Youth Identity, Politics and Change in Contemporary Kurdistan
Youth Identity, Politics and Change in Contemporary Kurdistan
Contributor(s): Shivan Fazil (Editor), Bahar Başer (Editor)
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Social Sciences, Economy, Literary Texts, Psychology, Essay|Book Review |Scientific Life, General Reference Works, Geography, Regional studies, Library and Information Science, Sociology
Published by: Transnational Press London
Keywords: Peace; Conflict and Violence Series; Bahar Baser; change; conflict; identity; Kurdish; Kurdistan; politics; Shivan Fazil; youth;
Summary/Abstract: Today’s youth are challenging the older political class around the world and are forming new political generations. Examples from South Africa and elsewhere where peace processes were deemed to be successful show signs of youth disapproval of the current post-conflict conditions. Moreover, the Arab Spring witnessed numerous youth movements emerge in authoritarian and illiberal contexts. This book was prepared in light of these discussions and aims to contribute to these ongoing debates on youth politics by presenting the situation of youth in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) as a case study. It will be the first book that specifically focuses on the Iraqi Kurdish youth and their political, social, and economic participation in Kurdistan.
The contemporary history of the KRI is marked by conflict, war, and ethnic cleansing under Saddam Hussein and the tyranny of the Ba’ath regime, significantly affecting the political situation of the Kurds in the Middle East. Most of the recent academic literature has focused on the broader picture or, in other words, the macro politics of the Kurdish conundrum within Iraq and beyond. There is little scholarship about the Kurdish population and their socio-economic conditions after 2003, and almost none about the younger generation of Kurds who came of age during autonomous Kurdish rule. This is a generation that, unlike their forebears, has no direct memory of the decades-long campaigns of repression. Studying and examining the rise of this generation of Kurdish young millennials—“Generation 2000”—who came of age in the aftermath of the United States invasion of Iraq offers a unique approach to understand the dynamics in a region that underwent a substantial socio-political transformation after 2003 as well as the impact of these developments on the youth population. Pursuing different themes and lines of inquiry the contributors of the book analyze the challenges and opportunities for young men and women to fulfil their needs and desires, and contribute to the ongoing quest for nationhood and nation-building.
- E-ISBN-13: 978-1-80135-079-2
- Print-ISBN-13: 978-1-80135-078-5
- Page Count: 251
- Publication Year: 2021
- Language: English
Foreword: Youth in the Kurdistan Region and Their Past and Present Roles
Foreword: Youth in the Kurdistan Region and Their Past and Present Roles
(Foreword: Youth in the Kurdistan Region and Their Past and Present Roles)
- Author(s):Karwan Jamal Tahir
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Politics / Political Sciences, Civil Society, Sociology
- Page Range:1-11
- No. of Pages:11
- Keywords:Peace; Conflict and Violence Series; Karwan Jamal Tahir; change; conflict; identity; Kurdish; Kurdistan; politics; youth; social; political; cultural; economic; Present Roles;
- Summary/Abstract:Youth are an essential part of any nation’s social, political, cultural, and economic capital. Nations and countries have defined this capital differently, and while there is no universally agreed international definition of the youth age group, the United Nations, for statistical purposes, describes “youth” as persons between the ages of fifteen and twenty-four.
