A group of international academics, lawyers, trade unionists and activists travelled to Turkey’s Kurdish-majority southeast as election observers to witness the country’s epochal elections to be held on 14 May. In a series of articles to be published every day until the elections in Medya News, Emma Müller, a member of the UK delegation, shares the international election observers delegations’ findings from the ground.
Emma Òr
This election period is widely understood to be one of increased oppression for the Kurdish population, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan anxious to crush their chances at the ballot box through the mass arrests and continual harassment that have been seen in recent weeks.
Here, we will talk about one of the founding principles of the Kurdish struggle’s call for democratic modernity: women’s liberation. As Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan says, there is no free society without women’s liberation. Yeşil Sol (Green Left) Party’s campaign – the political wing of the democratic solutions sought by the Kurdish struggle – is highly influenced by this idea and it is an important focus of their work in the run-up to the elections in Turkey.
Women’s spaces
Xwebûn is a concept developed by the Kurdistan freedom movement meaning ‘to be one’s true self’. Its practice can be seen in the women’s spaces of the Yeşil Sol Party. Having undertaken a variety of activities with the campaign, it has become apparent to us that without the presence of men, women feel comfortable to express themselves with sincerity and voice their feelings to one another in a collective spirit.
The party has established a co-chairing system meaning that every position is shared by both a man and a woman. This is an impressive feat given Turkish society’s unrelentingly patriarchal mindset. Erdoğan openly declares that women are not equal to men and that feminists in Turkey reject the idea of motherhood.
Despite equal representation in the administrative sphere, there have been far fewer women than men following the campaign trail. This speaks to the difficulty of changing a mindset which is so ingrained. Around eight women accompanied one of the campaign’s female candidates on a recent canvassing trip to an industrial estate, compared to 30 men.
A trip to the villages provided an insight into the prevalence of patriarchy even in a society where a movement that is working daily to challenge this specific mindset has so many supporters. We were greeted by men and welcomed into a meeting space with them from the village where the campaigners gave their speeches. Once again the only women in the room were from the party, and it wasn’t until after this meeting that we walked around the village and noticed women’s presence in their homes. It was the men who greeted us at the door and came outside whilst the women remained in the doorways. It was empowering for both the female candidate and jin (women) from the delegation to make the effort to approach these women. As a female local councillor pointed out, it was only in seeing other women that these women felt comfortable to engage with politics. Seeing a female candidate gives these women the confidence to feel that they can be active in political life and comfortable speaking about their problems.
Culture of care and solidarity
Four of us from the delegation attended a jin breakfast at the women’s office this morning. Women from the party congregated to share food and drink çay (chai – tea)together. The culture of care and solidarity was tangible. We received a very warm welcome as the older women shook our hands with a gleam of resistance in their eyes. Xwebûn was being practised in this space. One woman expressed her frustrations at her husband in a jovial manner with her heval (Kurdish for friend or comrade).
We have been kindly accommodated by Kurdish families during our time here and the authenticity expressed between female comrades is discernable. Away from the presence of men, headscarves and social expectations are relaxed.
Kurdish women face oppression from two fronts, due to both their ethnicity and their gender. Many Kurdish women have been imprisoned for their activity in the party or for demanding justice for their relatives. Nevertheless, their resistance is strong and clearly remains a threat to the tyrannical system they are subjected to. One woman from Amed (Diyabakır) recalled her experience at a women’s rally in Mardin. She told us that the police warned each other about the women from Amed, revealing that they were likely to cause the most trouble. The police are clearly afraid of their courage and the strength of their convictions.
An alternative and liberatory vision
The party are working tirelessly to visit every neighbourhood and workplace. We also visited a textile factory with predominantly female workers. There, we were invited into a communal space to listen to a female candidate pitch the party’s manifesto. Many of these women were working long 12-hour shifts in the factory but the party is offering an alternative and liberatory vision of life for women. Just as in many of the rallies, the workers responded with the rallying cry of ‘Jin, Jiyan, Azadî’.
