Based on 15 in-depth narrative interviews with Kurdish women activists in the diaspora (Norway, Sweden, the UK, the Netherlands and Germany), this paper investigates the participants’ life stories and transformations. They were and are active in grassroots activist projects aiming at improving Kurdish (women’s) lives. How did their perspectives and activities develop in dialogue with the different gender regimes, activisms and feminisms in home- and host-countries?
Theoretically, I build on Walby’s work on gender regimes (Walby 2009, 2020), that can be defined as the cultural, legal, political and economic structures that influence gender relations and the division of gender roles in a certain place/society and historical moment. I also build on the intersectional and postcolonial perspective as developed by Wekker (2016). Methodologically, I search for transnational patterns of lived experience, action and agency (Anthias 2012).
Building up a new life in Europe, the participants brought with them the experiences they had with intersecting inequalities in the Middle East, and look at gender, race and class relations in their home and host countries from this critical perspective. This in-between position offers a unique position from which they engage critically with various narratives and practices. The interviews show that after migration, most participants initially experienced isolation and a loss of meaning. However, after a transition period, they developed new viewpoints and practices. Their newly developed activist perspectives do not only feed back into feminisms in the home countries, but are, arguably, also inspiring and useful for feminist movements in the host countries.
