Gênero, guerra e orientalismo: o confederalismo democrático e a representação das curdas em Rojava pela mídia ocidental

Abstract

This study has as subject matter the Kurdish women of Rojava, the Syrian Kurdistan. Essential participants of the Kurdish movement for liberation, autonomy and international recognition, the Kurdish women were recently transformed into symbols for this national quest by mainstream media, that since 2014 has reported on their active presence in Syria’s civil war, focusing particularly in the battles they have fought against the Islamic State. Therefore, the main goal of this study is to investigate the way Kurdish women have been represented by mainstream media, from 2014 to 2018. For this purpose, the articles published about them by the media agencies The Guardian and Daily Mail, two of the most influential in a global scale, were chosen as primary sources. More specifically, this dissertation will feature the historical, political, ideological and social context in which the Kurds are integrated, and then it will dissect the articles collected, to identify the image that has been constructed and widely disseminated by the media throughout the last years. Additionally, it will also address the matter of possible gains and losses that this format of symbolic representation entails, both for the Kurdish women and their movement. The study will have as theoretical basis orientalism and the debate about gender, war and militarization, as well as it will explore the power of media, due to the discourse it produces. Lastly, as methodology, it will employ the techniques of Discourse Analysis based on Patrick Charaudeau’s works, which will contribute to the research with an semiolinguistic approach of the media discourse investigated.