Women of Kurdistan: A Historical and Bibliographic Study documents a century long history of Kurdish women’s struggles against oppressive gender relations and state violence. It speaks to bibliographic silences on Kurdish women; silences that are systemic and structured, with many factors contributing to their (re)production. The book records extensive literature on violence perpetrated by the family, community, and the state as well as presenting the reader with a vibrant archive of resistance and struggle of Kurdish women. The analysis avoids the fashionable state-centered scholarship, which purifies processes of nation-building, state-building, and disguises their violence. The image depicted of the women of Kurdistan in this bibliography is shaped also by the languages we have chosen: English, French, and German. It is a record of material in languages that are not spoken by the majority of the Kurds. It will, therefore, be different from a bibliography of works in the Kurdish language, which have a majority of Kurdish authors, with more entries on topics such as poetry, fiction, education, and arts. "Love and learning made the making of this bibliography imaginable. It began more than 20 years ago when Amir was expanding his theoretical ground for class analysis of nationalism and peasant movement in the Kurdish region of Mukriyan (Hassanpour, 2021). Simultaneously, I was engaged with debates on Marxist feminism and transnational feminism while grappling with post-al tendencies in feminism such as post-colonialism, post-structuralism, and post-modernism. We wanted to better understand the explanatory power and political implications of Marx’s dialectical historical materialism in explicating the intersecting and refracting relations of gender, class, race, culture, nation, and nationalism. This commitment, nonetheless, did not remain in the realm of epistemology as a disembodied intellectual exercise. As a member of a dominant nation–a Shirazi born Iranian–I wanted to critically confront this national “identity” and the sense of “belonging.” Amir sought to scrutinize patriarchal structures and gender relations in Kurdish history, society, culture, and nation. This intertwined mind and heart desire put us onto a path of renewed discoveries of our personal and intellectual relations. In a nutshell, this was the beginning of the making of Women of Kurdistan: A Historical and Bibliographic Study." Women of Kurdistan provides a meticulously researched source book for readers interested in women, gender, and sexuality in Kurdistan and the Middle East. It covers a wealth of bibliographic material, including both scholarly and non-academic publications, many of which have not previously been accessible to broader audiences. But Women of Kurdistan is more than a source of information. It is also an eloquent reflection on the entanglement of knowledge production and political power, and a call to recognize scholarship’s potential in shaping historical change. Above all, it is a passionate statement about the impossibility to comprehend the intersection of colonial, capitalist, and nationalist forces without attention to women’s lives and struggles. - Marlene Schäfers, British Academy Newton International Fellow, University of Cambridge. Women of Kurdistan is simply an excellent template for how to chronicle women’s resistance politics. By framing the Kurdish women’s struggles within a historical materialism under different modes of production and discussing the political influence of five different nations on the Kurdish peoples, the authors offer a rich context that surpasses the common fetishization of women’s armed resistance. Internationally known for their Marxist and feminist works, Mojab and Hassanpour apply theories of nationalism, capitalism, peasantry, knowledge production, and relationship between state and non-state to understand the Kurdish experience, while honouring the struggle, voice, and poetry of Kurdish women activists. The book is as unapologetically critical of regional and religious hegemonies as it is of Kurdish patriarchies and is candid about the slipperiness of the concept of the “ideal Kurdish woman,” while skeptical of the benefits of transnationalization for the women honoured in this book. - Afiya Zia, author of Faith and Feminism: Religious Agency or Secular Autonomy? CONTENTS PART I. THE MAKING OF THE BIBLIOGRAPHY THE STATE OF KNOWLEDGE ABOUT KURDISH WOMEN WOMEN OF KURDISTAN PART II. WOMEN OF KURDISTAN: A BIBLIOGRAPHIC STUDY GENERAL WORKS ARTS AND CULTURE CUSTOMS AND BELIEFS DISPLACEMENT, REFUGEES, AND MIGRATION EDUCATION ETHNIC FORMATIONS FEMINIST AND WOMEN’S MOVEMENTS GENDER RELATIONS GENOCIDE, GENDERCIDE, WAR CRIMES, AND CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY GEOGRAPHY HEALTH AND MEDICINE HISTORY LANGUAGE LAW LITERATURE POLITICS RELIGION SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC ORGANIZATION WAR AND PEACE APPENDIX INDEX

This book offers the first historical account of Kurdish women’s politicization in Turkey, starting from the mid-1980s. Çağlayan presents a critical feminist analysis through women’s everyday experiences, incorporating women’s self-narrations with her own autoethnographic reflections. The author provides an account of the socio-political dynamics which constrained women’s politicization, of the factors and mechanisms which enabled their political activism, and of the construction of women’s political history through their own narrations. Women in the Kurdish Movement is a highly original contribution to Kurdish women’s political history. It will be key reading for students and scholars across various disciplines with an interest in gender, political participation, everyday resistance, feminist methodology, nationalism, ethnicity, secularism, social movements, post-colonial studies, and the Middle East.

