Houzan Mahmoud

Houzan Mahmoud, ed., Kurdish Women’s Stories (Pluto Press, 2021). Nonfiction. A collection of autobiographical stories by Kurdish women. 

Discussed at our Book Club on July 5, 2022.

Houzan Mahmoud is a Kurdish feminist writer, public lecturer, and activist. She grew up in Başur from 1973 to 1991 under the bloody Hussein dictatorship. Now living in the UK, she is a co-founder of the Culture Project: Art, Feminism and Gender, a platform where emerging and established Kurdish writers, feminists, artists and activists can have space to write openly and freely, especially about issues of gender, both in Kurdistan and in the diaspora.

These twenty-five stories were written by women from all parts of Kurdistan, many from Bashur. The stories grapple with many common themes, including forced migration, disappeared family members, and imprisonment. Many of the women share a common exposure to violence against their bodies, psychology, and sexuality, violence.  Among Kurds, brutality at the hands of state authorities is a normal experience, yet it is and must always remain shocking. Women in these stories often refused to give torturers the satisfaction of seeing them cry, let alone bend to them. Their courage and strength are compelling. 

Kurdish Women’s Stories is available for purchase from Pluto Press.

Houzan Mahmoud was interviewed by Xeyal Qertel on International Women’s Day for the NYKCC’s Kurdish Heritage Month in 2022. Length: 40 minutes | Language; English