In the second part of her interview with ANF, Jineology Academy member Elif Kaya discussed Abdullah Öcalan’s observation in his Manifesto for Peace and a Democratic Society: “Unless the culture of rape is overcome, the truth of society cannot be revealed.” Kaya explained that rape is not limited to forced sexual acts, but functions as a mechanism of domination and the breaking of will that permeates every sphere of social life.
Kaya drew attention to the fact that rape is not only an individual violation but also a tool through which the state reinforces social domination. She said, “A rape committed against one woman is a warning directed at all women, activating every structure of domination,” emphasising Abdullah Öcalan’s definition of this culture as a process of “feminisation” that renders society powerless.
Kaya also examined the rape culture imposed on the Kurdish people through its historical and political dimensions. She noted that Kurds have been erased from both national and international agreements, describing this erasure as a profound attempt to break collective will. She stressed that sexual violence against women has always stood at the centre of occupation policies, designed to weaken social resistance.
Elif Kaya said that no force could ever subdue a woman who becomes conscious and emphasised that Jineology equips women with the awareness to reclaim their own existence, organise collectively and build the strongest form of defence against the culture of rape.
The first part of the interview can be read here.
How should a struggle be waged against such a deeply rooted culture when we consider Öcalan’s assessment that “the truth of society cannot be revealed unless the culture of rape is overcome”?
Rape encompasses a wide range of assaults designed to dominate and break a person’s will. At its core, it is an abuse of power, a violation that recognises neither the will nor the boundaries of another. In a reality shaped by rape, talk of democracy, equality, conscience or freedom becomes meaningless. In fact, where rape exists, even the idea of humanity collapses. This culture has seeped so deeply into every layer of social life that it has become disturbingly normalised.
Perhaps the first question we need to ask is whether such practices can truly constitute a “culture”, whether something rooted in breaking another’s will and stripping them of their humanity can be defined in those terms. Yet because these practices have historical foundations and have spread throughout social life, they are indeed named as a culture. It can be described as a “reversed culture,” a “counter-culture,” one whose origins go back to the earliest rupture between women and men and has only deepened over time.
Within this framework, rape cannot be reduced to forced sex or non-consensual intercourse. Sexual assault is only one dimension of rape, the dimension we see most clearly and talk about most often. Other forms, however, are either ignored or allowed to slip into normalisation.
Woman was the first being to be colonised in history; accordingly, the very first act of rape was carried out against the female body.
Rape can perhaps be understood more clearly by distinguishing between its two main forms: those rooted in male domination and those rooted in state domination. Both seek to establish power, yet one unfolds between women and men, while the other operates through the relationship between the state and society.
An act of rape activates all structures of domination
Could you elaborate on this?
When we look at history, mythology offers countless examples of rape. There is hardly a single goddess whom Enki or Zeus did not assault. Out of these rapes, new “civilisations”, in other words, systems of domination, are born. The position of society in relation to the state, and of women in relation to men, is shaped through these narratives. For instance, the Scythians, renowned in history for their warrior culture, would kill the king of a conquered land, capture the queen and rape her in front of the throne. The throne symbolised authority and rule. Raping the queen before it was a declaration that the will of the society had been broken and that the land had been seized. In this sense, the female body becomes identified with the land itself, with the community’s collective being. Rape, therefore, is not a mere biological violation; it is a mechanism through which domination is reproduced and extended across an entire society. A rape committed against one woman is a warning directed at all women. A single act of rape activates all relationships of domination and ensures their continuation.
Abdullah Öcalan defines this rape culture, embedded within society, as a process of “feminisation”, the reduction of society to the position historically imposed on women. A society whose will has been broken is pushed down to the level reserved for women, who have been the most oppressed and the most stripped of will throughout history.
Above all, human beings derive meaning only through the society and the natural world into which they are born. An attack on one inevitably affects the other. Violence against women spreads into society and from there into nature and the reverse is equally true.
The erasure of Kurdish existence is the deepest form of violation
In that case, when we look at the history of occupation in Kurdistan, it becomes clear that Kurdish society, women and men alike, has been subjected to this culture of rape. How does this manifest today?
For the Kurdish people, this reality is even more severe. Kurds cannot even be classified within the standard framework of colonial subjects. In national and international agreements, the Kurdish people simply do not exist. The silence sustained for a century, despite the enormous massacres Kurds have endured, stems directly from this erasure. When a people is denied existence, the assumption follows that their destruction does not count as a crime. Kurds have been condemned to the most tragic form of being: a state in which they must constantly prove that they exist. It is the most painful condition imposed on people, to be forced to prove one’s own existence. Even when Kurds are killed, they find themselves in a position where they must prove the fact of their own death. Over the past century, Kurds have suffered countless massacres, yet, aside from the most recent Yazidi genocide, none elicited a strong international response. This is because Kurdish existence has been divided among four nation-states, and Kurds have been instructed to obey the dominant nation in the same way that women are told to obey men.
For this reason, rape culture must also be understood through this dimension. The erasure of existence is the deepest form of violation, the most profound attempt to break a people’s will. Kurds have been forced into becoming something other than themselves through the banning of their own values. Their identity, language and existence were prohibited, pushing them toward a state of non-being. These policies are practices that deepen the culture of rape.
Rape against women lies at the centre of all occupation policies
In the context of the occupation processes in Kurdistan and state policies, what is the purpose of sexual violence against women, and how does it reflect on society?
Sexual violence against women is far more extensive and lies at the very centre of all occupation policies. This is why detention facilities become the primary sites where rape is systematically carried out by the state. Women are assaulted in order to force submission; the aim is to impose silence and, in a sense, to erase them. At times, a woman is raped in front of a male relative to force him to speak or to break his will. In these cases, the woman is treated as an extension of the man and is punished for his actions. In every instance, the common objective is to shatter the will of the individual and, by extension, the will of society. These practices, initially directed at women, eventually expand to encompass the entire population.
In Kurdistan, the destruction of women, nature and society unfolds simultaneously. Sexual violence against women is closely intertwined with policies targeting the land and the community. In recent years, particularly in the case of Ipek Er, we have seen how occupation becomes embodied in the female body.
Why does a man rape a woman? It is not because he cannot control his impulses; it is because he seeks to subjugate the person before him and break her will. Once a person’s will is broken, they lose the strength to resist any form of domination and eventually submit. Over the past years, the widespread rape and murder of young women by state institutions in Kurdistan has been pursued as part of a broader strategy to sustain territorial occupation.
In almost every part of Kurdistan, prostitution networks have been established as a component of special warfare tactics. When it was revealed in 2010 that a gang, which included the deputy headmaster of a school in Siirt, had forced female students into prostitution, the governor of Siirt at the time openly defended the policy. By saying, “Let them prostitute themselves instead of going to the mountains,” he exposed the fact that these practices were planned and supported by the state.
No force can subdue a woman who becomes conscious
What should the main steps of resisting the culture of rape be? And what role does Jineology play in this context?
The most fundamental way to fight rape is to raise one’s consciousness and reclaim one’s own existence. Rape operates not only through physical coercion but also through distortions of consciousness and tools of psychological domination. For this reason, resistance requires stronger organisation, deeper consciousness-building, and making self-defence a central field of work. To achieve this, we must prioritise the kinds of practices that allow us to access our own knowledge and liberate ourselves from false consciousness and alienation. This is precisely why Jineology exists. The effort to understand and define our own existence through our own knowledge is vital. By strengthening communal life, organising in our neighbourhoods, villages and apartment buildings, we can protect our youth and our future. No force can subdue a woman, or a person, who becomes conscious.
TOMORROW: The culture of free women and the definition of communal womanhood