The voice of our own history
A center for women is important in order to be the voice of our own history. It is a historical responsibility for future generations to reveal, collect and preserve documents and information about women’s culture and production, lost in the dominant patriarchal culture. Today, however, there is not even a list (bibliography) of works written by or about women from Kurdistan. Compiling and examining the experiences of Middle Eastern women, who are an important link in the development of civilization, and especially Kurdish women, from the past to the present, appears as an urgent need. In addition to all these, institutional grounds are needed, especially for young women to advance in the intellectual and scientific fields, and to encourage them to research, write and produce. The Kurdish Women’s Library, Archive and Research Center aims to fill an important gap in the struggle of Kurdish women as a scientific research and memory center that brings together Kurdish and Middle Eastern women with women of the world.
Undoubtedly, these aims point beyond a static archiving and library activity. Based on Middle Eastern women, especially women from different languages and ethnicities living in Kurdistan, this center, which will serve multiple purposes, is basically shaped by three pillars, as stated in its name:
- To be a dynamic, lively and scientifically-based education and research center where studies aiming to reveal the multifaceted reality of women’s life and to raise awareness of the foundations of a free female identity despite the mentality that ignores women. To create a meeting space for women to discuss their lives, dreams and problems.
- To provide a library where every work that reflects the struggle, production, culture and consciousness of women from past to present in Kurdistan, and works and researches about and written by women can be read, watched and listened to.
- To enable an archive and memory center where not only written but also visual and auditory works will be collected and preserved, by compiling and analyzing the tales, lullabies, sayings, laments and songs in the oral tradition, which will allow women to establish a stronger and direct connection with their history.
The Kurdish Women’s Library, Archive and Research Center, which is located in Sulaymaniyah, is a project carried out with a jineological perspective, based on these needs and responsibilities. The geography of Kurdistan, fragmented by the borders of sovereign states, has long been in the grip of cultural and political fragmentation. In this respect, it is very important that the Center is shaped by a national vision that will overcome the borders and fragmentation imposed on the Kurds.