An Interpretative Study of Women Representation in Kurdish Proverbs(A Case Study of Surani & Mokeriani Sub-language)

This paper is concerned with the representation of women in Kurdish proverbs based on social interpretive approach and through emic orientation. Considering the constitutive function of common sense to produce social knowledge, the paper aims to explore the situation given to women in Kurdish proverbs as a part of oral literature. In this respect, the women-related proverbs have been purposively sampled and analyzed using thematic procedures, while the in-depth interviews with informants have been conducted for further interpretations of the data. The findings demonstrated that the Kurdish proverbs attributed a diverse and often contradictory set of locations and interpretations to women. Using thematic analysis, seven main themes were extracted from data which include: Women as irrational, as equal to men, as subordinate, as the other one, as sacred, as powerful and as a mysterious subject. All these themes are covered by a core category entitled “Kurdish woman as an Uncertain Subject”. The above main themes have been discussed and documented referring to a number of sample proverbs.