The Kurds have endured a long struggle to secure a destiny of freedom. Kurdish women are now rising up to achieve their own freedom after decades of war, genocide, and statelessness. This study began in Kurdistan, Iraq with an intimate look at the Kurdish Women’s Freedom Movement, a feminist movement that is shifting its society away from social normative powers that have been dominant for generations. This exploratory case study was based upon academic reports, observations, and interviews with Kurdish female leaders. The case was used to create a critical understanding of feminist leadership from an age-old culture. Using Social Role Theory, this study investigated the experiences of Kurdish women moving into new leadership roles and shifting norms that allow such leadership to emerge. Transcripts from interviews with 20 Kurdish women from Iraq, Iran, Syria, Turkey, and the US and investigative field observations of Kurdish women’s leadership stories were used to highlight a remarkable case of leadership. It contributes to a body of leadership knowledge that supports positive freedom of women globally. The overarching questions posed in this study are: 1. How is feminist leadership being expressed/developed in Kurdistan? 2. How is feminist leadership in Kurdistan changing the positions of women in society? Primary themes that emerged from the data address impact of history, processes that legitimize women, prominent leadership roles that contribute to legitimacy of feminist leadership, and themes that describe the social impact of feminist leadership in Kurdistan.

Today’s youth are challenging the older political class around the world and are forming new political generations. Examples from South Africa and elsewhere where peace processes were deemed to be successful show signs of youth disapproval of the current post-conflict conditions. Moreover, the Arab Spring witnessed numerous youth movements emerge in authoritarian and illiberal contexts. This book was prepared in light of these discussions and aims to contribute to these ongoing debates on youth politics by presenting the situation of youth in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) as a case study. It will be the first book that specifically focuses on the Iraqi Kurdish youth and their political, social, and economic participation in Kurdistan. The contemporary history of the KRI is marked by conflict, war, and ethnic cleansing under Saddam Hussein and the tyranny of the Ba’ath regime, significantly affecting the political situation of the Kurds in the Middle East. Most of the recent academic literature has focused on the broader picture or, in other words, the macro politics of the Kurdish conundrum within Iraq and beyond. There is little scholarship about the Kurdish population and their socio-economic conditions after 2003, and almost none about the younger generation of Kurds who came of age during autonomous Kurdish rule. This is a generation that, unlike their forebears, has no direct memory of the decades-long campaigns of repression. Studying and examining the rise of this generation of Kurdish young millennials—“Generation 2000”—who came of age in the aftermath of the United States invasion of Iraq offers a unique approach to understand the dynamics in a region that underwent a substantial socio-political transformation after 2003 as well as the impact of these developments on the youth population. Pursuing different themes and lines of inquiry the contributors of the book analyze the challenges and opportunities for young men and women to fulfil their needs and desires, and contribute to the ongoing quest for nationhood and nation-building. "In this book, our aim is to bring together a variety of perspectives from local and foreign academics who have been working on pressing issues in Kurdistan and beyond. The chapters focus on an array of themes, particularly including political participation, political situation and change, religiosity, and extremism. ... Taken together, the chapters provide us with an introduction to youth politics in Kurdistan. This book is just the first attempt to open academic and nonacademic debate on this subject at a time when protests around youth-related issues are becoming a more prevalent method of political engagement in the region. Our hope is that more research follows and supplements what has not been addressed in this book, especially through the introduction of first-hand youth perspectives to the core of this analysis and giving them a voice in nonviolent platforms." CONTENTS Foreword: Youth in the Kurdistan Region and Their Past and Present Roles - Karwan Jamal Tahir Kurdish Youth as Agents of Change: Political Participation, Looming Challenges, and Future Predictions - Shivan Fazil and Bahar Baser CHAPTER 1. Youth Political Participation and Prospects for Democratic Reform in Iraqi Kurdistan - Munir H. Mohammad CHAPTER 2. Social Media, Youth Organization, and Public Order in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Megan Connelly CHAPTER 3. Constructing Their Own Liberation: Youth’s Reimagining of Gender and Queer Sexuality in Iraqi Kurdistan - Hawzhin Azeez CHAPTER 4. Kurdish Youth and Civic Culture: Support for Democracy Among Kurdish and non-Kurdish Youth in Iraq - Dastan Jasim CHAPTER 5. Youth and Nationalism in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Sofia Barbarani CHAPTER 6. An Elitist Interpretation of KRG Governance: How Self-Serving Kurdish Elites Govern Under the Guise of Democracy and the Subsequent Implications for Representation and Change - Bamo Nouri CHAPTER 7. Educational Policy in the Kurdistan Region: A Critical Democratic Response - Abdurrahman Ahmad Wahab CHAPTER 8. Making Heaven in a Shithole: Changing Political Engagement in the Aftermath of the Islamic State - Lana Askari CHAPTER 9. Kurdish Youth and Religious Identity: Between Religious and National Tensions - Ibrahim Sadiq CHAPTER 10. Youth Radicalization in Kurdistan: The Government Response - Kamaran Palani

Following World War II, members of the sizable Jewish community in what had been Kurdistan, now part of Iraq, left their homeland and resettled in Palestine where they were quickly assimilated with the dominant Israeli-Jewish culture. The Jews of Kurdistan is a unique historical document in that it presents a picture of Kurdish Jewish life and culture prior to World War II. It is the only ethnological study of the Kurdish Jews ever written and provides a comprehensive look at their material culture, life cycles, religious practices, occupations, and relations with the Muslims. In his preface, Raphael Patai offers data he considers important for supplementing Brauer's book, and comments on the book's values and limitations fifty years after Brauer wrote it. Patai has included additional information elicited from Kurdish Jews in Jerusalem, verified quotations, and completed the bibliography.