Description
Book SynopsisDespite international focus on Kurdish women revolutionaries, little is known about who these women are, where they came from and what keeps them engaged in this costly fight. This book traces the history, ideology, and everyday practices of women in the political, activist and armed branches of the Kurdish Freedom Movement.
Trade Review'The highly original ethnography and bold ethnography of Isabel Käser sheds new light on the evolution of the Kurdish conflict and allows us to understand the complexity of gender-based emancipatory projects emerging in a Near East under fire.' Hamit Bozarslan, EHESS, Paris
'This splendid book takes seriously the Kurdish militant women in all their ever-evolving complexity, grappling with multiple conundrums. Isabel Käser's work shows us that being a grittily engaged feminist ethnographer does not make it necessary - either intellectually or politically - to resolve these tensions. Rather, what she asks of us is to develop our capacities to resist simplistic resolutions and, instead, stay attentive to the gendered dynamics that shape the lives of the women on the insurgent frontlines.' Cynthia Enloe, Clark University
'Isabel Käser has created a real masterpiece with this book … It is the first publication of its kind: a detailed, critical analysis in solidarity of the feminism and women's movement within the PKK and the parts of the Kurdish Movement close to it.' Wiener Jahrbuch für Kurdishe Studien
'[The book] is highly recommended for those interested in the women's movement in Kurdistan, but also for those more interested in the way women's subjectivities are produced and embodied within revolutionary movements.' Joost Jongerden, International Review of Social History
Table of ContentsIntroduction; 1. The PKK – a woman's party? A history of the Kurdistan women's freedom movement 1978–2020; 2. Diyarbakir under fire: women at the barricades; 3. The mountain life: on learning to become free; 4. Mothers and martyrs: the struggle for life and the commemoration of death in Maxmûr camp; 5. Unmaking and remaking sexuality: body politics and the PKK; Conclusion.
