Kurdish women in public sphere: the contexts, features and activities of feminine civil organizations (Case study: Kurdistan)

With the opening of the political space and the birth of civil society discourse and the relative development of public sphere in the mid of 1370s in Iran, it became possible for the urban women of Kurdistan to enter the public sphere and create feminine civil organizations in order to realize women’s rights, demands and requests. These organizations, despite various structural constraints, have survived and worked so far. This study is about the ways in which feminine subjectivity has been constructed in these organizations, or how feminine subjectivity has been constructed in the contexts, features and activities of these organizations. We can also ask how do women, in the process of attempting to consolidate their own subject positions, redefine themselves in versus the male dominant other? To answer these questions, 18 active members and founders of these organizations have been interviewed. The findings showed that historical backgrounds, the prevalence of feminists’ views and the joining of women to occupational field are the main contexts of the development of these organizations.