Feminist Governance in North and East Syria Negotiating Freedom, Gender Equality and Multiculturalism

Since the start of the Syrian revolution in 2011 and the ensuing civil war, the Kurdish-led Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES) has pursued a democratic-confederalist system of government that emphasises decentralisation, multiculturalism and the empowerment of marginalised groups. Enacting policies such as the Women's Law to promote women's freedom and combat patriarchy, its explicitly feminist constitution guarantees gender equality and women's rights. This book challenges prevailing narratives of North and East Syria (more widely known as Rojava) as a feminist utopia. Providing a nuanced analysis of the gendered power hierarchies at work, Julia Wartmann explores how DAANES' discourse and practice of gender equality produces women as particular kinds of subjects. She argues that the organisations charged with addressing women’s issues are structured by an us-versus-them binary which leads to the othering of Muslim Arab women and reproduces the racialised-sexualised boundaries that they set out to reject.