Kurdish Agency in Denmark and the Challenges Facing the Diaspora Community

Khurshidi, Jil

4. term

Culture, Communication and Globalization, Master

2025

58

This thesis examines how Kurds in Denmark, as part of the diaspora, exercise agency—the ability to act and shape their lives and community. It draws on Boaventura de Sousa Santos’s “epistemologies of the South,” which value knowledge from marginalized contexts, and on scholarship that describes a triadic relationship between homeland, diaspora, and host country. The research is based on interviews with members of The Dialogue Club, a Kurdish grassroots organization that hosts cultural, intellectual, and social events about Kurdish identity and history. Interpretation was guided by thematic analysis and postcolonial theories, which study how colonial power relations persist over time. From The Dialogue Club’s perspective, reclaiming agency means breaking with inherited patterns that reproduce domination linked to capitalist, colonial, and patriarchal systems of power. They identify three main challenges: (1) extremist Islamist movements that seek to recruit Kurdish youth; (2) Kurdish political parties whose financial resources contribute to fractures within the diaspora; and (3) Danish government attitudes toward immigrants and weak integration policies that do not produce meaningful results. The Dialogue Club addresses these challenges through community-building and grassroots initiatives that rebuild Kurdish identity in the diaspora on feminist, secular, and democratic principles, while rejecting political ideologies that exclude diverse opinions. They foreground women’s roles and devote many events to women’s autonomy in Kurdish society. They also encourage the creation of hybrid cultures that connect Kurdish identity with Danish culture. This blending is also seen as a safeguard against Islamist recruiters by reducing social isolation among young people. The analysis underscores how the triadic relationship shapes diaspora identity, with community-building in Denmark unfolding in parallel with developments in Kurdistan. In this sense, The Dialogue Club can be viewed as a small-scale community that puts into practice elements of democratic confederalism prevalent in North Kurdistan (Turkey) and West Kurdistan (Syria).

Dette speciale undersøger, hvordan kurdere i Danmark som en del af diasporaen udøver handlekraft—evnen til at handle og forme deres eget liv og fællesskab. Det bygger på Boaventura de Sousa Santos’ “Sydens epistemologier”, som tillægger viden fra marginaliserede sammenhænge værdi, og på forskning, der beskriver en trekantet relation mellem hjemland, diaspora og værtsland. Undersøgelsen bygger på interviews med medlemmer af The Dialogue Club, en kurdisk græsrodsorganisation, der arrangerer kulturelle, intellektuelle og sociale begivenheder om kurdisk identitet og historie. Fortolkningen er guidet af tematisk analyse og postkoloniale teorier, som undersøger, hvordan koloniale magtforhold lever videre. Ifølge The Dialogue Club betyder det at generobre handlekraft at bryde med nedarvede mønstre, der genskaber dominans knyttet til kapitalistiske, koloniale og patriarkalske magtsystemer. De peger på tre hovedudfordringer: 1) ekstremistiske islamistiske bevægelser, der søger at rekruttere kurdisk ungdom; 2) kurdiske politiske partier, hvis økonomiske ressourcer bidrager til splittelser i diasporaen; og 3) den danske regerings syn på indvandrere og svage integrationspolitikker, som ikke fører til meningsfulde resultater. The Dialogue Club møder disse udfordringer gennem fællesskabsopbygning og græsrodsinitiativer, der genopbygger kurdisk identitet i diasporaen på feministiske, sekulære og demokratiske principper og afviser politiske ideologier, der udelukker mangfoldige synspunkter. De fremhæver kvinders rolle og afholder mange arrangementer om kvinders autonomi i kurdisk sammenhæng. Samtidig søger de at fremme skabelsen af hybride kulturer, der kan forbinde kurdisk identitet med dansk kultur. Denne sammensmeltning ses også som et værn mod islamistiske rekrutteringsforsøg ved at mindske social isolation blandt unge. Analysen fremhæver, at den trekantede relation former diasporaidentitet, og at fællesskabsopbygning i Danmark løber parallelt med udviklinger i Kurdistan. I den forstand kan The Dialogue Club betragtes som et lille fællesskab, der omsætter elementer af demokratisk konfederalisme, som er udbredt i Nordkurdistan (Tyrkiet) og Vestkurdistan (Syrien), til praksis.

[This apstract has been rewritten with the help of AI based on the project's original abstract]

Kurds ; Diaspora ; Rojava ; Identity ; Agency ; Epistemologies of the South ; Hybrid cultures ; transborder citizenship ; Kurdish ; Kurdistan ; Denmark ; Migration

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