Month: May 2016

I am very proud to be in this amazing project called Many Women, Many Words, which is a collaboration between writers and researchers at the Soran University in the Kurdistan region and Lancaster University in the UK.
Before talking about the project, I must talk a little bit about the experience of Kurdish women.

 

 

Kurds have a long history of marginalization and discrimination under the rule of four dominant states: Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria. Particularly in Iraq and Turkey, they have repeatedly risen up to seek greater autonomy or complete independence.
Kurdistan is a semi-autonomous state within Iraq, but during the rule of Saddam Hussein a deliberate programme of genocide was directed against the Kurdish people. Thousands of Kurdish villages were destroyed and many Kurds fled into neighbouring Turkey, Iran and Syria. The Kurdish Peshmerga forces mounted an armed resistance to Saddam, in which many women took part. But their stories of heroic resistance had their counterpoint in the stories of women who had to support their families in the absence of their menfolk, whose lives were often scrutinised and controlled by the Ba’ath Party, and whose displacement traumatised a generation.1
Women’s contributions to post-war recovery have always been ignored. This specifically applies to a stateless nation who has been displaced internally and externally several times. Iraqi Kurdish women have continuously been a source of security for their families during and after the war. Not only their roles have been underestimated, they have been hindered by many social, political and economic influences, a fact seems to be largely underestimated by academics and media.
Many Women, Many Words is a pilot project. It can serve as starting point for a larger research project across the entire region(s).
Here is how our visits started. First, we had to find some random women to tell us some stories from the past. There was not any rules and restrictions for the interviewees. Most of the women we interviewed, started their stories asking us about what should they talk about. And we would tell them that any event, experience or story they want to share with us and community will be great.During the interviews, we could see the joy and sadness from their eyes. Sometimes they made us laugh until our cheeks got wet. Or they would tell us sad stories of war, displacement and poverty.
To know more about their stories, I recommend you visit Women’s Stories.