- Price: 4.50 €
Kurdish Youth as Agents of Change: Political Participation, Looming Challenges, and Future Predictions
Kurdish Youth as Agents of Change: Political Participation, Looming Challenges, and Future Predictions
(Kurdish Youth as Agents of Change: Political Participation, Looming Challenges, and Future Predictions)
- Author(s):Shivan Fazil, Bahar Başer
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Civil Society, Governance, Government/Political systems, Social development, Peace and Conflict Studies
- Page Range:13-23
- No. of Pages:11
- Keywords:Political Participation; Kurdish Youth; Kurdish; Agents of Change; Future Predictions; Shivan Fazil; Bahar Baser; Scholars;
- Summary/Abstract:Scholars who research peacebuilding and post-conflict reconstruction repeatedly warn policymakers and practitioners that youth should be an indispensable component of peacebuilding strategies from the very start of peace negotiations that seek the reconstruction and development phases in conflict settings. The body of scholarly work on the role of youth in building sustainable peace has emerged rapidly in recent years, focusing on a wide range of topics, from deradicalization to youth employment as a peacebuilding strategy (Berents and Mollica 2020; Borer, Darby, and McEvoy 2006; Izzi,2013). However, as Berents and McEvoy-Levy (2015, 115) rightly assert, “Youth voices and experiences are still far from integrated or understood in critical security or other scholarly deliberations about peace praxis.” The literature often presents young people as a combative or destabilizing force within post-conflict communities (Ozerdem and Podder 2011) or as victims and passive recipients of conflict (Del Felice and Wisler 2007). But more recent studies suggest that they also work on the frontlines of peacebuilding, contributing to the rebuilding of civil society and the local economy (Ozerdem and Podder 2015). Berents and Mollica (2020) also underline that “youth are active peacebuilders who negotiate systems of insecurity and risk to work for peace in their communities and countries and on the international stage.” The academic literature is slowly catching up, yet policymakers and practitioners are still slow to consider the potential of youth. Policymakers must better tailor economic, socio-cultural, and political approaches toward youth engagement in order to enhance their agency in political processes. Therefore, we must ask what positive role youth can play in peacebuilding and development in postconflict societies and what can be done to enhance their positive contribution. To find answers to these questions, it becomes imperative that we “study further how youth think and feel about war and peace, peace processes, conflict and conflict resolution, politics and violence, themselves, the ‘other,’ and the ‘future’” (McEvoy‐Levy 2006, 285).
- Price: 4.50 €
Youth Political Participation and Prospects for Democratic Reform in Iraqi Kurdistan
Youth Political Participation and Prospects for Democratic Reform in Iraqi Kurdistan
(Youth Political Participation and Prospects for Democratic Reform in Iraqi Kurdistan)
- Author(s):Munir H. Mohammad
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Civil Society, Governance, Government/Political systems
- Page Range:25-45
- No. of Pages:21
- Keywords:Youth Political Participation; Democratic Reform; Iraqi Kurdistan; Kurdistan; Kurdistan Regional Government; political; parliament; political parties; civil society groups; informal politics;
- Summary/Abstract:Since the establishment of Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in 1991, political participation among youth has generally been an unseparated reality in the region’s political space. In the last three decades, Kurdish youth in the KRG have participated in three main activities: voting in local and national elections; participating in decision making institutions such as parliament, political parties, and civil society groups; and participating in informal politics such as demonstrations and protests. Despite youth participation in these three types of political activities, democratic reform in Iraqi Kurdistan (IK) remains weak and largely unsuccessful. Presently, the KRG faces serious challenges in consolidating its nascent democracy. This chapter asks why Kurdish youth participation has had limited impact in producing democratic reform and consolidating democracy in IK. It addresses this issue and aims to assess democratic reform in the Kurdistan region in regard to youth political participation. More specifically, it attempts to shed light on the current political situation of youth in IK, with a particular focus on their formal and informal participation in politics and the implications of their participation for democratic reform in Iraqi Kurdistan.
