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From Kurdistan to Europe: Kurdish Literary, Artistic and Cultural Activism by Kurdish Women Intellectuals

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - KurdishWomen (From Kurdistan to Europe: Kurdish Literary, Artistic and Cultural Activism by Kurdish Women Intellectuals)

Okres sprawozdawczy: 2018-06-01 do 2020-05-31

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.
Work performed during this fellowship was ascribed to six specific work packages.
Work Package 1
The secondment at the Centre for Gender Research (STK)-University of Oslo
Three months as a visiting researcher at SFK in the first year of the fellowship contributed significantly to strengthening the Fellow’s academic capacity and competence to pursue the proposed project from a gender-based perspective.

Work Package 2
The academic scholarship on Kurdish women

Using feminist rhetorical criticism and discourse approaches, together with a focus on intersectionality, orientalism and postcolonial feminism, in this work package, the Fellow examined a number of existing studies on Kurdish women and attempted to uncover the construction of and implications about Kurdish women. She also examined the degrees to which these studies promote narratives that uphold assumptions on gender and implicitly contribute to traditional ideologies of patriarchy and the stigma of being westernized. By demonstrating the significance of a plural model, which examines the lived realities of women, their negotiations and struggles, the Fellow urges a fresh approach to the discursive and contextual practice of scholarship on Kurdish women through this study.

Work Package 3
Analysing European policies on cultural engagements of Kurdish women
This work package collecting and examining European policies, press releases, aimed to shed light on the different national migration and gender policies of European states with regard to artistic, cultural and linguistic issues, which encourage the maximisation of well-established networks of educational and intellectual revitalisation, and also reveal the assimilationist policies that restrict the linguistic and cultural elites and initiatives.

Work Package 4
Ethnographic fieldwork in five European countries
Ethnographic fieldwork, along with multi-sited research techniques, was carried out mainly in the capitals of European states, where there is a high concentration of Kurdish women intellectuals and cultural organisations, which are powerful in terms of dissemination of their productions at both national and transnational levels. In these sites, the Fellow conducted semi-structured in-depth narrative interviews with 40 writers, poets, artists, moviemakers, theatre actors, activists, elites of civil society, public speakers, and cultural organisations and networks. The findings were read in their historical and political context and analysed in the light of the theoretical framework drawing upon transnational feminist analysis along with diaspora formation, and the gendered aspect of cultural studies.

Work Package 5
Ethnographic documentary film
The documentary film titled Anywhere on this Road, at the postproduction stage, to be released in October 2022, based on the MSC project through the perspective of the Fellow, a Kurd herself, we see 8 powerful Kurdish migrant women living in Europe who challenge the stereotypical portrayals of Middle Eastern women through various artistic and cultural performances.


Work package 6
Outreach Activities
The research findings have been made available mostly by means of scientific publications and presentations in relevant conferences and workshops. Along with academic institutions (peer-reviewed articles for world class journals), the project also provided recommendations for integration initiatives for political decision makers, and it would help policy makers – for government departments, refugee self-help organisations and cultural associations, international organisations such as OECD, think tanks and administration at local and national levels – to open a discussion of good practice models and promotion of educational and skills training for migrant women. The Fellow aimed to make all scientific publications generated by the project openly accessible. The project used the University of Oxford Research Archive, an online digital repository containing publicly, freely available outputs from faculty at the university. This enhanced the visibility and impact of the project, also contributing to publicising the European Commission as a major funder for research and development.
Sidar Yigit, musician, Sweden
Rojda Sekersoz, director, Sweden
Nuray Sahim filmmaker, Germany
Sham Jaff, journalist, Germany
Interview with MP Gokay Akbulut, Germany
Zeliha Dagli, women rights defender, France