Nagihan Akarsel

Nagihan Arkarsel was born in 1976 in the Kurdish village of Xelikan in the Konya region of Turkey. She enrolled at Ankara Gazi University, Department of Journalism. Due to organizing for the right to native-language education she was arrested and imprisoned from 2001 to 2007. After her release, she graduated in journalism and studied at Hacettepe University Women’s and Gender Studies Department. She worked as a journalist, researcher, and political activist in different regions of Kurdistan. Her articles were published by various newspapers, journals, and news agencies, including Dicle News Agency (DIHA), Women’s News Agency (JINHA), Özgür Gündem Newspaper, and Demokratik Modernite Magazine. She also wrote poems and novels. From 2015, she was involved in establishing Jineolojî as a science. She became a member of the editorial board of JINEOLOJÎ Journal and a founding member of the Kurdish Women’s Library, Archive and Research Center in Suleymaniyah in Southern Kurdistan-Iraq. While dedicating her life to uncovering the truth and uniting women in their quest for freedom, on October 4th, 2022, she was killed in a political assassination. Those behind the assassination have not been brought to justice. A compilation of her poems was published posthumously with the title Nisan, Diyarbakir: Jingeh Publications, 2023.