This study offers a case study of women’s political participation and representation in pro-Kurdish politics in Turkey since 1990s. Kurdish women have been double oppressed in Turkey due to both their ethnic identity and gender identity. They have been mobilized by the Kurdish national movement for the Kurdish national cause and joined both Kurdish armed and political struggles from the early 1990s. From the foundation of the first pro-Kurdish political party, the People’s Labour Party [Halkın Emek Partisi- HEP] in 1990, Kurdish women have actively been involved in pro- Kurdish party politics. However, the pro-Kurdish party failed in promoting egalitarian gender values, policies and supporting women’s inclusion in decision-making until the end of 1990s except the election of the first Kurdish woman deputy, Leyla Zana in 1991. Women’s participation and representation in pro-Kurdish party politics have significantly advanced numerically since 1990s. In contrast to the general picture of women’s underrepresentation in Turkey’s politics, the proportion of Kurdish women representatives has been increasing in representation bodies. Therefore, this research aims to examine the Kurdish case through conducting an intensive field research in order to explain the reasons and factors behind these developments. This research is an empirical case study, primarily based on qualitative analysis of face-to-face in-depth semi-structured interviews of female political activists and participant observations held during field research. On the basis of empirical data gathered from field research and an analysis of pro-Kurdish party characteristics, its gender policies and female political activists’ roles in representation bodies, this study argues that the pro-Kurdish politics has gradually been feminizing which refers to an increase in women’s both descriptive and substantive representation since the beginning of 2000s. The changes and developments in terms of women’s representation in pro-Kurdish politics are framed as a process of feminization; which can simply be defined as a process for women to be included in political decision-making both in numbers and ideas for representing women’s interests. In this regard, this thesis searches for answers for two essential questions: how has the pro-Kurdish party politics been feminized and what difference has been made in pro-Kurdish politics since women are increasingly taking part in decision-making processes. Thus, this study assesses whether descriptive representation links to women's substantive representation in pro-Kurdish politics. The examination of Kurdish women’s representation based on the feminizing politics approach does not only theoretically contribute to broaden the scope of feminizing politics but it also broadens the scope of the concepts of descriptive and substantive representation included in this approach. In this respect, this thesis will demonstrate that the analysis of the Kurdish women case in the context of feminizing politics presents several insights about the women‘s political representation and put forth how political parties and actors strategically interact in changing women‘s political representation.

Since 2012, there has been an increase of media attention on the Kurds, particularly women who are active in the YPJ and Peshmerga. Various publications have equated women's militarization with women's liberation. In an effort to more accurately measure this, the following question must be asked; what is the effect of women's military involvement on women's rights? Women that are active in both nationalist movements and traditional state armies are presented with changing gender roles. Post conflict, there is a struggle for women to transfer their newfound autonomy into political activism. The theory outlines a chain in which women participate in the armed forces, feel empowered, are able to obtain positions of influence, and create policy and social change. A break in any point of this chain will block female excombatants from influencing women's rights. The theory is tested on Kurdish women active in the Iraqi Peshmerga and the Women's Protection Units (YPJ) in Syria. Data on women's military participation and their impact on women's rights was gathered from NGO reports, news articles, scholarly journals, and laws that were passed in Iraqi Kurdistan and Northern Syria. The evidence gathered indicates that women's military participation is not the only mechanism for improving women's rights. While the development of gender equality in Northern Syria can be linked to women's militarization, gender equality efforts in Iraqi Kurdistan do not have a direct link to women's involvement in the Peshmerga. This work adds to the ongoing discussion on Kurdish political rights, particularly women's autonomy.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of the intersecting dynamics of gender and ethnic identities for Kurdish Migrant women in Turkey. For this aim, it attempts to investigate Kurdish migrant women&#039 / s everyday lives in their private and public domains, which include in-family, out-family social and ecomomic relations. It is expected that Kurdish women&#039 / s gender and ethnic identities will intersect in these domains and will be effective in creating a specific ethnic community

The Syrian civil war has been one of the most complex armed confrontations in modern era. In thiscontext, the military participation of Kurdish female fighters of the YPJ Units has received globalmedia coverage. This thesis explores the gendered dimension of media representations of YPJfighters and the representation of the construction of their military identity. Firstly, it asks howBritish media represent their appearance and background, their ability to fight and their motivation.Moreover, it explores how pro-Kurdish media and on-line platforms represent the construction oftheir military identity and the way the YPJ is formed into a group. The data comes from 23 Britishand 8 pro-Kurdish media articles and is analysed with discourse analysis. The thesis finds thatBritish media representations echo the hegemonic discourse about women’s role as victims duringwar, while only the more liberal media represent motivations connected with a struggle againstpatriarchy, capitalism and the nation-state. Moreover, it finds that pro-Kurdish media represent YPJfighters as breaking stereotypical notions of femininity through a repetition of performativemilitary acts and about precarity being the condition of the group’s coherence. It also finds that thearticles function as interpellation to new fighters.

