Challenges and Limitations of Doing Research with Kurdish Women Fighters

This article offers an autoethnographic analysis of the methodological and ethical challenges involved in conducting research with Kurdish women fighters in the pkk. Based on fieldwork carried out between 2017 and 2020 in the Kurdish regions of Iraq and Syria as well as Europe, the article examines how the author’s positionality shaped access, trust-building, and knowledge production in a militarized and politically sensitive environment. It argues that feminist research does not depend on the researcher’s gender, but on sustained reflexivity and an awareness of the power dynamics that operate between researcher, participants, and institutions. The analysis highlights how working in conflict zones entails navigating security concerns, institutional risk management, and the emotional and political pressures associated with researching a marginalized,
criminalized, and colonized movement. The article contributes to debates on feminist methodology, decolonial research practice, and the politics of doing fieldwork in the context of Kurdish armed struggle.