ANKARA — In 2004, a Kurdish woman was shot dead in her hospital bed in Istanbul for having had a baby out of wedlock. Her life was taken by relatives as the price of redeeming family honor. Last week, another Kurdish woman was shot dead in Paris because of her prominent role in one of the world’s bloodiest guerrilla groups. Her life was taken by unknown assassins in an apparent bid to sabotage Ankara’s fledgling efforts for peace with the rebels. Both murders have rattled Turkey in their own right, exposing the two opposite extremes that sway the lives of Kurdish women today. Some agonize in the die-hard grip of feudal traditions, while others keep pace with men at the forefront of warfare and politics.
Sakine Cansiz — a founding member of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) who was gunned down in Paris along with two other female Kurdish activists — was a legend among Kurds for the stamina and resilience she displayed in prison torture chambers after Turkey’s 1980 military coup. She is reputed to have spat in the face of her torturers, while never breaking down. An active fighter who helped organize the PKK’s women units, Cansiz was dispatched to Europe in the 1990s, reportedly to coordinate the group’s financing, which draws on drug smuggling and human trafficking.
