Mark Campbell
As we near International Women’s Day on March 8th, Mark Campbell introduces his new Podcast series with a timely interview with Kurdish Feminist, writer and anti war activist, Houzan Mahmud talking about her new book of edited stories entitled Kurdish Women’s Stories.
Houzan has collected 25 stories from women in all parts of Kurdistan about their experiences and lives. Each story reveals a tapestry of experiences, including political activism under Saddam Hussain and armed resistance in Rojava’s YPJ and Rojhelat’s Komala. This in addition to experiences of Female Genital Mutilation, and overcoming victimhood, life under extreme conservatism, as well as a look into the work of female artists, poets, novelists and performers whose work demonstrates a complicated relationship with Kurdistan.
Dilar Dirik author of The Kurdish Women’s Movement (2021) says of Houzan’s book: “Kurdish women have historically been subjected to violence and erasure. In light of this, expressing their own truths is a politically radical stance. This is a valuable contribution.”