Houzan Mahmoud is a Kurdish feminist, writer, public lecturer and anti-war activist. She is the co-founder of Culture Project, an online and print magazine that gives a platform to Kurdish voices. She has written for the Guardian, openDemocracy, Independent and New Statesman.

The stories of women who lived, worked and struggled in Kurdistan

AcknowledgementsIntroduction - Houzan Mahmoud1. For the Execution of My Son, I Did Not Cry; There was Smoke Coming from My Soul - Told by Mother Sabria and written by Amira Mohammed2. The Last Cigarette Butt Before Execution - Told by Nazanin Hasan and written by Amira Mohammed3. A Stolen Childhood - Bayan Saeed4. Run Away: A Vision from a Woman's Perspective - Bayan Salman5. There is a Sorrow in my Heart that I Cannot Console - Susan Shahab6. The Prison Speakers Played Islamic Verses - Kobra Banehi7. Breaking the Bars of Home and Becoming a Peshmerga - Farah Shareefi8. Fighting an Islamic Regime - Nasrin Ramazanali9. Fuchsia Flower of My Brother (Nasiri Khoshkalam) - Nahiya Khoshkalam10. The Explorer Who Watched from a School Window - Bayan Nassih11. The Lost Photos of Engagement - Shahla Yarhussein12. My Story - Diba Alikhani13. At the Red Prison, They Want Workers - Rozhgaar Mustafa14. On Art, Womanhood, Being the 'Other' - Avan Omar15. In Search of Kurdishness: Our History, My Life - Simal (Anonymous)16. "To Be Ruken or not to Be Buket?" - Ruken Isik17. Life is an Ongoing Struggle - Khanda Rashid Murad18. A Woman of the Homeland of Rojava - Nafia Aysi Hasso19. A Handful of Blood - Khanda Hameed20. Except for Poetry, Nothing Else Shields Me - Hero Kurda21. Once Upon a Time in Rojava - Deejila Haydar22. A Day at Tel-Rafiat - Seveen Jimo23. This is the Story of My Life - Lanja Khawe24. I Struggle for Two Types of Liberation: Gender and Human Liberation - Dashne Nariman25. What Motivated me to Write? - Zhala HusseinIndex

Kurdistan has had a tumultuous history, and the women who lived there have experienced a life like no other. From Saddam Hussein's reign of terror beginning in the 1960s, to the fight against ISIS today, violence, revolution and questions around identity, agency, survival and resistance have been at the forefront of women's lives for decades. This book is a collection of these women's stories written in their own words. Each story reveals a tapestry of experiences, including political activism under Saddam and armed resistance in Rojava's PKK and YPG and Komala in Rojhalat. This is in addition to experiences of FGM and overcoming victimhood, life under extreme conservatism, as well as a look into the work of artists, poets, novelists and performers whose work represents a complicated relationship with Kurdistan. These rich and nuanced insights come from a group of women from a nation without a state, who are now scattered across the world. Collectively, they take the reader on a journey that will inspire feminist, anti-fascist and anti-racist people across the world.