Voices That Matter: Kurdish Women at the Limits of Representation in Contemporary Turkey by Marlene Schäfers's (review)

Reviewed by: Voices That Matter: Kurdish Women at the Limits of Representation in Contemporary Turkey by Marlene Schäfers's Özgün Basmaz (bio) Marlene Schäfers's Voices That Matter: Kurdish Women at the Limits of Representation in Contemporary Turkey, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2022 The portrayal of Kurdish women as powerless victims has long been prevalent in the cultural and official nationalist narratives in Turkey. The Turkish state has strategically capitalized on these representations to stigmatize the Kurdish culture as backward and oppressive and to characterize Kurdish men as brutal, tyrannical, and prone to violence while advancing nationalist agendas and justifying ongoing military interventions in Kurdish populated regions. It is worth noting that even scholarly works, despite their intent to provide intersectional analysis of Kurdish women's experiences addressing both gender and ethnic identities, have sometimes inadvertently perpetuated this image of Kurdish women primarily as "the oppressed." In recent years, Kurdish women, particularly those involved in the YPJ (Yekîneyên Parastina Jin / women's protection units), have garnered significant recognition in Western academia and media. This increased visibility, especially since the lifting of the siege of Kobane in Syrian Kurdistan in 2015, has spotlighted Kurdish women combatants who actively participated alongside their male counterparts and U.S. forces in the fight against ISIS. Indeed, their active participation in traditionally male-dominated spheres of politics and the military has been celebrated not only for subverting the stereotype of Kurdish women. They were also acknowledged for opening new possibilities for subaltern agencies, political empowerment, and revolutionary practices among women, in their resistance against prevailing familial and societal expectations, along with oppressive imperial and patriarchal systems. However, the images of Kurdish women are often relegated to two extremes: either as silent, oppressed victims or as revolutionary freedom fighters. Within these portrayals, their experiences are often oversimplified End Page 295 and essentialized, with little to no consideration given to their diversity in terms of location, class, ethnicity, sexuality, and politics. It has also obscured our understanding of the intricate effects of both local and global conditions on their lives, shaped by globalization, neoliberal policies, imperialism, and various cultural and political dynamics. Marlene Schäfers's Voices That Matter: Kurdish Women at the Limits of Representation in Contemporary Turkey provides readers with a comprehensive and nuanced understanding of the diversity and complexity of Kurdish women's lives and experiences. This meticulously crafted ethnography delves into the profound world of women dengbêjs, Kurdish folk singer–storytellers who recite nonfictional stories, Kurdish legends and fables, and laments in long, wailing overtone singing. Voices That Matter offers a powerful account of their stories and their ongoing struggle for "voice" in contemporary Turkey. It emerges as a profound and thought-provoking contribution to the ongoing dialogue about voices, agency, and empowerment of the subaltern. The book skillfully connects the experiences, desires, and aspirations of women dengbêjs to the intricate conditions shaped by the complex interplay of patriarchy, capitalism, nationalism, and imperialism. It conducts a thorough analysis of the historical legacies, political significance, communal effects, and personal aspirations of women dengbêjs, all the while shedding light on how their experiences were shaped by the music market's dynamics and patriarchal and imperial disciplinary mechanisms at the backdrop of an ongoing situation marked by political conflict and state violence. By scrutinizing and challenging the prevalent assumption in feminist thought that inherently links voice—having a voice, raising one's voice—with liberation, empowerment, and agency, Schäfers encourages readers to reassess the limits and meanings of agency. The book is organized into five chapters alongside an introduction and conclusion. Through a comprehensive examination of the textual, poetic, and melodic qualities of the kilam genre, a fusion of singing and narration, chapter 1 provides an account of how women dengbêjs performing kilam evoke visceral emotions, making listeners tremble, shiver, or even shed tears. Schäfers explores the transformative, cathartic, healing, and provocative role of women dengbêjs who, through the artful stylization of their voice and narratives, convert individual pain and suffering into a communal experience. The writer contends that women dengbêjs undertake a vital social and political function. However, rather than...