"Women, Life, Freedom": The Struggle of Kurdish Women to Promote Human Rights

The Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK), one of the most important secular
socio-political movements of the Middle East, has addressed gender issues
since its foundation in the late 1970s. However, the question of women's
freedom acquired a central position after the 2000s, when the PKK
underwent a deep ideological and structural transformation. A foundational
tenet is "democratic confederalism", based on a democratic, ecological and
gender-emancipatory system. For Abdullah Ocalan, the main leader of the
PKK, democracy and freedom can only be achieved through the
emancipation of women. Kurdish women have appropriated Ocalan's ideas
and to a considerable extent, succeeded in promoting the empowerment of
women and advancement of gender equality in the Kurdish societies directly
influenced by the PKK: the diaspora and territories in Turkey and Syria.
Although they still face a continuous and dual struggle against gender and
ethnic oppression, Kurdish women have reached a high political status. As
"guerrilleras", members of parliament, and human rights activists, they have
disseminated the principles of gender equality throughout Kurdish society. In
addition to adopting gender parity in all social, political and military Kurdish
organizations, women established autonomous bodies within those
organizations, which function through a strong transnational network from the
battlefields in Kurdistan to the diaspora. Within this network, female activists
in Europe play a central political role. They are the ones who are directly
committed to gaining international political leverage, and with this aim the
use of human rights conventions as a platform for dialogue constitutes an
essential step forward. Furthermore, they play a major role in formulating
Kurdish claims in universal terms backed up by human rights instruments.