the Kurds enter into complex relationships with the
prevalent regime in each country. Patriarchal rela-
tions ranging from arranged marriages to honor
killing persist in the first generation, while resistance,
including feminist organizing, has also emerged.
Conclusions
The modernizing projects of the nation-states to
transform “Kurdish woman” into “Iranian woman,”
“new Turkish woman,” “new Iraqi woman,” or
“Muslim woman” have failed. Eight decades of
forcible assimilation have, in fact, contributed to
the formation of the polity of “Kurdish woman.”
While there is no single definition of Kurdish wom-
anhood, the ideal “Kurdish woman” is predomi-
nantly nationalist, secular, and modern. At the
same time, the persistence of tribal-feudal forms of
Kurdish patriarchy and the failure of Kurdish
nationalism to democratize gender relations has
encouraged feminist awareness and organizing.
Leyla Zana, the first and only Kurdish woman
member of Turkey’s parliament, defended Kurdish
rights, and was sentenced in 1994 to 15 years in
prison. She has stated, “I view my imprisonment
as synonymous with the freedom of my people”
(Zana 1999, 111). Fadime Çahindal, a young
Kurdish-Swedish woman killed by her father for
reasons of “honor” in Sweden in 2002, revolted
against indigenous patriarchal violence. Leyla and
Fadime both spoke of significant developments in
the lives of women in the transnational, non-state,
Kurdish nation (Mojab 2001a,Savelsberg 2000).
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