production work as well as singing, dancing, and
other entertainment. Nomadic women did all the
work related to animal husbandry, which was the
main source of livelihood. When the tribe was
attacked, women took part in war alongside men.
They were “unique” in so far as they were, simul-
taneously, men’s “wives, slaves, and guards” as
well as fighters. By contrast, settled rural women
were not as courageous, and were much less
involved in agricultural production. Nomadic and
rural women were, according to Bàyazìdì, as free as
the women of Europe in socializing with men.
However, the family would kill them with impunity
if they engaged in or were suspected of extra- or
pre-marital sexual relations. The goal was to instill
fear in women so that they refrained from such
“bad deeds.” Elopement was also punished by
death, although compromise was usually reached if
the couple could take sanctuary with a tribal chief,
a respected or religious figure, and seek mediation.
Documenting male domination in Kurdistan, Bàya-
zìdìbelieved: “Kurdish women are much wiser,
accomplished, perceptive and humane than men.
They are very affectionate and very compassionate
with those from other lands and strangers” (Bàya-
zìdì1963, 138–9, also 75, 98, 115, 174, 180–1).
Kurdish oral tradition, collected since the latter
part of the nineteenth century, depicts a complex
regime of gender relations. In oral literature, one
finds both the patriarchal regime presented in the
written sources cited earlier, and a tribal quasi-
matriarchal order in, for instance, Beytî Las û
Xezal(Ballad of Las and Khazal). In this ballad,
two women, each the ruler of a tribe, openly com-
pete over a lover, a man who chooses one and freely
socializes with the other. In patriarchal contexts,
peasant women are subjected to the violence of
male feudal lords, for example, in Beytî Kake Mîr û
Kake Çêx(Ballad of Kaka Mir and Kak Sheikh,
both texts in Mann 1906). At the same time,
women resist being sold as property or exchanged
in marriage in the interests of the male members of
the family. This resistance takes the form of eloping
with their lovers, an act which may risk their lives,
for example, Beytî Xec û Syamend(Ballad of Khaj
and Syamand), or leaving their family and tribe in
search of their lovers, for example, Beytî Ço‰
Mehmûd û Merzîngan(Ballad of Shor Mahmud
and Marzingan, text in Fattàhì Qà∂ì 1970).
Proverbs, too, treat women in conflicting, though
patriarchal, ways, ranging from “source of life” to
“pain” (Rohat 1994). The Kurdish language, like
other languages studied so far, is lexically and
semantically androcentric, sexist, and misogynist
(Hassanpour 2001).
overview 359Western travelers and scholars have found Kur-
dish women notably different from other “Muslim”
or “Oriental” women. Although travel literature
points to the existence of harems and gender segre-
gation in upper-class families, it finds Kurdish rural
women enjoying more freedom than their Arab,
Persian, and Turkish sisters. The evidence cited in
support of this relative freedom includes, among
other things, the absence of veiling, free association
with males including strangers and guests, and a list
of female rulers (Galletti 2001).
The majority of women lived, until the late twen-
tieth century, in rural areas. Unlike rural women,
urban women, especially in well-to-do families,
were largely confined to the domestic realm. Until
the late twentieth century, the majority of women
were illiterate. Literacy was limited to the all-male
clergy, scribes, and certain members of the feudal
and mercantile classes; however, women in these
social milieus acquired literacy through private
tutoring. Thus, a few female names appear in the
list of poets who lived before the First World War.
The only well-known intellectual, Màh Sharaf Khà-
num, known as Mastura Kurdistani (1805–47),
was a member of the court of Ardalan principality.
She was a poet, writer of a brief work on Islamic
doctrine, and is known as the first female historian
of the Middle East. A considerable part of her
poetry laments the untimely death of her husband,
the young ruler of the principality (Màh Sharaf
Khànum 1948). In her work, there is no evidence of
consciousness about gender inequality or women’s
rights (Mojab 2001e).Women, nationalism, and the
nation-state
The fall of Kurdish principalities eliminated the
last trace of Kurdish self-rule, and extended Otto-
man and Iranian power over all parts of Kurdistan;
however, rural areas and their population remained
largely under the control of tribal and feudal chiefs.
This centralization of state power was part of the
administrative, financial, and military reforms in
the latter half of the nineteenth century. The
reforms occurred, in part, due to the pressure from
emerging liberal-minded elites and nascent demo-
cratic movements, and, to some extent, under the
pressure of Western powers interested in a safe
environment for their economic pursuits.
The constitutionalization of monarchical regimes
in Ottoman Turkey (1876 and 1908–9) and Iran
(1906) did not immediately turn the subjects
(ra≠àyà) into citizens. Inspired by European consti-
tutions, the Iranian and Ottoman documents denied
women full citizenship. The emerging nation-state