Geography of resistance: rugged terrain and the dynamics of Kurdish National Movement in Iran

Sahar Bagheri

Third World Quarterly, 2025, vol. 46, issue 12, 1519-1542

Abstract: Existing literature on the Kurdish National Movement in Iran largely overlooks its spatial and geographical dimensions, focusing instead on historical and socio-political dynamics. This article addresses that gap by analysing the post-1979 period through Lefebvre’s critical human geography, showing how the conflictual intersection between state territorialisation strategies and the Kurdish movement shapes conflict zones and reconfigures Kurdish political parties’ modes of struggle. It argues that Kurdistan’s rugged terrain gave Kurdish political parties three key advantages: hindering state access, offering refuge, and enabling cross-border mobility. It analyses how the Iranian state deployed a threefold territorialisation strategy – inflicting the armed conflict of the 1980s, conducting cross-border military operations by extension of the Iran–Iraq War to Kurdistan, and development projects in the Kurdish hinterland – thereby incorporating Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) and Komala strongholds into state space and undermining their spatial leverage. However, the emergence of the Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK) in 2004 signals the structural persistence and dynamic evolution of non-state spaces resisting the Iranian state’s attempt at total territorial domination.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1080/01436597.2025.2535022

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