Authoritarianism and Kurdish Alternative Politics: Governmentality, Gender and Justice by Latif Tas

Latif Tas investigates the triangular relationship between nationalism, justice and gender politics to explore how influencing this dynamic allows authoritarian rulers to stay in power for longer and justify their actions for monopolising power. Based on ethnographic research in Turkey, Syria, and Iraqi Kurdistan, as well as Kurdish diasporas in Europe, the book examines how communities challenge existing state power, authoritarianism and control. It focuses on alternative legal and political practices established by the PKK (Kurdistan Worker's Party) such as local policing, informal judicial mechanisms and taxing, and shows how this divergence from state-led systems forges a sense of community among Kurds and creates a de-facto parallel state. It pays particular attention to the Kurdish political movement's success in achieving its aim of redressing gender-based injustices to create an equal society.

Dr. Latif Tas is Marie-Curie Global Fellow at SOAS, UK. He has also been Member at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), Princeton (2019/2020), US. With a PhD from the Law Faculty, Queen Mary University of London (2012), he is a Social Scientist studying political violence, social justice, authoritarianism, social movements, migration and gender. He has been doing ethnographic research in Turkey, Germany, the UK, Iraq and Syria for last 13 years and has published extensively. His articles have appeared in many scholarly journals such as Nation and Nationalism, Third Wold Quarterly, Cambridge Journal of Law in Context, Journal of Middle East Women's Studies, International Journal on Minority and Group Rights, the Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law, Dissent and the Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern. His political commentaries published such as in Open Democracy, Public Anthropologist and the Brussels Times. He is also the author of Legal Pluralism in Action: Dispute Resolution and the Kurdish Peace Committee (Routledge, 2016).

Year: 2023

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