan and beyond into their academic pursuits.

The opportunity for online epistemic-community building has transformed the ways scholars in the diaspora and in Kurdistan collaborate; it has fostered a more dynamic, inclusive, and globally connected academic landscape. In providing a space for collective thinking and knowledge production, KGSN bears the possibility to facilitate many more collaborations among activists and scholars of diverse backgrounds in Kurdish gender studies.

7 Conclusion

The Kurdish Gender Studies Network (KGSN) marked its debut in 2020 in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic by virtually bringing together the activists and scholars who contribute to the production of knowledge in Kurdish gender and sexuality studies. As discussed in this article, the formation and revival of KGSN have been driven by a commitment to address gender-based discrimination in KS and efforts to establish a platform for activists and scholars who work on Kurdish gender and sexuality studies and are committed to build a community of support through various forms of knowledge exchange. This article provided an introduction to and analysis of the trajectory of the network, touching upon the landscape of Kurdish gender studies, the state of knowledge production in colonial contexts, and the struggle to decolonize feminist knowledge production that has long been dominated by Western-centric epistemologies and methodologies. It demonstrated how Kurdish gender studies and KGSN have emerged from and actively engaged in the politics of recognition and the struggles against oppression, marginalization, and silencing. By critically engaging with and challenging the nationalist, racist, and colonial foundations of prevalent feminist paradigms through its activities, KGSN offers an alternative space for perspectives that have historically been marginalized and racialized in the global feminist discourse. Moving forward, we believe that KGSN, backed by its founding principles and the strength of its members who refuse to be silent and are committed to “talk back”75 to all forms of power, will play a pivotal role in shaping the future of KGS and the broader field of KS.

1

In September 2021, the Kurdish Studies Network and the KGSN’s email listserv circulated these revised aims and objectives of the KGSN.

2

Ojeda et al. “Feminist ecologies.”

3

We recognize that our observations of KGSN as well as KS and KGS as a “field” remain partial and do not fully represent the views of all the members of the network.

4

Matin, “Liminal lineages of the ‘Kurdish question’.”

5

See Scalbert-Yücel and Le Ray, “Knowledge, ideology and power: Deconstructing Kurdish studies”; Eccarius-Kelly, “Kurdish studies in Europe”; Gunter, “Kurdish studies in the United States”; van Bruinessen, “Kurdish studies in western and central Europe.”

6

Mignolo and Walsh, On Decoloniality; Smith, Decolonial Methodologies.

7

Lugones, “Towards a decolonial feminism.”

8

Kubota, “Confronting epistemological racism, decolonizing scholarly knowledge.”

9

Mignolo, “The darker side of western modernity”; Quijano, “Coloniality and modernity/rationality.”

10

Lugones, “Towards a decolonial feminism.”

11

Mignolo and Walsh, On Decoloniality, 9–10.

12

Piller et al. “Peripheral multilingual scholars confronting epistemic exclusion in global academic knowledge production,” 643.

13

Kubota, “Confronting epistemological racism, decolonizing scholarly knowledge.”

14

Piller et al. “Peripheral multilingual scholars,” 642.

15

Starting from 1999, Turkey introduced a series of reforms including the abolition of the death penalty, enhancements to freedom of expression and minority rights, and the lifting of emergency rule (declared more than a decade ago) in Kurdish cities (Bakur/Northern Kurdistan). The European Union accession process and Turkey’s orientation toward the West also necessitated Turkey’s further commitment to integration into the international community. This denoted the ratification of international conventions, offering some opportunities to Kurdish activists and scholars to further mobilize, conduct research, and advance knowledge production in KS.

16

Dirik, The Kurdish Women’s Movement.

17

See “Jineoloji: A science of woman and life” in Dirik, The Kurdish Women’s Movement; Işık et al., Kürtler ve Cumhuriyet, which is an edited book with a collection of 100 short contributions from mostly Kurdish scholars to mark the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Turkish Republic.

18

The first wave of Kurdish labour migrants (and subsequent family reunifications) to Western Europe took place between the 1960s and 1980s. In the 1990s, there were large waves of Kurdish refugees to the UK and other parts of Europe; these refugees were predominantly from rural areas or socio-economically deprived areas in Turkish metropoles and in Iraq/KRI. Their marginalisation has persisted in the diaspora. See Ammann, “Kurds in Germany”; Kenny, “Stateless in school: The ‘discomfort’ of Kurdish asylum seekers.”

