Page 104 - America's Failure to Perceive the PKK

citizens as a result of feudal views and a conception of Islam dissem-
inated by peddlers of nonsense. This is a very sensitive spot for the West,
and the PKK has made the most expert use of it. In the eyes of the West,
it appears to be the only community that even mentions women's rights
across a vast swathe of territory. This is the mask, the stratagem, of the
PKK that today most deceives Western writers who are thoroughly
unacquainted with the movement.

Öcalan, who in fact regards women as a degenerate, cancerous ele-

ment and the main component of the nuisance that is the family, a con-
cept which he regards as a hurdle that needs to be overcome, suddenly
developed a theme of freedom for women as of the 1990s as the req-
uisite of this tactical change. He depicted women as "a land needing
to be liberated" and produced the slogan "free woman means a free Kur-
distan".

The publications of the University of Illinois speak of this change
within the PKK as follows:

When the need arose in the organization, Öcalan
attempted to win women over, having previously
described them as ‘an element that corrupts
men', with slogans such as ‘A free woman for a
free Kurdistan'. In the light of such powerful
propaganda, many women seeking to escape the
feudal system believed it, but many of them
subsequently regretted it when they saw the true
face of the organization.

102 America's Failure to Perceive the PKK