Fatemeh Karimi is an independent researcher, women's rights activist, and member of the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN). She holds a PhD in Sociology from the School of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences (EHESS), Paris. Her research focuses on Kurdish women, gender relations, and ethnicity in Iran and Kurdistan.

• IntroductionPart I: Kurdish Women in Revolution: The Path to Engagement1. Between Repression and Deprivation: Women Under the Pahlevi Dynasty2. Women’s Subordination in Kurdish SocietyPart II: Militant Trajectories Within Komala from the Revolution to 19813. The Eruption of Kurdish Women into Organized Political Life4. The Obstacles to Women’s Political Participation5. The Socio-Political Activities of Female Militants6. Becoming a Peshmerga Under State RepressionPart III: Patriarchy in the Lives of the Komala Peshmerga, 1981–19917. Peshmerga Women and the Problems of Integration8. Bodily Discipline and the Peshmerga9. Family Life Within the Organization10. The Disappearance of Peshmerga WomenConclusion

'An epistemic intervention addressing the neglect of Kurdish women’s experiences from Western and Middle Eastern feminist studies, as well as from Kurdish and Iranian studies, fields that have historically overlooked both women and Kurdish perspectives. Drawing on extensive interviews yet written with the immersive depth of longstanding ethnography, Fatemeh Karimi reveals how these women’s military, intellectual, and everyday contributions in post-revolutionary era were essential to the organisation and challenged traditional hierarchies, both in society and within the organisation'