We are both women and Kurd: An intersectional analysis of female Kolbars challenges in Iranian Kurdistan amid the COVID crisis

Yosra AleAhmad

Gender, Work and Organization, 2023, vol. 30, issue 3, 1104-1123

Abstract: This study uses an intersectional lens to explore the embodied experiences of Kurdish female porters (porters are called Kolbars in the Kurdish language) in Iranian Kurdistan and how their lives and employment have been impacted by the COVID‐19 crisis by drawing on one semi‐structured interview with a female Kolbar living in a rural area of Kurdistan Province. The findings demonstrate that female Kolbars are victims of intersected factors such as gender, ethnicity, solid patriarchal culture in the region and country, the unequal distribution of resources and wealth throughout the country, and economic sanctions and recessions in the state. They resist these various sources of oppression by risking their lives and carrying loads across mountainous borders, staying silent and committing suicide when they have no other options. This study contributes to the feminist intersectionality debate by rendering the intersectional embodied aspects of a marginalized, unfranchised, and under‐studied population of women in one of the most gender‐inequitable countries in the world. Furthermore, it adds to the broader literature on gender inequalities that lie outside of typical organisations and the Western context.

Date: 2023
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