This report explores the hitherto untold experiences of women human rights defenders in East and South East Turkey, a burning issue. As in other situations of violent conflict and gendered and ethnic oppression, women in the Kurdish region of Turkey have been disproportionately affected from curtailed access to education, decent employment, loss of livelihoods. For decades they have experienced military conflict, internal displacement and the attendant social, economic and political strains, which often work to circumscribe women’s lives and render them more vulnerable to gendered control, both by the state and its security forces and their families and communities.
