The Lion Who Did Not Want to Be a Hero: On the Simple Act of Living a Life

This chapter deals with two overarching questions: Firstly, can the simple act of living a life be an act of citizenship? And secondly, how may we understand the transforming power of that act of living? In order to answer these, I tell of women, whose lives constitute “momentous acts” or “creative breaks” (Isin, Acts of citizenship, 15–43, 2008) with the status quo and thus challenge various power regimes. Their lives provide alternative ways of living and in so provide spaces of imaginary, in which alternative ways of living become possible. One of these women is Jihan, a middle-aged Kurd from Bakur. Jihan’s story so beautifully exemplifies the complexities of a life, whose trajectory did not always follow expected gender scripts, and at times runs counter to normative gender roles, be it within the Kurdish nationalist movement or outside.