As I am writing this editorial in October 2022, current events unfolding in Kurdistan are resonating around the globe in unprecedented ways. The death of the young Kurdish woman Jîna (Mahsa) Amini at the hands of Iranian morality police on 16 September has sparked mass protests in Iran, which at the time of writing are entering their fifth week. Some call them the greatest challenge to the Islamic Republic since its establishment. Protesters both inside and outside Iran have been rallying around the Kurdish slogan “Jin, Jiyan, Azadî” (translated in Persian as “Zan, zandagî, azadî”) indicating the profound gendered nature of an uprising that has been driven by women’s rage, resentment, and grievances. At the same time, the slogan also points to the Kurdish discontent at play in the protests, and repression has been especially fierce in the provinces of Kurdistan and Baluchistan. In this context, these protests should also be read as part and parcel of the century-old struggle for greater political and cultural freedoms against the Iranian state’s chauvinist tendencies. As editorial team of Kurdish Studies, we would like to express our solidarity with the protesters. While it is too early to tell what the outcomes will be, we believe the intersectional nature of both women’s and Kurdish grievances needs to be recognised and we hope that lasting change can be achieved.
It only befits this issue, then, to begin with a contribution that puts Kurdish women’s grievances, dreams, and aspirations centre stage. Wendy Hamelink’s interview with Houzan Mahmoud, editor of the book Kurdish Women’s Stories (2021), gives precious insight into the circumstances leading to the publication of the book, Mahmoud’s own experiences and motivations, and the intersectional struggle of Kurdish women. This will be Wendy’s last contribution as associate editor to the journal after many years of unswerving engagement. We would like to thank her for all her generous efforts throughout the years and wish her all the best for the future.
This issue of Kurdish Studies further boasts a rich academic content, with four research articles on underrepresented topics in our field. Ahmet Cevdet Aşkın’s contribution presents an analysis of the discourse employed in mainstream Turkish print media when covering news related to the Kurdish conflict. As Aşkın shows, this discourse is heavily invested in the construction of a non-Turkish “other” against which Turkish national identity gets defined.
The potency of language as a social force is also a central focus of the following research article by Esat Şanlı on the potentials and challenges of Zazaki translation efforts. Şanlı’s article provides a first scholarly account of such efforts by the Vate Group, underlining how translation can enrich a minority language like Zazaki while also highlighting the obstacles that translation efforts face.
Şerif Derince’s contribution on Kurdish language teaching in Berlin extends this volume’s focus on the sociopolitics of linguistic formations. Derince’s astute analysis of the introduction of Kurdish as a heritage language taught at public schools in Berlin sheds light on the reproduction of entrenched hierarchies within a context of multicultural politics.
Mustafa Dehqan and Vural Genç’s article, finally, takes us to the delicate power politics of seventeenth-century Bidlis under Kurdish rule. Based on the analysis of new archival documentation, the article highlights how Kurdish rule in the emirate unfolded through the careful negotiation of power at the local, regional, and imperial scale. The volume closes with a collection of book reviews that provide insight into current developments in our field.
Acknowledgements
For their efforts in translating the abstracts for this volume, we would like to thank Shenah Abdullah, Mahîr Dogan, and Kübra Sağır. Our thanks are also due to Janet Klein for her help with copyediting and to Sacha Alsancaklı, for bringing this volume together.