Portraits Of The PKK

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or the P.K.K, is a Kurdish separatist organization and long designated as terrorists by the United States and the European Union. The party’s armed struggle to create an independent Kurdistan has lasted more than a quarter-century and cost 40,000 lives. A large number of its fighters are women who adhere to a disciplined, ascetic lifestyle. But they enjoy freedom and gender equality within the organization that is lacking in their lives outside of the PKK where Kurdish women live in intensely patriarchal society and can be subject to domestic violence or even “honor killings."

PKK guerilla Sarya Agiri, 22, from Maku, Iran, in Qandil Mountains, Iraqi Kurdistan, December, 2010. She has been with PKK for four years.
  
PKK guerilla Rengin Ararat, 31, from Afrin in Syria, blows dust off from her gun in Qandil Mountains, Iraqi Kurdistan, December, 2010. She has been with PKK for 12 years.
  
PKK guerilla Rengin Ararat, 31, from Afrin in Syria, in Qandil Mountains, Iraqi Kurdistan, December, 2010. She has been with PKK for 12 years.
     
  
PKK guerilla Necbir Botan, 28, from Turbaci in Syria, makes member's uniform at their sewing workshop in Qandil Mountains, Iraqi Kurdistan, December, 2010. She has been with PKK in Qandil for four years.
  
PKK guerilla Muxayla Nergiz, 27, from Urfa in Turkey, puts on her gear before filming of their struggle in Qandil Mountains, Iraqi Kurdistan, December , 2010. She joined PKK in 1999.
  
LEFT: PKK guerilla fighter Diler Hewram, 24. He joined PKK in 2007.RIGHT: PKK guerilla Zilan Mardin, 35, from Mardin in Turkeyin Qandil Mountains, Iraqi Kurdistan.
     
  
PKK guerillas perform folk dance during filming of their struggle in Qandil Mountains, Iraqi Kurdistan, December, 2010. Besides their guerilla operation, PKK's social work ranges from running a hospital to making their own film.
  
A PKK guerilla is equipped with grenades in Qandil Mountains, Iraqi Kurdistan, December, 2010.Besides their guerilla operation,
  
PKK guerilla fighters from left to right: Kazim Siirt, 29, Gorse Mereto, 32, and Serhildan Ruges, 29, in Qandil Mountains, Iraqi Kurdistan, December, 2010.
     
  
PKK guerilla fighter Gorse Mereto, 32, in Qandil Mountains, Iraqi Kurdistan, December, 2010.
  
PKK leader Murat Karayilan in Qandil Mountains, Iraqi Kurdistan, December, 2010.
   
A photo of deceased PKK guerilla is displayed on one of the gravestones at Mehmet Karasungur Cemetery, a PKK graveyard in Qandil Mountains, Iraqi Kurdistan, December, 2010.