This project examines the activism of Kurdish migrant women in selected host European countries (France, Belgium, Sweden, Germany and the UK) in terms of artistic, literary and cultural practices in both the language(s) of the host countries and the women’s native Kurdish language.
There has been no comprehensive research conducted on the artistic and cultural mobilisation of Kurdish migrant women. Furthermore, the studies conducted on Kurdish diaspora or migrant experiences are not only male-dominated and lacking gender perspective, but also involve analysis within a political paradigm at the expense of the diasporic socio-cultural paradigm. The importance of gender and gendered perspectives with regard to migration/forced displacement is either ignored or undervalued. In this regard, the project applied both a retrospective and a forward-looking approach by examining and paying attention to critical junctures in:
(1) The growth of aesthetic, literary and cultural practices by migrant Kurdish women in the selected nation-states along with their impacts on larger societal debates.
(2) The varying migrant incorporation regimes of selected European countries towards Kurds, including the impacts of the recent influx of Syrian Kurdish refugees.
(3) The transnational relations between European Kurdish diaspora and Kurdish regions in accordance with the changing dynamics in their home countries, particularly in the last 10 years.
Objectives
The first research goal is to reveal the changing dynamics within Kurdish migrant women’s mobilisation along with their cultural engagements in the selected European states, the second is to undertake a comparative examination of the integration policies of the selected European countries, and the third is to investigate transnational networking and dynamics between Kurdish migrant women (labour migrants/refugees) in Europe, the agents of cultural production in their home countries (Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey) and other European countries. Formal objectives have been to:
(a) Understand how artistic, literary and cultural productions, incorporating the fields of literature, film, theatre and music, are articulated within the opportunity structures of the selected nation-states, leading to interrogation of the impact of western and local knowledge, patriarchy, the nation-state and globalisation;
(b) Investigate the Kurdish women’s literary, artistic and cultural activism in a rapidly changing European and transnational socio-political context, thereby contributing to understanding migrant women’s integration in European societies.
(c) Analyse how each country’s integration policy plays a role, and how new approaches of tailoring strategies to the new dynamics will assist in understanding how Kurdish women, and Kurds in general, are supported in their socio-cultural engagements at local, national and transnational level.
(d) Explore the transnational networking, transnational dynamics, institutionally mobilised and sustained connections, combining material and cultural exchange between Kurdish migrant women (labour migrants/refugees) in European countries and the agents of cultural production in their home countries.
