Gender, political violence, social structures, emotions in the Kurdish society

This paper studies female participation in violence and radical groups in the Kurdish conflict in Turkey. On the one hand, the paper argues that women the main “victims” of the armed conflicts, and of institutions of social violence such as “honor killing” in the society. On the other hand, it suggests that women participate to the production of political violence in an active way. In order to study Kurdish women as perpetrators of violence, the paper proposes taking into account the relationships (1) between social structures and institutions such as confessional affiliations, family, generations, tribalism, political parties and violence [In which way do these structures determine female participation to violence?] (2) gender and political radicalism [what is the relationship between gender and radicalism?, how does gender become one of the central agents of political radicalism and militancy?], (3) empowerment and violence [what does signify the use of violence for women ?, what do they expect the use of force to bring?] (4) emotions and violence [how do female emotions play a role in moving to political violence ?]