Giulia Anderson
Opening remarks
We will be talking about Kurdish women, their struggles and victories, their importance in society, their causes, they believe in and their involvements in movements that have shaped today’s society. Often and specially by Western media, Kurdish women are depicted as brave soldiers, such that if you Google search Kurdish women, 99% of the pictures are all of soldiers, but there’s much more to this than what you find on Google. For example, I once had a professor here in Italy where I’m from, who wrote a really enlightening book on Kurdistan, considered as an invisible nation. And on the front page of his book, there was a Kurdish girl with a gun and he told me he was extremely upset about the editor’s choice because here in Italy, nobody knows about the great accomplishments and satisfactions, Kurdish women brought to their societies. And off course, some of them are fighting related, but some of them are also social and cultural. And this is why I say there is much more to the Kurdish woman. And this is why this webinar is so important. Kurdish women have not only shaped society, but have also created a new, vibrant democratic feminist model for the Kurdish community. For example, if we consider Syria, Kurdish women played a fundamental role in the creation of the bottom up society that is special only to Rojava. This is exactly what we will be talking about today. Kurdish women in Syria, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and also abroad, their role in the past, the present and the future.