1980’s

The 1980s were a decade of intense suffering and defiant survival for the Kurdish people across the Middle East, marked by war, state repression, displacement—and striking cultural resilience. In Iraq, Saddam Hussein’s regime launched the devastating Anfal campaign (1986–1989), which included mass executions, forced displacements, village destruction, and the notorious chemical attack on Halabja in 1988 that killed an estimated 5,000 civilians, many of them women and children. Despite such brutality, Kurdish communities in Iraq and across the border in Iran—where the Iran–Iraq War (1980–1988) raged—continued to resist through guerrilla warfare, civilian organization, and underground education. In Turkey, the decade began with the 1980 military coup and a ban on the Kurdish language, identity, and expression. In response, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) launched an armed insurgency in 1984, drawing support from disenfranchised Kurds in rural and urban areas, and significantly involving Kurdish women fighters, who began to emerge as iconic symbols of resistance. In exile and diaspora communities across Europe, Kurdish intellectuals and artists—many fleeing persecution—produced films, literature, music, and political theory, including works by and about Kurdish women, who increasingly took leading roles as both cultural producers and political actors. The rise of female guerrillas, mothers of martyrs, and exiled feminist voices gave new visibility to Kurdish women as not just victims of war, but as authors of a new narrative of survival, dignity, and defiance. Photographs from this era reflect not only violence and repression, but also the unshakable poise and courage of Kurdish women—as fighters, teachers, caregivers, and revolutionaries—amid the ruins of conflict and exile.