ZEKE Magazine: Spring 2022

RISING AMONG RUINS,
DANCING AMID BULLETS
Photographs by Maryam Ashrafi
Preface by Gary Knight
Hemeria, 2021 | 252 pages | 65 Euros
In reading Rising Among Ruins,
Dancing Amid Bullets, we need
to ask ourselves what is this book
about. Is it about the struggle for Kurdish
autonomy in the Middle East with a
focus on Kurdish women fighters or
is it a book of photographs about the
struggle for Kurdish autonomy in the
Middle East with a focus on Kurdish
women fighters? The former puts the
emphasis on the primacy of the political
history of the Kurds, while the latter
puts the emphasis on works of art on
paper that can touch us in ways that an
alphabet soup of Kurdish political parties
never will.
Ashrafi meets us somewhere in
between but leans towards the former—
an extraordinarily powerful book that
educates us about the complicated, divisive,
violent, and sometimes inspirational
recent history of the world’s largest ethnic
minority without a nation. And to do so,
she presents us with outstanding and
important photos of her journeys through
Kurdistan during the recent wars in Iraq
and Syria.
The book’s preface by Gary
Knight—co-founder of the VII photo
agency—focuses on the meaning of the
photographic images and particularly
the importance of Ashrafi’s images of
women in conflict. Other essays are more
focused on Kurdish political aspirations.
But no one comments on the artfulness
of Ashrafi’s images and how they can
provide a deeper understanding of the
drama of humanity.
In 352 pages of black and white photographs
and essays, we are intimately
brought into the centuries-old struggle for
Kurdish autonomy in the Middle East.
More interestingly, Ashrafi focuses on
the Women’s Protection Unit (YPJ) and
their adherence to Abdullah Ocalan,
the leader of the Kurdistan Worker’s
Party (PKK), who has been imprisoned
in Turkey since 1999. A former Marxist-
Leninist, Ocalan now embraces the
ideas of an obscure American anarchist,
Murray Bookchin, and his theory of libertarian
communalism to “build an egalitarian
ecological, profoundly democratic,
and tolerant society in which women can
finally live in fulfillment.”
At great personal risk, Ashrafi travels
through the region and makes remarkable
photos and portraits of Kurdish women
fighters from the YPJ, soldiers from Syrian
Democratic Forces (SDF), Yazidi women
and children who escaped genocide on
Mt. Sinjar, fighters from Free Women’s
Units (YJA), Peshmerga fighters, refugees
from across the region, and others.
Ashrafi’s work compares to similar
efforts such as Robert Capa and Gerda
Taro’s documentation of the Spanish
Civil War (often compared to the recent
Kurdish quest for autonomy); or Susan
Meiselas’s, Nicaragua, about the
Sandinista revolt in 1979 against the dictatorial
Somoza dynasty. The significance
of the work by Capa, Taro, and Meiselas
is that they are each an equal balance
between the aesthetic brilliance of the
images and the context of these images.
In the case of Ashrafi, her work leans
more towards the latter—the context.
It is interesting that in an interview with
Ashrafi in the book, she seems dismissive
of one of her seminal photos —an
extraordinary portrait of a member of the
Women’s Projection Units mourning at
the grave of Ageri, a martyred comrade.
While Ashrafi recognizes that this photo
could be iconic, she sidelines it because
she cannot accept that her subject’s
This Arab woman returned to Tabqa with her family
after the liberation of the city. In her 40s, and a mother
of 9 children, she had no choice but to live in an abandoned
building with her family, as their house was
destroyed during the war against ISIS.
beauty may detract from the viewer’s
understanding of the tragic reality of
this funeral. Ashrafi cannot quite accept
the magic of her own images and how
powerful they can be to communicate a
very human moment that transcends the
complex political subtexts described by
the other essayists in the book.
The book presents us with a deep
historical context, but again we are faced
with the question: are Ashrafi’s photos
illustrating these essays or are the essays
providing context that the photographs
just cannot provide on their own? That is
the crux of the problem, but perhaps it
is too much to demand from one book.
In the end, these are extraordinary
photographs not seen elsewhere, supported
by important political history. After
reading this book, you will walk away
appreciating the brave accomplishments
of Ashrafi, the beauty and tragedy of
the Kurdish people as they continue their
struggle for freedom, and the uniquely
misunderstood revolutionary ideology
of Bookchin, Ocalan, and the Women’s
Protection Units that are transforming
gender relations in a part of the world
that is otherwise known for its harsh and
inhumane treatment of women.
—Glenn Ruga
ZEKE SPRING 2022/ 57