Small Circles of Empowerment

This article investigates the activities of Kurdish women aimed at protecting and revitalising Kurdish language, which include collecting and publishing folklore, translating into Kurdish, and writing literature in Kurdish. Throughout the 20th century, countries like Turkey, Syria, Iran, and Iraq, in varying degrees, imposed restrictions on the use of Kurdish. Our primary focus is on Turkey because this country has been most repressive toward Kurdish language since the establishment of the Republic in 1923, but also due to a recent increased visibility of women language activists and folklore collectors. According to Fishman, language revitalisation does not only pertain to caring for a language but brings about a complete, self-defining way of life. Through language revitalisation, Kurdish women not only build an alternative to the state policy of denial, they also win respect and freedom within their communities. Drawing from Martha Nussbaum’s capability approach and from Sara Ahmed’s understanding of how emotions function through language and its circulation, we demonstrate how collecting and publishing Kurdish language and culture in ‘small circles’ enables Kurdish women to assert their citizenship rights.