Sammanfattning Den väpnade konflikten mellan den kurdiska PKK-gerillan och den turkiska staten har pågått med varierande intensitet sedan början av 1980-talet och orsakat tiotusentals dödsskjutningar, och fördrivit ett stort antal civila i sydöstra Turkiet. De sociala och politiska spänningarna, som till exempel gäller ekonomisk rättvisa och erkännande av den kurdiska etniska och kulturella identiteten, har oroat den turkiska staten sedan den bildades efter det Ottomanska rikets kollaps. Även om ett ökande antal studier har beskrivit och analyserat dessa spänningar visar en översyn av tidigare litteratur att endast några av de tidiga studier fokuserade på hur kvinnor har upplevt dessa spänningar. Intresset för ämnet väcktes hos mig på grund av min turkiska bakgrund. Jag är född och uppväxt i ett land där turkar är i hög grad diskriminerade av landets majoritet. Jag känner väl känslan av diskriminering och isolering inte bara som en turk utan även som en kvinna. Därför bestämde jag, som är ursprungligen turk, att skriva om den turkisk-kurdiska konflikten ur ett genusperspektiv. Fokus ligger på kurdiska kvinnors känslor och erfarenheter i den turkisk-kurdiska konflikten som pågått länge i Turkiet. Studien syftar till att analysera hur kurdiska kvinnor uppfattar och upplever de sociala, ekonomiska och politiska spänningarna i skuggan av det rasande inbördeskriget mellan PKK och den turkiska staten. Studien fokuserar först på att identifiera källor till konfliktrelaterad stress som är specifika för kvinnor och analyserar sedan de strategier som kurdiska kvinnor använder för att hantera denna stress. Det empiriska materialet består av fokusgruppintervjuer som genomfördes våren 2017 i Istanbul, Ankara och Diyarbakir med totalt 35 kvinnor. Studiens resultat visar att kurdiska kvinnor möter daglig diskriminering och förtryck som riktar sig direkt mot dem, och samtidigt upplever de alla dessa negativa fenomen genom deras familjemedlemmar. De är tvungna att hålla tyst om sina känslor, rädslor, upplevelser, behov och sorg för att kunna skydda sin familjs liv. / Summary The armed conflict between the Kurdish PKK guerilla and the Turkish state has continued with varying intensity since the early 1980s, causing tens of thousands of casualties and displacing large numbers of civilians in South Eastern Turkey. However, the social and political tensions, relating to, for example, economic justice and recognition of the Kurdish ethnic and cultural identity have troubled the Turkish state since its creation after the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Although an increasing number of studies that has been written describing and analyzing these tensions, a review of the early literature shows that few of the early works focused on how women have experienced them. The interest in the subject was created by my Turkish background. I was born and raised in a country where Turks are highly discriminated against by most of the country’s majority. I feel the sense of discrimination and isolation, and therefore I decided to write about the TurkishKurdish conflict from gender perspective. The focus is on the feelings and experiences of Kurdish women in the Turkish-Kurdish conflict that has been continuing in Turkey for a long time. This study seeks to analyze how Kurdish women perceive and experience the social, economic, and political tensions in the shadow of the raging civil war between the PKK and the Turkish state. It first focuses on identifying sources of conflict related stress that are specific to women, and then analyzes the strategies that Kurdish women use to deal with this stress as women. The empirical material consists of focus groups interviews conducted in the spring of 2017 in Istanbul, Ankara, and Diyarbakir with a total of 35 women. The study's findings show that Kurdish women face daily discrimination and oppression directed directly against them, while at the same time experiencing all these negative phenomena through their family members as well. They must keep silent about their feelings, fears, experiences, needs and sorrows to keep their family alive.

The purpose of the thesis is to analyze the inclusion of the Kurdish women in the modernization and nation-building processes of Turkey, and to understand how they experienced these processes. Regarding the issue, although the literature reflects how the educated, urban, upper class, Turkish women experienced these processes, the experiences of women from different ethnic and religious groups and lower classes have not been studied yet. Therefore, this study aims to discuss the experiences of women from different ethnic-religious backgrounds with a feminist approach. In this thesis, I analyzed the transformation of the pre-Republican modernization/Westernization process into a nation-building construction process in the Republican period, and also the integration of women in general into this new process. I executed a research on The Elazig Girls&amp / #8217 / Boarding Vocational School, founded under the Elazig Girls&amp / #8217 / Institute in 1937, in order to explore how Kurdish people were affected by these modernization/Westernization and national-building construction processes and how Kurdish women were involved in these processes through the mediation of education. The thesis has the following three conclusions: First, the school had achieved its mission of the integration of these women into the Turkish culture by the adaptation of the Turkish language and culture by them. Second, the school had become successful in its objective of making these women adapt the ideal Republican woman identity and become the representatives of the Republican ideology. Third, these women experienced such an adaptation process generally not traumatically.

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