Building Alliances and Bargaining for Autonomy in Nondemocracies: A comparative analysis of grassroots feminist organizing in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq

How can feminist collectives in authoritarian regimes advance their objectives while maintaining autonomy? This dissertation develops a theory of feminist autonomy in nondemocratic societies as internal agenda-setting capacity that is influenced by foreign funding, external networking, and digital organizing. While resource investment and ideological backing from transnational entities increase feminist collectives’ visibility, and help them form domestic political alliances critical for enacting their agendas, these tactics are insufficient for maintaining autonomy. When combined with broad community-building via social media and virtual communications platforms, however, feminist collectives create a strong position to bargain for control over their agendas in political alliances. This study examines contemporary feminist collectives in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq to identify three key types of feminist collectives presently active under the regime, illustrate different combinations of tactics that feminist activists use to bargain for autonomy, and explain the varying outcomes of these strategies. Combining semi-structured interviews and participant observation research with qualitative comparative analysis, this dissertation reveals that collectives leveraging only foreign funding often have their agendas misappropriated by alliance partners, whereas those using foreign funding with external networking commonly achieve short-lived autonomy before the alliances eventually dissolve and progress stalls. Alternatively, feminist collectives that deploy a combination of foreign funding, external networking, and digital organizing are most likely to secure long-term agenda-setting capacity and avoid cooptation while advancing their objectives. These findings illuminate that, although feminism is being attacked in many contexts worldwide, transnational associations continue to effectively support local feminist undertakings in the growing number of nondemocracies where global feminism and its resources are needed most.