Lse Middle East Centre Podcasts

This event, as part of the LSE Middle East Centre's Kurdish Studies Series, was the launch of Mustafa Kemal Topal's latest book 'Women Fighters in the Kurdish National Movement: Transforming Gender Politics and the PKK' published by I.B. Tauris. This book examines how the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has become a platform for shifts in gender politics through its women fighters. Based on fieldwork undertaken in Iraq, Syria and Europe - including in-depth interviews and participant observation within women's camps - the book examines Kurdish women fighters' motivations to join the PKK, as well as their personal life stories and views on gender, patriarchy, and ethnic minority experiences. This is the largest ethnographic study on the PKK to date and the book argues that in addition to seeking their nation's struggle for survival and a democratic society, Kurdish women fighters are driven by the prospect of improving conditions for themselves and for women across the entire region. Meet the speaker Mustaf