The Kurdish Women’s Library, Archive and Research Center was inaugurated on June 24, 2023 in Sulaimaniyah with the participation of Kurdish women, scattered all over the world and divided by the borders of four nation-states, as well as their friends.
The Kurdish Women’s Library, Archive and Research Center was the dream of Nagihan Akarsel and of many Kurdish women. Nagihan, who worked hard to make this dream a reality, is no longer with us. This dream became a reality at the expense of her life. This is the most basic information about who we are, our reason for being. Carrying the burden of this knowledge, we want to share why we felt the need to open such a center and what it means for the women’s struggle.
The assumption that those who do not leave documents and evidence that conform to classical, determined forms do not have a history, has been disapproved by women. As much as women write their herstories, speak out with their own words, the male-dominated mentality of history is being destroyed. History turns to be a lively, dynamic, colorful bridge in between memory and future. With this aspect, the women’s struggle is also a struggle to remember and remind.
It is known that the history of Kurdish studies and historical studies of the Kurds themselves is very recent in general terms. From this point of view, the history of Mesopotamia and Kurdistan and the way women take part in it should be re-evaluated and handled from a woman’s point of view. Therefore, for the women of Kurdistan and the Middle East, who are caught in the grip of orientalism, colonialism and patriarchy, expressing themselves in their own language and methods emerges as an irrecusable need for today.
How will women from Kurdistan and the Middle East describe themselves and their struggles, and how will they connect with their own history? How will the women of this geography create their own sources of information, where will they steer, and with what memory will they weave their future? We build the foundation of the Kurdish Women’s Library, Archive and Research Center on these questions. We carry out such a project in Kurdistan, where women’s language and culture is still a living source of sociality, despite being under the pressure of the male-dominated system.
Although the recent establishment of centers that carry out important studies on Kurdistan and the Kurdish people and collect information, documents and archives is valuable, it has not been shaped to meet the needs of women. On the other hand, it is clear that with the positivist scientific paradigm on which the patriarchal system is based, neither the history of women can be written nor the reality of women can be analyzed and documented with different aspects.
In these circumstances, revealing and protecting the female memory of Kurdistan emerges as a necessity for women. Scientific, literary, artistic and philosophical studies need to be developed on their own roots, producing their own knowledge, looking at themselves with their own identity – not through someone else’s eyes. For this, on the one hand, it is necessary to collect the crumbs left from women with a retrospective study. On the other hand, based on the principle that history is hidden in our day, it is necessary to collect and preserve the voices, words and works of our contemporary women in order to transfer them to the future.Now, as we give life to the Kurdish Women’s Library, Archive and Research Center project with collective effort and will, we draw strength from our history, our struggle and the common mind of women.