Kurdish Women’s Experience in Iraq: History, Politics and Literature

Abstract

The aim of this article is to study the conspicuous impact of the changing historical and political situation in Iraq on the Kurdish intellectual and literary production with particular attention to Kurdish women’s position and perspective on these changes. Focusing on the hectic periods of the Kurdish history and national movement in Iraq, the article answers such intriguing questions as how do the social and political discourses in Iraq shape Kurdish women’s roles and contributions and how has the interplay between Kurdish nationalism and women’s participation developed within the different literary, intellectual and political circles. Chronicling the various socio‐political dimensions of Kurdish national movement and investigating the ways in which Kurdish women’s participation has been relegated both by the Iraqi regimes and within the Kurdish national movements, the article presents a content analysis of different intentions, oversights, and insights of Kurdish and non‐Kurdish political, literary and intellectual actors regarding Kurdish women’s changing roles and desires in Iraq and of the images by which Kurdish women have been presented, thereby positioning itself within a socio‐political studies.