Challenging the Gender Regime through Small-scale Activism: Alternative Citizen-Led Projects in Kurdistan/Türkiye

Abstract

This article investigates local initiatives among women in Kurdistan/Türkiye and labels them “small-scale activism,” and reports that they offer an alternative to state and party feminism, as well as to civil society organizations. We argue that, through small-scale political acts, women work on several levels simultaneously. First, their actions grow out of a dissatisfaction with the existing gender regime created by an interplay between various macro- and micro-forces (such as state structures, societal norms, economic opportunities, violence), producing structural inequalities. Second, the projects can be seen as political acts that simultaneously challenge or evade state oppression and Kurdish alternative politics. These micro-interventions grew in importance with the implementation of the Trustee system after the 2016 failed military coup. Theoretically, we position small-scale activism between social movement and social non-movement and show how it challenges the gender regime in the context of an authoritarian state and violent conflict.