Diaspora and Citizenship

Kurdish Women in London

Abstract

The paper is about the notions of Diaspora and citizenship in the case of Kurdish women from Turkey living in Britain. It begins by briefly looking at the concept of Diaspora and citizenship. It then looks at the issues of Kurdish refugees in general and Kurdish women in particular. This part of the paper is based on exploratory research that I have been involved in since 1999 that involves an investigation of social and physical spaces occupied by Kurdish people in the Diaspora. Also included are some recent interviews of Kurdish women living in London. The paper argues that ethnic collectivities are not homogenous groupings; rather individuals are positioned differentially within their collectivity with regard to their gender, class, culture, sexuality and other social categories. As a result, certain individuals possess more power than others within the same collectivity. Existing studies homogenizing Kurdish people are gender blind and render women invisible. Gender difference as a category is absent from the work of scholars on the issue (see: Van Bruinessen, 1978; Olson, 1996; Gunter, 1997; Kirisci and Winrow, 1997; McDowall, 1997; Barkey and Fuller, 1998).