14 March 7 pm
Bunker at Amerbachstrasse 55a, 4057 Basel
We invite you on an expedition into the heart of the nation-state: a bunker. Together, we will enter through a small door, descend a ladder, and explore an underground concrete world. The bunker serves as the ultimate safe space in case of war, and to this day, the Swiss state still obliges the organization of shelters for the inhabitants of every newly built building.
But are nation-states really the best way to organize and protect populations in our complex world? What if nation-states, with their insistence on borders and hegemonic structures, make us feel more unsafe than safe? What alternative ways of organizing society could actually replace the nation-states?
We will attempt to find some insight into such an alternative by together reading the text “Learn from Kurdish Women’s Liberation Movements to Imagine the Dissolution of the Nation-state System” by Eda Gunaydin. She describes an already existing way to organize society in Rojava, an autonomous region in northeastern Syria. Additionally, she explores jineology – the feminist theoretical approach used by Kurdish women to address long-standing conflict in the Rojava region. Jineology rejects the nation-state system and instead advocates for the self-governance model of democratic confederalism.
Joining us will be Nehir Gündoğdu, who is researching the Kurdish diaspora, and Zeynep Erogul from the rhythm collective DAF connection.