This all means that a group of people that are constantly pushed into lawlessness and criminalisation has to ask itself very different analytical questions about their political culture, than people that are accepted as who they are.

If you look in history, even the fact that a Kurdish nation exists, had to be proven, because it was denied systematically by the state system. It started with a national fight and movement for autonomy, independence and cultural rights. But the more things developed, especially after the Cold War, the more the Kurdish political discourse realised that there are different issues that are intersecting with what they’re going through – namely other systems of oppression (autocracy in general, sexism, ecocide), and all of this influences the political discourses in the Kurdish regions a lot. Kurdistan became an engine behind a lot of democratisation in these countries

After Kurdistan was divided, Kurdistan needed to make its case that it’s a distinct nation. And claims about nationality, about culture and language are all made. But one significant component in the Kurdish National Movement is that they cited the difference in the role of women by citing their history. (Of course, there is some disputer as history is often produced by the ruling class, and if a ruling class had educated princesses then a certain narrative could form that is different from reality.)

But nonetheless, historical sources typically show Kurdish women always had a distinct and different role in Kurdish society, and this difference was adapted from the start of the Kurdish movement.

For example, Qazi Muhammad led the first Kurdish republic in Iran in 1946 and his first policies were universal rights for women to vote and the right to education. And then Iraq Kurdistan was the same, there were strong women like Leyla Qasim, who was important in the fight against Suddam Hussein. And this was the same in Kurdistan in Turkey – female were avant guard.

So there has been a continuous history of strong Kurdish women, and this is working to advance the female Kurdish case. This history exists and does not need to be invented. It is across popular culture, in stories, in memories. And so this is why for Kurdish fighters, there is no shame to fight alongside women.

Some Middle Eastern societies who are against the Kurdish cause would say that the Kurdish men are not men enough to fight, and use their women to fight. They can often not imagine a situation where women would be part of the armed forces because they want to and not because men push them to the front.

So there is an assumption that the Middle East is the same culture (like what the Arab barometer assumes) but in fact there are very different cultures at play.

Iraq had a history of strong women, but after the Iraq-Iran war, there was a changing point because under Saddam Hussein the whole country was diminished – whether it was university or dismantling women’s rights, everything diminished. Because there was a war economy and every penny was put into the war against Iran, and it diminished destroyed the morale of society. And the space of progressiveness, which Iraqi women have slowly developed for themselves. Because before, the Iraqi Communist Party was always full of Kurdish and Iraqi and other minority women.

However after this war and during the 90s, Hussein created a locked in isolated nation, isolating Iraq from the world. But in the 70s and early 80s, people had an idea of the world and were consuming what was happening. Women would listen to the same music as what people listened to on dance-floors in Europe and wore the same clothes. While this example might be superficial, it illustrates a connection that was then destroyed.

However during the embargo and isolation in the 90s, there was a lot of despair and dissatisfaction and Islamist powers became stronger on both sides (Sunni and Shia). And this destroyed the space where women could prosper.

But in the last years, young women (Gen Z) are becoming the front of the struggle again. We saw this in the Tahrir protests of 2019. But the female spaces have been taken away – and so we see at the same time more femicides in Iraq. It was not just the US invasion, but years of Islamist terror after that has really shaped how public life happened. Baghdad was so heavily policed and controlled, and there are check points everywhere – and this changed how women lived in public life. They were pushed back into the private space. They did not have the opportunity to exchange and meet others with the same issues.

Iraqi women are powerful, strong, revolutionary women but the war shaped public life, the influence of Islamist actors and the economic situations – and then the way Iraq was rebuilt in a neo-liberal way meant that if women were able to reenter the market, then they were doing so in insecure, precarious ways – and mostly in the private sector – has oppressed women in Iraq.

For trans women and gender non conforming people in Iraq it is even harder, they are mostly kicked out of their households and they have to find some kind of job. And mostly, it’s only jobs in gastronomy that would accept them or often even prostitution. And then they’re subjected to all layers of oppression and abuse.

Islamists are also on Tik Tok and Instagram and are delivering hate speech. Which is motivating people to do hate crimes against women and queers publicly and with pride. One example is of a young trans women named Doski. She was allegedly killed by her brother and her body was thrown at the side of the road for everyone to see. And then the same thing happened some months later, Maria was killed and then media did interviews with the brother. This is being accepted and normalised by society, and the rhetoric surrounding it is that the women did something to get what was coming.