19

Mojab, “The state of knowledge about Kurdish women,” 14.

20

See Schäfers, “Establishing a journal, shaping a field”.

21

Mojab and Hassanpour, Women of Kurdistan.

22

Scalbert-Yücel and Le Ray, “Knowledge, ideology and power”.

23

Ibid. and van Bruinessen, “Kurdish studies in western and central Europe”.

24

See Dağli, Kurdolojî.

25

See van Bruinessen, “Ismail Beşikçi”.

26

Mojab, “The state of knowledge about Kurdish women,” 16–17.

27

Karimi, Genre et Militantisme au Kurdistan d’Iran; Ghaderi and Göner, “Why ‘Jîna’ ”; Rostampour, “Towlid-i danesh-i femenisti dar jonub-i jahani wa Iran.”

28

The workshop was convened by Shahrzad Mojab and Martin van Bruinessen in 1997.

29

The lecture series was organized by the Free University of Berlin’s students’ union AStA and its Kurdistan Working Group (Kurdistan AG) which later become the European Center for Kurdish Studies-Berlin Society for the Advancements of Kurdish Studies. See their website for the history of events and publications: https://ezks.org/events/.

30

The conference was organized by the Kurdish Institute of Paris, the Kurdish Women Action Against Honour Killing (Nazand Begikhani), and the International Kurdish Women’s Studies Network (Shahrzad Mojab). References to the conference and the presentations can be found in Mojab and Hassanpour, Women of Kurdistan, 76.

31

Savelsberg, Hajo, and Borck, Kurdische Frauen und das Bild der kurdischen Frau; Mojab, Women of a Non-State Nation; Hajo, Borck, Savelsberg, and Dogan, Gender in Kurdistan und der Diaspora.

32

Ibid. See Fischer-Tahir, “Nationalismus und Frauenbewegung in Irakisch Kurdistan”; Wedel “Frauenbewegung und Nationalbewegung”; Allison, “Folklore and fantasy.”

33

See Alakom, Di Folklora Kurdi de Serdestiyeke Jinan; van Bruinessen, “From Adela Khanum to Leyla Zana”; Hassanpour “The (re)production of patriarchy in the Kurdish language.”

34

Begikhani, “Das Bild der kurdischen Frau”; Acik, “Nationaler Kampf, Frauenmythos und Frauenmobilisierung”; Acik, “Die Kurdische Frauenbewegung in der Türkei”; Monch-Bucak, “Kurdistan: Als Kolonie verkauft und verraten”; Hardi, “Women’s activism in Iraqi Kurdistan.”

35

Yalçın-Heckmann, Tribe and Kinship Among the Kurds.

36

See Çaglayan, Women in the Kurdish Movement; Bozgan, “Kürt kadın hareketi üzerine bir değerlendirme”; Taşdemir, The Awakening of Kurdish Women; Yüksel, Diversifying Feminism in Turkey; Belcim Galip, “Move over? Feminist reading of academic writing on Kurdish women”; Topal, Women Fighters in the Kurdish National Movement; and Dirik, The Kurdish Women’s Movement.

37

See Goner, Turkish National Identity and its Outsiders; Isik, “Claiming the bodies of Kurdish women”; Sarikaya, Between Silence and Resistance.

38

Begikhani, “Kurds develop gender studies to face fundamentalism.”

39

Rose and Hardi, “With education you can face every struggle.”

40

The Jineology Department at the University of Rojava is part of the broader Jineology centres linked to the Kurdish Women’s Movement. The word Jineoloji was first coined in 2008 by Abdullah Öcalan in his book of Sociology of Freedom where he suggested that the Kurdish Women’s Movement develop a radical framework in the knowledge production. Since 2009, following extensive internal discussions, the movement set up various Jineology academies and research centres outside of academia to engage in research and alternative knowledge production on gender relations in Kurdistan, both historically as well as contemporary. Since 2016, the movement has also been publishing the journal Jineoloji in several languages and holding international conferences. For more information see their official webpage at https://jineoloji.eu/en/.

41

Dirik, The Kurdish Women’s Movement, 77.

42

See University of Exeter, “Inaugural Kurdish Conference,” Second International Conference on Kurdish Studies.

43

See Keles, “3rd international Kurdish studies conference programme,” https://www.facebook.com/groups/janroj/posts/10157276293408245/; and LSE Middle East Centre, “Programme: Kurdish studies conference,” https://www.lse.ac.uk/middle-east-centre/assets/documents/Kurdish-Studies-Conference-Programme.pdf.