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Constructing Their Own Liberation: Youth’s Reimagining of Gender and Queer Sexuality in Iraqi Kurdistan
Constructing Their Own Liberation: Youth’s Reimagining of Gender and Queer Sexuality in Iraqi Kurdistan
(Constructing Their Own Liberation: Youth’s Reimagining of Gender and Queer Sexuality in Iraqi Kurdistan)
- Author(s):Hawzhin Azeez
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Politics / Political Sciences, History, Social Sciences, Economy, Literary Texts, Psychology, Essay|Book Review |Scientific Life, General Reference Works, Geography, Regional studies, Library and Information Science, Sociology
- Page Range:75-95
- No. of Pages:21
- Keywords:Queer Sexuality; Iraqi Kurdistan; Iraq; Kurdistan
- Summary/Abstract:Youth across the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) are consistently an influential generational cohort that contributes to progressive and evolving visions of Kurdishness. Not only are they impacting the nature of Kurdish identity through their activism and shrewd use of social media, but they are also moving toward a more critical views of patriarchal nationalism (Kurdayetî) and challenging gender norms. In the past half century, the KRI has become the locus of Kurdish nationalism, which has acted as a means of entrenching patriarchal, clientelistic, and patrimonial attitudes in the name of the national and Kurdish struggle against the Iraqi state. More recently, this patriarchal nationalism has become increasingly fragmentary, promoting a sense of disconnect and apathy within society, since the political elite has reduced Kurdayeti to a tool used to loosely legitimize their diminishing claims to power. This approach by the political elites has failed to create a united and consistent shared sense of belonging in society for a largely adolescent and youth cohort. Kurdish leaders continue to use past glories, struggles, successes, and achievements to maintain power, even as their current policies no longer feasibly represent or entice the evolving interests of a substantially youthful population.
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Social Media, Youth Organization, and Public Order in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq
Social Media, Youth Organization, and Public Order in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq
(Social Media, Youth Organization, and Public Order in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq)
- Author(s):Megan Connelly
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Media studies, Civil Society, Government/Political systems
- Page Range:47-73
- No. of Pages:27
- Keywords:Social Media; Youth Organization; Public Order; the Kurdistan Region of Iraq; Iraq; Kurdistan;
- Summary/Abstract:The advent of social media opened new spaces for the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI)’s youth to mobilize politically in a region where civil society organizations are otherwise controlled by and contained within the political bureaus of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).
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Kurdish Youth and Civic Culture: Support for Democracy Among Kurdish and non-Kurdish Youth in Iraq
Kurdish Youth and Civic Culture: Support for Democracy Among Kurdish and non-Kurdish Youth in Iraq
(Kurdish Youth and Civic Culture: Support for Democracy Among Kurdish and non-Kurdish Youth in Iraq)
- Author(s):Dastan Jasim
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Politics / Political Sciences, History, Social Sciences, Economy, Literary Texts, Psychology, Essay|Book Review |Scientific Life, General Reference Works, Geography, Regional studies, Library and Information Science, Sociology
- Page Range:97-123
- No. of Pages:27
- Keywords:Kurdish Youth; Civic Culture; Support for Democracy Among Kurdish; non-Kurdish Youth in Iraq
- Summary/Abstract:The foundations of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) were laid in 1991 and what started as a form of de facto autonomy became official in 2005, being enshrined in the new Iraqi constitution. This brought major changes to how Kurdish people were socialized in the newly established Kurdish region. A new generation was born in this decisive period during the 1990s that has now grown up to be citizens of the Kurdistan Region and Iraq, with the cohort of people under the age of thirty constituting most of the country. The systematic changes of governance in Kurdistan and Iraq in 1991 and 2003 have led to a situation in which the members of this cohort were politically socialized much differently than their parents.
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Youth and Nationalism in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq
Youth and Nationalism in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq
(Youth and Nationalism in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq)
- Author(s):Sofia Barbarani
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Civil Society, Nationalism Studies
- Page Range:125-138
- No. of Pages:14
- Keywords:Youth and Nationalism; Kurdistan Region of Iraq; Nazi Germany; nostalgic soul;
- Summary/Abstract:No matter where in the world you find yourself, the idea of youth and youth movements will always be a highly romanticized one. From the young men intent on bringing down France’s absolute monarchy in the late eighteenth century and Mazzini’s Young Italy movement in the nineteenth century, to the Edelweiss Pirates in 1930s Nazi Germany and the student-led anti-gun group founded three years ago in the United States following a deadly shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. For the nostalgic soul, youth movements are vestiges of days gone by—a time with few complications, other than fighting for one’s ideals. Although eruptive and episodic, these movements were far from unstudied; they were, instead, organized and conscious. They were attempts by young men and women to bring about or resist societal change and took on a variety of forms, including “student rebellions, cultural innovations (literary, artistic, music) scientific revolutions, religious reforms, ethnic revolts, nationalist and political generations, and environmental, peace and anti-war movements” (Braungart and Braungart 2001, 16668). Having focused on young diaspora Kurds during my master’s degree in London, I was introduced to Kurdish youth movements both from afar and within an academic setting. It wasn’t until I relocated to the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) in 2013 that I began to truly appreciate the intricacies of today’s youth and the challenges they face. In this chapter, I highlight such challenges while focusing on nationalism and the ways in which it is being championed by the youth of today.1 To better understand the current brand of youth nationalism, I will explore what the movement meant to Kurdistan’s forebears, why it changed so dramatically after the mid-twentieth century, and how it became multifaceted and unfixed.
