Salon: “What's in a name: Kurdish martyr Jîna Amini and the struggle for culture and history”

Demonstrators hold up placards with images of Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini who died while in the custody of Iran's morality police, during a demonstration in support of women and the Iranian protesters, on September 28, 2022. (JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP via Getty Images)

A young Kurdish woman made famous in death still has a lesson to teach us: Call her by her name

Life." That's what Jîna Amini's name meant in Kurdish, her native language. But after her death at the hands of Iran's "morality police" last month, the world began to know Jîna by what she considered her government name, Mahsa. 

Protests have erupted across the Middle East and the rest of the world for women's liberation with the rallying cry "Women, Life, Freedom" or "Jin Jiyan Azadi." But what many people don't know is that this phrase originated with a movement called Kurdistan Women's Liberation in Turkey in 2006. 

More than 16 years later, the phrase is being adopted by activists, fashion brands and news outlets, but few understand the historical context behind the chant, or the significance of centering Kurdish women in this movement. A chant that was intended to universalize the Kurdish struggle to women's democratic movements worldwide has been watered down. It was a specific phrase with important historical context, and that should not be forgotten.

———

Read the full story on Salon.