The Purple Color of Kurdish Politics: Women Politicians Write from Prison

Gültan Kisanak, a Kurdish journalist and former MP, was elected co-mayor of Diyarbakir in 2014.Two years later, the Turkish state arrested and imprisoned her.Her story is remarkable, but not unique. While behind bars, she wrote about her own experiences and collected similar accounts from other Kurdish women, all co-chairs, co-mayors and MPs in Turkey; all incarcerated on political grounds.The Purple Color of Kurdish Politics is a one-of-a-kind collection of prison writings from more than 20 Kurdish women politicians.Here they reflect on their personal and collective struggles against patriarchy and anti-Kurdish repression in Turkey; on the radical feminist principles and practices through which they transformed the political structures and state offices in which they operated.They discuss what worked and what didn't, and the ways in which Turkey's anti-capitalist and socialist movements closely informed their political stances and practices.Demonstrating Kurdish women's ceaseless poli