Beyond Victimhood and Militancy: Reclaiming Kurdish Women’s Agency through Feminist Rhetorical Critique

Abstract (English)

My paper will interrogate the dominant paradigms in academic discourse surrounding Kurdish women by employing feminist rhetorical criticism, intersectionality, and postcolonial feminist theory. It argues that much of the existing literature tends to essentialize Kurdish women's experiences within simplistic binaries—either as victims of patriarchal oppression or as agents of militant resistance. Such dichotomies obscure the multiplicity and complexity of Kurdish women’s lived realities, and often fail to account for local agency, cultural nuance, and the diverse socio-political contexts in which these women exist.

This paper will critique the pervasive influence of orientalist frameworks and ethnocentric assumptions that shape knowledge production, especially within feminist scholarship that claims to be emancipatory. It highlights how these narratives often reproduce the very structures of power they seek to dismantle, by marginalizing indigenous epistemologies and voices. Additionally, the analysis calls into question the epistemic authority of researchers who position themselves as interpreters of Kurdish women’s realities without adequately engaging with their subjectivity, resistance, or political agency in contextually grounded ways.

By advocating for a decolonized and intersectional methodology, this paper will underscore the importance of embracing plural, nuanced, and reflexive approaches in feminist scholarship. It will also seek to move beyond tokenistic representations and static identities to foreground the dynamic, everyday negotiations of power, gender, and resistance that define the experiences of Kurdish women. Overall, I am hoping to contribute to ongoing efforts to challenge hegemonic narratives in both feminist theory and Middle Eastern studies, while envisioning a more just, inclusive, and context-aware academic engagement.