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An Elitist Interpretation of KRG Governance: How Self-Serving Kurdish Elites Govern Under the Guise of Democracy and the Subsequent Implications for Representation and Change
An Elitist Interpretation of KRG Governance: How Self-Serving Kurdish Elites Govern Under the Guise of Democracy and the Subsequent Implications for Representation and Change
(An Elitist Interpretation of KRG Governance: How Self-Serving Kurdish Elites Govern Under the Guise of Democracy and the Subsequent Implications for Representation and Change)
- Author(s):Bamo Nouri
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Governance, Government/Political systems, Inter-Ethnic Relations
- Page Range:139-161
- No. of Pages:23
- Keywords:Serving; Kurdish Elites; Democracy; Kurdish; political; Iraq;
- Summary/Abstract:One consequential political breakthrough on the road to Kurdish independence was the formal establishment of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) in Iraq’s 2005 Constitution, which granted autonomy to the KRI and allowed the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to govern through parliamentary democracy. Proponents of Kurdish statehood viewed the official recognition of the Kurdistan Region as a crucial step toward furthering Kurdish autonomy in the neighboring states of Turkey, Iran, and Syria, with grander aspirations of an independent Kurdish nation-state. The possibility of Kurdish autonomy evolving further would be heavily dependent on the KRG’s establishment of a constitutional, democratic, and prosperous governance model that could represent a blueprint for similar structures in neighboring countries. Many viewed this as a momentous opportunity for the Kurds to build on previous soft-power gains—as popular proponents of freedom and democracy—by building a prosperous and democratic KRI. However, after fifteen years of formal KRG rule, the KRI has failed to live up to these expectations. Instead, the region has become a haven for repression, political violence, corruption, and oppression. This chapter posits an elitist argument based on empirical and analytical coverage of the KRG’s relations with the Government of Iraq (GOI), patronage politics, clientelism, partisan institutions, and constitutional violations by ruling elites in the KRI, analyzing how this has subverted democracy and prevented progressive change. The drawbacks are almost immeasurable and limitless, as symptomatic disseminations of a stagnated elitist system span far and wide. One key implication that this chapter will highlight is how a dysfunctional elitist political system has contributed to a disillusioned generation of youth who have lost faith in the KRI’s political system. This is evidenced by significantly low—and decreasing—voter turnout in tandem with a diminished reliance on political participation as an avenue for political change in addition to a festering mental health crisis.
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Educational Policy in the Kurdistan Region: A Critical Democratic Response
Educational Policy in the Kurdistan Region: A Critical Democratic Response
(Educational Policy in the Kurdistan Region: A Critical Democratic Response)
- Author(s):Abdurrahman Ahmad Wahab
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Politics / Political Sciences, Education, Governance
- Page Range:163-183
- No. of Pages:21
- Keywords:Educational Policy; Kurdistan Region; Democratic Response; nationalism; nation-state;
- Summary/Abstract:In this section, I examine the meaning and scope of nationalism and the idea of a nation as a modern social and political construct. I briefly elaborate on the principles and factors of nationalism and illustrate the modernist project of nationalism in constructing the concept of a nation and establishing a modern state through processes such as power, ideology, and hegemony in homogenizing the national culture. I then scrutinize the roles and positions of education as they pertain to nationalism within the process of establishing a modern nation-state.
