Uncut Column

The Kurdish women's struggle in Iran represents a singular intersection of feminist and nationalist opposition to an oppressive theocratic state. While Iranian Islamic feminists protest mandatory hijab legislation from within the discourse of faith, Kurdish feminists embrace a more secular, left-leaning vision that openly challenges both state patriarchy and religious impositions. Their call, Jin, Jiyan, Azadi (Woman, Life, Freedom), has crossed borders and movements.

This article explores how gender is a social construct we unknowingly grapple with every day. It subconsciously seeps into the very fragments of how we act, present, and perceive ourselves. Using Butler’s theory of Performative acts and Gender Constitution, this article aims to reasonably back the idea of gender, not as a rigid and solidified binary, but rather a fluid identity.

This essay examines the rooted misogyny of left ideologies and the assumption that the left is progressive on gender. Although Marx and Engels only prioritised class as the source of social inequality, gender-based oppression existed before class and has not been satisfactorily tackled by most leftist movements. The essay compares early leftists' misogynistic arguments, like Proudhon, with feminist critique by intellectuals like Emma Goldman and Anuradha Gandhy.