The PKK became a challenge not only to Turkish authorities but also to Kurdish traditionalists who wanted to maintain the gender structure within Kurdish societies, mainly ruled by tribal chieftains and landlords. The PKK contested the traditional power structures and it never permitted chieftains and landlords into its leadership (Alinia, 2004; McDowall 2000; White, 2000). It was a struggle “directed against the haves in the name of the have-nots” (van Bruinessen, 1988, p. 42). The party realised that if it should reach ordinary people with its program it also had to appeal to women. Normally, younger women in the villages did not leave the house alone, so it was difficult for them to meet with PKK activists (Marcus, 2007, p. 172). In this study, however, some informants say that they joined the PKK after having met female guerrillas who totally altered their perception of Kurdish women as mostly silent and invisible, subordinated to men. According to Marcus (2007), the recruitment of women increased after 1989, when the PKK made inroads into universities and urban centres.
In addition, the move into publishing and politics in the 1990s attracted the support of more women. The military coup in 1980, when tens of thousand of Kurdish men were detained, forced women to political action. Marcus points to the example of Leyla Zana, until recently the only woman who has been elected to Parliament from a pro-Kurdish party29. She was illiterate and did not speak Turkish. After the detention of her husband, she started educating herself, participated in demonstrations and became a politician (Marcus, 2007, p. 172).
Through her engagement, she soon became an inspiration and role model to thousands of Kurdish women, who followed her example. According to Alinia (2004), a new political trend is women's involvement, both in politics and as militants. During the last two decades, the PKK involved women in the guerrilla and in organised political activities (Alinia, 2004, p.
65). The PKK has in fact the largest number of female guerrillas in the world and emphasises
29 Leyla Zana was elected from DEP (People’s Democracy Party), and entered the Turkish Parliament in 1994.
women’s rights and liberation within the guerrilla and in civil life. Education has become a significant issue, underlying the political thinking of women’s organisations.
Similar features are found in other liberation movements. By referring to female fighters among the Liberation Tigers in Sri Lanka, Ann argues that these women belong to a world outside ordinary women’s lives. They have taken up a life that bears little resemblance to the ordinary existence of women (Ann, 1993, pp. 9-10). Tamil female fighters to a large extent still remain under the control of male family members, and at the same time face oppression from the state. The decision to break out of this cycle of double repression is an expression and articulation of new aspirations and independence. Entering into a military training programme combined with political studies represents an important political, social and ideological move for many women (op.cit, p.18).
Not only do the PKK pay attention to women’s liberation within the armed forces;
there is also an ongoing debate within the organisation on how to change women’s position in a male dominated society; even in the party itself, women have to educate themselves and struggle for their rights. It would be naïve to assume that Kurdish female fighters have gained this position without struggling hard, including inside the PKK, to be accepted as equal to their male comrades.
Anja Flach (2007), who joined the PKK guerrilla from 1995 to 1997, emphasises that education was crucial in order to liberate Kurdish women in general and also those who attended the armed struggle. Without the knowledge of why you fight, it is impossible to cope with the hard life in the guerrilla, and education was regarded as the key to the development of a stronger political consciousness among women (Flach, 2007, p. 86). In the 1990s, the majority of the women who attended were illiterate. Many of these women joined the PKK after having met female guerrillas who came to the villages to inform them about the activities of the PKK and to teach them reading and writing (article II). Female recruits from Diaspora communities often had more education and therefore were able to teach others.
The reason why so many women joined the PKK was primarily the general oppression of women in Kurdish rural areas perpetrated by the state and by the traditional family structure disfavouring girls and women on all levels of society. Flach found that several girls aged 12-14, due to the situation of females within the family, had fled their families in order to join the PKK in the mountains (Flach, 2007, pp. 63-64). During my fieldwork in the Xinere camp, I met a young woman in her early twenties who came to the mountains at the age of 10, simply having followed her older sister and her friend who escaped the bad fortune of forced marriage. The recruitment of women is a complex issue. At the beginning, women from
traditional families often fled in order to join the PKK. Later, however, many families were proud to have daughters who joined the armed forces; some were even encouraged to go.
According to Wolf, the most common motive for women choosing a life as a guerrilla is the general oppression of all Kurds, male and female. The oppression of women within a patriarchal Kurdish family structure seems to be a secondary, but strong underlying reason (Wolf, 2004, p. 197-198). The women who joined the PKK in the 1970s and 1980s were, according to Flach (2007), university or high school students. They were driven by a growing awareness of the oppression of the Kurds in Turkey, searching for a Kurdish identity and a socialist life model. Women fled from unprivileged positions or forced marriages. Many, who wanted revenge, joined the PKK because relatives or friends had been killed or mistreated. A significant number of the women were recruited for this reason (Flach, 2007, p. 61). In the 1990s when the PKK struggle was better organised, a huge number of politically conscious and educated women, also from Europe, attended the guerrilla. Following the capturing of Öcalan in 1999, thousands of women attended the PKK30. The majority wished to support the new political course of the PKK, but primarily they attended in order to fight for the rights of the women in line with the policy of the PKK/PAJK31. The way female members have managed to organise themselves independently of their male comrades, has had crucial impact on their opportunity to organise both civic and politically. PAJK gradually took over the co-ordination of the ideology and education of members, focusing on gender issues as part of the overall education program (Flach, 2007, p. 53).
In many ways, the organisation of women in the PKK became a movement within the movement. The structured work of the women within and outside the guerrilla also had a crucial impact on the growth of the movement. The next two sections explore how the PKK, since the 1980s gradually developed into a social and political movement, with a transnational potential.
30 According to Flach (2007), the first organisation for women was initiated in 1992 by Öcalan. In 1993 a women’s organisation started in Botan area counting about 2300 guerrillas. Through TAJK (The Liberation Movement of the Women of Kurdistan) and YAJK (Association of Liberated Women of Kurdistan) Kurdish women found their expression. In the mid 1990s, the women’s army had educated their own independent military leadership. From 1999, the PKK went through structural changes, in order to develop a more democratic organisation form. From then women’s organisations was so well organised that they became independent of the PKK body. PAJK (The Party for Freedom of the Women of Kurdistan), took over the co-ordination of the ideology and cadre education, focusing on gender issues as part of the overall education program (2007, p. 53).
31 PAJK (The Party for Freedom of the Women of Kurdistan).