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Making Heaven in a Shithole: Changing Political Engagement in the Aftermath of the Islamic State
Making Heaven in a Shithole: Changing Political Engagement in the Aftermath of the Islamic State
(Making Heaven in a Shithole: Changing Political Engagement in the Aftermath of the Islamic State)
- Author(s):Lana Askari
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Politics / Political Sciences, Governance
- Page Range:185-200
- No. of Pages:16
- Keywords:Political; Islamic State; Kurdish; Islamic State; Kurdistan Region; transnational;
- Summary/Abstract:This chapter draws out how Kurdish youth frame and retain hope for the future through political engagement, despite their ongoing disappointment in Iraqi Kurdish parties. By situating Kobanî and the Rojava Revolution as “critical events” in the Kurdish imagining, this chapter focuses on how, in the aftermath of the fight against the Islamic State (IS), multiple new perspectives on confronting uncertainty emerged through political engagement among youth in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI). I argue that the war against IS and the mobilization of Kurdish forces created new spaces for young Kurds to imagine and work toward changing social and political structures in KRI that were centered on social inclusion, diversity, and gender equality. Based on fieldwork conducted in the city of Silêmanî between 2015 and 2016, I explore two types of political engagement amongst youth. First, I explore social activism as political engagement in the context of a post-conflict region through the story of Azad, a student who seeks to improve society through the promotion of the multiethnic, multicultural, and multireligious make up of Iraq. Second, through a Kurdish returnee and former guerrilla fighter named Hoshyar, I discuss how the ongoing Kurdish political struggle has changed militarized political engagement among Kurdish youth due to new transnational ties with the diaspora and Western audiences.
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Kurdish Youth and Religious Identity: Between Religious and National Tensions
Kurdish Youth and Religious Identity: Between Religious and National Tensions
(Kurdish Youth and Religious Identity: Between Religious and National Tensions)
- Author(s):Ibrahim Sadiq
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Theology and Religion, Politics and religion, Politics and Identity, Identity of Collectives
- Page Range:201-222
- No. of Pages:22
- Keywords:Kurdish Youth; Religious Identity; Religious and National Tensions; Kurdish;
- Summary/Abstract:According to official figures published by the KRG Ministry of Planning, the percentage of individuals aged thirty and younger in the region constitutes two-thirds of the population. Half of the region's population is under the age of twenty, demonstrating the significant share of the population constituted by young people (KRG 2013). At this susceptible stage of life, youth seek “active engagement in processes of identity formation” (Ryan 2014, 447), and if their energies are not directed and invested in line with a national strategy, the potential repercussions could negatively affect their future and that of the region in general.
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Youth Radicalization in Kurdistan: The Government Response
Youth Radicalization in Kurdistan: The Government Response
(Youth Radicalization in Kurdistan: The Government Response)
- Author(s):Kamaran Palani
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Politics / Political Sciences, Governance
- Page Range:223-237
- No. of Pages:15
- Keywords:Iraqi Kurdistan; disillusionment; government reforms; insufficient policies; political; historical; Kurdistan; dissatisfaction; Kurdish; authorities; identity; Kurds; political class; anti-authority;
- Summary/Abstract:Iraqi Kurdistan has become increasingly polarized in recent years, fueled byrising youth dissatisfaction and disillusionment with the authorities. Some factors to explain the tremendous pressures youth are facing (see Said 2019) include the post-2014 financial crisis, a lack of effective anti-corruption government reforms, insufficient policies to empower youth (see Jiyad, Küçükkeleş, and Schillings 2020, 40–44), and widening political divisions. It is not the historical struggle for independence from the Iraqi state that defines the priorities and dreams of the people of Kurdistan today but, rather, youth dissatisfaction and anger toward the Kurdish authorities. A new identity is thus emerging among young Kurds within which the political class is viewed as “the other” (Palani 2021, 4). This anti-authority sentiment translates into different manifestations of resistance against, and disengagement with, political processes, ranging from emigration to Europe (NRT 2020), protest movements (Costantini 2020, 6), and potential youth radicalization, which is the main concern of this chapter.
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