SOAS Research Online

Abstract

Despite the recent outbreak of violence and conflict, peace continues to be high on the agenda of the Kurdish political movement and many progressive Turkish intellectuals and activists. We conducted qualitative multi-sited ethnographic research in Turkey (Istanbul and Diyarbakır) and two diaspora locations (London and Berlin) to examine this mobilization for peace. Our analysis of these interviews shows how Kurdish feminist activists have been struggling to make the eradication of gender-based inequalities and gender-based violence central to the wider political movement for peace. Our interviews also reveal a recent convergence between Kurdish and Turkish women's rights activists where segments of the Turkish feminist movement increasingly recognize that “war is like a blanket” that covers over gender injustices. Both Kurdish and Turkish activists stress the intersections between the process of making peace with the state and the struggle for gender-based equality and justice. Thus, our research points to new openings in the conceptualization of and activism for peace, and women’s rights that bridge the deep ethnic and national divides the Turkish-Kurdish conflict has created. Our conclusions underline the need for a feminist perspective on violence and conflict that accounts for women’s rights activists’ visions and strategies for a sustainable and just peace.