A Gendered Analysis of Violence, Justice and Citizenship: Kurdish Women Facing War and Displacement in Turkey

Citation:

Gökalp, Deniz. 2010. “A Gendered Analysis of Violence, Justice and Citizenship: Kurdish Women Facing War and Displacement in Turkey.” Women’s Studies International Forum 33 (6): 561–69. doi:10.1016/j.wsif.2010.09.005.

Author: Deniz Gökalp

Abstract:

This article examines the impact of armed conflict on Kurdish women in southeastern Turkey. I conceptualize women's agency in relation to their political consciousness and capability to seek justice in legal, political, socio-economic, and cultural terms. I argue that Kurdish women's agency stems from several phenomena: their experiences with the war, displacement, and the city; their politicization as a result of their peculiar relationship with the Turkish state, based on mutual suspicion and fear; and their propinquity with the Kurdish ethno-nationalist political organization through ethnic propaganda and mobilization. I further point out the complications involved in women's resocialization and politicization in ethnicized terms, questioning the possibility for turning an ethnically-assertive and exclusive form of women's agency into an emancipatory, inclusive, democratic force.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Citizenship, Displacement & Migration, IDPs, Gender, Women, Gender Analysis, Gender-Based Violence, Justice, Violence Regions: Asia, Europe, Southern Europe Countries: Turkey

Year: 2010