From all four parts of Kurdistan and across the diaspora, Kurdish women from different geographical, political and educational backgrounds pick up a pen, reflect and remember. Going beyond exoticising stereotypes and patriarchal representations, Kurdish Women's Stories gives twenty-four women authorial freedom to write about their own lived experiences. With contributors ranging from 20 to 70 years of age, we hear stories of imprisonment, exile, disappearances of loved ones, gender-based violence, uprisings, feminist activism and armed resistance, including first-hand accounts of political moments from the 1960s to today. Conceived as part of Culture Project's self-writing program, this book is essential reading for anyone who wants to better understand the struggle of Kurdish women through their own words.

AcknowledgementsIntroduction - Houzan Mahmoud1. For the Execution of My Son, I Did Not Cry; There was Smoke Coming from My Soul - Told by Mother Sabria and written by Amira Mohammed2. The Last Cigarette Butt Before Execution - Told by Nazanin Hasan and written by Amira Mohammed3. A Stolen Childhood - Bayan Saeed4. Run Away: A Vision from a Woman's Perspective - Bayan Salman5. There is a Sorrow in my Heart that I Cannot Console - Susan Shahab6. The Prison Speakers Played Islamic Verses - Kobra Banehi7. Breaking the Bars of Home and Becoming a Peshmerga - Farah Shareefi8. Fighting an Islamic Regime - Nasrin Ramazanali9. Fuchsia Flower of My Brother (Nasiri Khoshkalam) - Nahiya Khoshkalam10. The Explorer Who Watched from a School Window - Bayan Nassih11. The Lost Photos of Engagement - Shahla Yarhussein12. My Story - Diba Alikhani13. At the Red Prison, They Want Workers - Rozhgaar Mustafa14. On Art, Womanhood, Being the 'Other' - Avan Omar15. In Search of Kurdishness: Our History, My Life - Simal (Anonymous)16. "To Be Ruken or not to Be Buket?" - Ruken Isik17. Life is an Ongoing Struggle - Khanda Rashid Murad18. A Woman of the Homeland of Rojava - Nafia Aysi Hasso19. A Handful of Blood - Khanda Hameed20. Except for Poetry, Nothing Else Shields Me - Hero Kurda21. Once Upon a Time in Rojava - Deejila Haydar22. A Day at Tel-Rafiat - Seveen Jimo23. This is the Story of My Life - Lanja Khawe24. I Struggle for Two Types of Liberation: Gender and Human Liberation - Dashne Nariman25. What Motivated me to Write? - Zhala HusseinIndex