The recent bombing in Istanbul’s Istiklal Caddesi, blamed by Türkiye on the PYD1 and PKK2, and subsequent Turkish air strikes on Kurdish targets in Northeast Syria and Iraq has once again brought the Turkish-Kurdish conflict into the limelight. In particular, the Turkish authorities’ identification of Ahlam Al Bashir, a Syrian woman living in Istanbul, as the bomber has again generated interest in the role of women within the PKK and sister organisations. While the PKK has insisted it did not carry out the bombing and claims not to target civilians, it is well-known for its inclusion of women in its armed action, with a fighting force that is 40% female.
This blog discusses what differentiates the PKK and related Kurdish organisations from other armed terrorist groups, particularly those claiming to fight conflicts of national/ethnic liberation and looks at how sexual politics are conceptualised and reproduced within the PKK, and what draws Kurdish women to join and take up arms.
Female Insurgents, Feminist Insurgency?
Founded by Abdullah Öcalan in 1978, the PKK has been engaged in an armed insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984. The PKK and related Kurdish organisations in Türkiye, Syria and Iraq (e.g. the KYK3 and PYD/YPG4) have a long history of deploying women, including female commandos and women-only militias, in their conflicts both with states, such as Türkiye, and non-state actors such as ISIS. Öcalan has written extensively on women’s liberation and considers Kurdish liberation, and the achievement of the PKK/KYK’s political goals of democratic confederalism, as contingent on revolutionary changes within the gender landscape of Kurdish society.
In contrast to many insurgent groups, particularly in the MENA region, the PKK is distinct in its deployment of women to the frontlines, and women are enlisted as combatants on an equal basis to men. Whereas in other contexts women are often largely restricted to auxiliary roles, including cooking, weapons servicing and delivery, or special roles such as assassins and suicide bombers, in the PKK they form a considerable proportion of the main combat force. Women also play key leadership roles within the organisation, such as Besê Howzat, a member of the PKK’s General Presidential Council and co-chair of the KYK.
As such, women’s emancipation, and the centring of women’s struggles in the PKK’s ideological framework, has both attracted many women to take up arms and join the organisation, as well as allowed them to rise through its ranks to senior positions, a fact which distinguishes it from many other insurgent groups. While some scholars have suggested that this is a strategic rather than ideological move, the fact remains that Öcalan has long been a strong proponent of women’s rights and has rallied against the traditional, patriarchal norms and structures which previously dominated Kurdish society.
For example, Öcalan gained feminist credibility in the eyes of some Kurdish women through his attempts to redefine the concept of namus, meaning honour, from a meaning centred on (female) sexuality to one concerning the Kurdish homeland. He described the homeland as being ‘raped’ and called on Kurds to take up arms to defend the homeland’s honour in the face of occupation. Kurdish society, as with neighbouring societies in the region, has long had a tradition of female ‘honour’ being used to restrict women and their sexuality, leading to violence in the form of so-called honour killings when this honour is perceived as being broken. As such, the PKK presents itself as an entity fighting for both the liberation of women from patriarchal structures such as namus and for the liberation of the Kurdish homeland. Despite this, Öcalan’s ideas on namus have also been interpreted as upholding patriarchal values, by suggesting a parallel between the need for the homeland’s honour to be saved and the need for men to preserve women’s honour, in which the male desire for control of honour was redirected and reproduced rather than being directly confronted or dismantled, despite the inclusion of women in the armed struggle. However, since the 1999 publication of Öcalan’s book Kurdish Love, the PKK has strongly embraced radical feminism.
Motivating Factors
Scholars have identified several key factors which influence the decision of Kurdish women to take up arms and join the organisation. Firstly, as outlined above, the PKK places a strong emphasis on gender equality and women’s liberation and allows women to play an active role in the movement. For many women, it provides a greater degree of personal freedom and equality than civilian life would do, and as Öcalan’s ideology emphasises the need for gender revolution across all layers of Kurdish society, women may therefore see taking up arms within the organisation as a means of securing a liberated future for all Kurdish women, in addition to the opportunity to protect and liberate the homeland.
Furthermore, women are able to advance up the ranks of the PKK on the same basis as men, thus giving them power. This is coupled with the establishment of autonomous female units within the organisation which has given women considerable influence in the political, military and administrative arena of the Kurdish movement, thus snowballing women’s membership of the PKK and related organisations.
The PKK also has strict rules on sex and relationships. Sexual relationships between male and female militants are strictly prohibited, and anyone found in violation of these rules will be severely punished. Membership of the organisation therefore also provides some protection from sexual harassment and other forms of sexualised violence, albeit at the expense of the right to physical relationships (romantic, but non-sexual, relationships are tolerated but not
encouraged). Relatedly, sexualised violence against Kurdish women by Turkish forces, ISIS militants and other armed adversaries, in addition to violence inflicted within abusive or forced marriages, has also been mentioned by female PKK fighters as motivating factors for their enlistment.
Evidently, the PKK and its umbrella organisations are distinguished by a strong commitment to advancing gender equality. Female fighters join based on a combination of individual and societal motivating factors and are provided with the authority and means to rise through the ranks of the organisation on an equal basis to men, in line with the gender revolution central to Öcalan’s ideology of democratic confederalism.
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