Travels through Kurdistan: Batman

On the way to Mediye, a medium size town in Turkish Kurdistan, which has a small population of Syrian orthodox Christian and their monasteries and churches two of which we are going visit today we drive past the town of Batman. While my son Kabir and many other people find the name Batman in Kurdistan to be a bit left field and amusing it means something very different to me.

Turkish Kurdistan is land of contradictions on the one hand you have a majority of the Kurds fighting for the culture, identity, language and way of life yet at the same time the region is also very conservative with a very strong influence of Islam in real life and on Kurdish culture. (Alcohol, for instance, is very hard to find even in towns and cities.) During the recent Turkish elections, which president Erdogan’s party went on to shock and surprises all by losing heavily, Batman stood out as an example of change in Kurdish society with women while committed to the struggle for sub determination at the same time, challenging, patriarchy rampant within their culture.

Gulistan Sonuk of the pro Kurdish People’s Equalty and Democracy party, stood as a candidate in Batman, the heartland of Kurdish patriarchy and conservatism. It is a stronghold of the Huda-Par, deeply Islamist party whose candidate made the remark that when they were elected, they would allow women in the city to choose the colour of their veil.

You can see this coming. Sonuk all of 31 years of age went on to receive 65% of the vote event that cheered me up, no end.t

I smile and wave at Batman as we drive past