44

Walker and Martinez-Vargas, “Epistemic governance and the colonial epistemic structure,” 558.

45

Lund, Blackmore and Rowlands, “Epistemic governance,” 536.

46

To select publications in KS, we used the search terms “Kurd*” and “Rojava,” and excluded KGS publications using the keywords “wom*,” “femi*,” and “gender” in a separate search. We used the asterisks sign (*) for truncation in order to capture variations of these words such as Kurdish, Kurds, Kurdistan, or woman, women, feminism, feminist.

47

This is because besides the range and coverage of journals, Scopus also indexes books and book chapters.

48

Includes journals such as BMC Women’s Health, BMC Public Health, Iranian Journal of Public Health, Scandinavian Journal of Public Health.

49

Includes journals such as Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies, Women’s Studies International Forum, European Journal of Women’s Studies, International Feminist Journal of Politics.

50

Includes journals such as Kurdish Studies Journal, Middle Eastern Journal, Turkish Studies, Iran and the Caucasus.

51

Includes journals such as Ethnic and Racial Studies, International Journal of Intercultural Relations, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Nations and Nationalism, Ethnicities.

52

Including journals such as Middle East Affairs, Int. Affairs, Nations & Nationalism, Terrorism and Political Violence.

53

Mojab, “The struggle for a Kurdish Women Studies Network.” Necla Acik, one of the co-authors of this article, was also part of the network from the beginning. This section is based on her personal reflections on IKWSN, unless stated otherwise.

54

Schäfers, “An interview with Prof. Shahrzad Mojab,” 101.

55

IKWSN pamphlet printed in Mojab and Hassanpour, Women of Kurdistan, 184.

56

See for example the first edited books on gender in Kurdistan i.e. Mojab, Women of a Non-State Nation; Savelsberg et al., Kurdische Frauen; Hajo et al., Gender in Kurdistan und der Diaspora.

57

For an analysis of the Kurdish women’s journals see Acik, “Re-defining the role of women.”

58

Mojab, “Educational voyaging in a globalizing planet.”

59

Ahmed, Complaint!.

60

The statement was also published in Jaddaliyya, “Statement on Male Violence and Sexual Harassment in Kurdish Studies” and in Kurdish on the Kurdish site of the online news outlet Özgür Politika, however, it is no longer available online.

61

Schäfers, “An interview with Prof. Shahrzad Mojab,” 108.

62

Ahmed, Complaint!, 266.

63

Statement on “Male violence and sexual harassment in Kurdish studies,” dated 26 July 2020.

64

Statement circulated “Male violence and sexual harassment in Kurdish studies: Proposed plan of actions” circulated on KSN listserv on 10/08/2020 by Shahrzad Mojab.

65

In 2020 when the network was first re-constituted, it operated under the name Kurdish Women’s Studies Network to show continuity with its predecessor, the International Kurdish Women’s Studies Network. A year later, the network’s aims and objectives were re-evaluated and its name was changed to Kurdish Gender Studies Network to make it more inclusive of all genders.

66

The call for this online forum was sent out on 25 September 2020 via the KSN listserv with the heading “Open forum organized by Kurdish Women’s Studies Network (Oct 9).”

67

Excerpts from the statement “Êdî bese! Endi beso! Enough is enough!” April 2023.

68

Except for the third year where events were held sporadic as the steering committee reflected on past and future directions of the KGSN.

69

Trahar et al., “Hovering on the periphery?” 149.

70

Hassanpour, “Pêşekî: Cîhanî govargerî” 10–15.

71

Bocheńska and Ghaderi, “ ‘Gan qey bedenî yeno çi mana’ (What the soul means for the body)”.

72

Cox, “Scholarship activism: A social movements perspective”; Smith, Decolonizing Methodologies.

73

Pillow, “Epistemic witnessing.”

74

Tuck and Yang, “Decolonization is not a metaphor.”

75

hooks, “Talking back: Thinking feminist, thinking black,” 9.

Acknowledgements

We extend our heartfelt gratitude to our open peer reviewers, Umut Erel and Handan Çağlayan, for their invaluable contributions in shaping and refining the content of this article. Special thanks are reserved for Dilan Bozgan and Damla E.  for their insightful feedback on earlier drafts. Additionally, we recognize the pivotal role played by our editor, Parastou Saberi, and the editor of this issue, Marlene Schäfers, in guiding us toward the enhanced final outcome through their constructive comments and suggestions.

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