Description
How can self-defence be understood in non-violent terms and as a principle of social movement organising? To what extent is a reconceptualization of self-defence as an organizing principle, viewed through a lens of non-violence, helpful in understanding emancipatory politics? Drawing on the particular conceptualisation of self-defence developed by the Kurdish movement in Turkey, particularly the Kurdish Women’s Movement, and putting it in conversation with broader literature on self-defence, this paper explores the framing of self-defence as a non-violent form of resistance. Accordingly, this paper draws on semi-structured in-depth interviews with Kurdish LGBTI+ activists, the archives of Turkey’s oldest LGBTI+ magazine, Kaos GL, and materials related to the Kurdish movement. The paper historicizes the idea of self-defence within Turkey’s broader LGBTI+ movement and discusses the different forms it takes, specifically in the Kurdish LGBTI+ mobilisation, such as storytelling and organizing.
