The Limits of Trauma Discourse

Taking the Battle to Cyberspace : Delineating Borders and Mapping Identities in Western Sahara

“…For the South Kurdish context, collective suffering, especially under the dictatorship of the Baath regime , is the central feature of national identity. The key events of reference here are the annihilation of 8000 male members of the Barzani tribe in 1983, the chemical gas attack on Halabja with 5000 people killed, and the Anfal Campaign in 1988 with 182,000 men and women disappeared or murdered (Mlodoch 2015;Fischer-Tahir 2012).…”

The evolution of civil society and the rule of law regarding female genital mutilation in Iraqi Kurdistan.

“…Mlodoch calls the victimised survivors of the chemical attacks and forced relocations zhnan-î-Enfal, or Anfal Women. They share a collective, private "experience of economic, social, and gender-related constraints in the aftermath of Anfal, reinforcing their inner liminal status, keeping them in the role of waiting women, and restricting their possibilities to develop new life perspectives" 37 . Because they were caught in a limbo of mourning and waiting for their husbands and relatives to return, they were imprisoned in "traditional, patriarchal code of morals and ethics" with "patrilineal and patrilocal patterns" 38 .…”

“…However, Karin Mlodoch cautioned against homogenising women's voice in Iraqi Kurdistan through her ethnographic accounts with Anfal women. Because of the high levels of illiteracy among rural Anfal women, and because of their remoteness in geography and taboo experiences, "from the Kurdish elite's perspective, the often fragmented narratives of illiterate Anfal women do not qualify as testimonies to advocate for Kurdish rights and national interests" 61 . She clarified that "the civil society and women's rights movements growing in Iraqi Kurdistan since the end of the 1990s are strongly urban-centered" 62 , proving dangerous for the livelihood of Anfal women experiencing unjust shame and dishonour for their survival.…”

“…Because of the high levels of illiteracy among rural Anfal women, and because of their remoteness in geography and taboo experiences, "from the Kurdish elite's perspective, the often fragmented narratives of illiterate Anfal women do not qualify as testimonies to advocate for Kurdish rights and national interests" 61 . She clarified that "the civil society and women's rights movements growing in Iraqi Kurdistan since the end of the 1990s are strongly urban-centered" 62 , proving dangerous for the livelihood of Anfal women experiencing unjust shame and dishonour for their survival. While changes to women's rights may be happening at the surface level of legality, such as the 2002 KRG law abolishing "reduced penalties for the murder of a female family member by a male relative on grounds of family shame and dishonor" 63 , the lived experiences of rural women depended on awareness and implications of the law brought into their villages.…”

“…Anfal women began to receive a degree of closure with the conviction of Suddam Hussein and the autonomy of the KRG, both politically and communally. In addition to the uncovering of hundreds of mass graves to try to find loved ones, the KRG increased Anfal survivor pensions, "infrastructure, health, and education projects launched in Sumud/Rizgary", and "in 2008, most Anfal survivors received budgets to build houses" 80 . With so much domestic development underway yielding local empowerment and international transparency, though, "concern about the reputation of Kurdistan was articulated to Human Rights Watch by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry for Religious Affairs" for its 2010 FGM research 81 , and similar concerns were raised during WADI"s initial reports of high FGM prevalence.…”