Women’s Empowerment in Rojava

A Negotiation between War, Revolution, and Tradition

Series: 

Author:
Dalir Barkhoda
How do revolutionary gender policies work amid political transformation and conflict? Based on ethnographic research in Rojava, north Syria, this book examines gender as a power relation organized around access to material resources, positions of authority, and the capacity to make life choices. You follow a processual analysis of how the interplay of war-related dynamics—economic hardship, mass emigration, shifts in the gender composition of society and the workforce, and the gender legislation and policies of the Rojava administration—reshapes everyday interactions in homes, workplaces, and public spaces. The book argues that while women gain new opportunities, these advances remain precarious, constrained by dominant patriarchal norms. Situating Rojava alongside historical cases from the United States and Britain during World War II and from Nicaragua and Vietnam during revolutionary and liberation wars, the study offers comparative insight into when wartime gains may—or may not—translate into lasting gender change in the post-conflict era.
Copyright Year:
2026
E-Book (PDF)
Availability:
Not Yet Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-76584-9
Publication:
30 Jul 2026
Hardback
Availability:
Not Yet Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-76581-8
Publication:
20 Aug 2026
Cover Women’s Empowerment in Rojava

Prices from (excl. shipping):

€105.50€100.00 excl. VAT
Not available for purchase
Dalir Barkhoda holds a PhD in sociology from Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen–Nürnberg, Germany. He is a researcher working on political sociology, power, social movements, participatory governance, and social change at Aarhus University, Copenhagen.
Preface
Acknowledgements
List of Figures, Maps and Tables
Abbreviations

1 Introduction
 1 Into the Limelight
 2 A Bid to Transform Gender and Society
 3 Debating Rojava
 4 Rojava in a Broader Context
 5 Gender, Power, and Social Transformation in Rojava
 6 A Note on Theory and Method

2 A Fragmented Context: Gender, Power, and Everyday Life in Rojava
 1 A Morning in Qamishlo
 2 Entering a Landscape of Contested Change
 3 Sites of Encounter: Institutions, Market, and Homes
 4 Researching with Care: Ethics in a Contested Landscape
 5 A World in Motion
 6 Unsettling the Rules: Institutional Reform and Everyday Power
 7 Concluding Reflections: Tracing the Threads

3 Rojava, a Brief History
 1 Syrian Kurds under the French Mandate
 2 The Growth of Kurdish Nationalism (1946–2012)
 3 The Paradoxical Situation of Syrian Women
 4 The Rise of the Rojava Administration and Women
 5 Concluding Reflections

4 Women’s Economic Empowerment
 1 Demands for Women’s Participation in the Economy
 2 Women in the Private Sector
 3 Women in the Public Sector
 4 Women’s Entry into the Workforce: Constraints and Facilitators
 5 Concluding Reflections: Between Necessity and Transformation

5 Women’s Political Empowerment
 1 Women in Positions of Authority
 2 Women’s Needs Identification
 3 Women’s Mobilization and Political Challenges
 4 Concluding Reflections: Contours of Women’s Political Empowerment

6 Women’s Capacity to Make Their Own Life Choices
 1 Strategies for Change: A New Approach
 2 Negotiating the Change
 3 Legislation: Language and Scope
 4 Concluding Reflections: Open Doors, Guarded Thresholds

7 The Social Organization of Gender in Everyday Life
 1 Women in Public: Not Secluded but Controlled
 2 Who Sits Where?
 3 Workplace: Shifting Boundaries and Persisting Norms
 4 Women’s Negotiations of Gender: Evading, Challenging, and Complying
 5 Concluding Reflections: Continuity and Change

8 A Precarious Process of Women’s Empowerment and Insights from History
 1 The Precarity of Women’s Empowerment in Rojava
 2 Cases from the History
 3 The Post-War Transition and Its Impacts on Women’s Roles
 4 Insights from the Past

9 Postscript: Rojava and Syria after Assad

Bibliography
Index
This book is relevant to scholars and postgraduate students in sociology, anthropology, gender studies, political science, governance and public administration, Middle Eastern and Kurdish studies, as well as policymakers and practitioners.
  • Collapse
  • Expand

Manufacturer information:
Koninklijke Brill B.V. 
Plantijnstraat 2
2321 JC
Leiden / The Netherlands
productsafety@degruyterbrill.com