The Colonial Neglect of Childhood: Tracing the Epistemic and Political Positioning of Kurdish-Queer Childhoods

Abstract (English)

In this presentation, I will examine the intersection of Kurdish-queer childhood narratives from the perspective of feminist epistemology and resistance against the hegemony of colonial knowledge. The documentary ‘Me and Nuri Bala’ (2012), in which the Kurdish-trans activist Esmeray narrates her self-life, offers a poignant case study that allows us to see the Kurdistani contours of queerness while at the same time criticising normative structures of childhood.

At the centre of my presentation, in the context of childhood and queer studies, I consider the positions of Kurdish and queer-identified childhoods that are denied a future by the colonial panoptic gaze. Drawing on feminist epistemologies, I question how ‘situated knowledge’ is erased in the Turkish colonial logic and how the production of queer knowledge in Turkey can be affected by this mechanism of denial and how it can reproduce invisibilities. By analysing the narrative of childhood in Esmeray's documentary and its entirety, I aim to highlight the resilience and agency of Kurdish-queer children who are subjectivised within a denialist state momentum.

By advocating for inclusive methodologies that empower diverse perspectives and challenge the psychic power of colonialism, my presentation also discusses the importance of hearing subaltern voices in academic and activist spaces and the challenges of mobilising these voices. Through a critical analysis of ‘Me and Nuri Bala’, I aim to illuminate how denied identities can be intertwined in Kurdish-queer childhood narratives, the intersections of political legitimacy, the critique of queer struggles with dominant identities, and the anthropology of resistance.