‘People without a State Also Must Live’ citizens considered to be ‘native’ — they differ in whether they attribute their differentiation to be due to attainable or ascriptive criteria. 94 Whereas the 21-yearold participant considers that she could renounce her Turkish citizenship in order to be granted more effective Dutch citizenship, the 54-year-old considers himself and other Kurds to be differentiated due to race and thus believes that there is no change within their control that would result in more effective protection. CITIZENSHIP: REPRESENTING THE IDEA OF THE NATION In many cases, participants’ discussions around citizenship centred on ideas, experiences and historical narratives of oppression. All participants who spoke about citizenship in terms of oppression identified Kurdish ethnic identity as a basis of their oppression, but explanations differed greatly in terms of the underlying mechanisms of this exclusion. Some participants argued that Kurds are oppressed along with other minority groups as a consequence of their minority status within each nation-state, in line with Appadurai’s idea of predatory identities. 95 Several participants emphasised the intersectionality 96 of oppression, arguing that the oppression of Kurds and other minorities can only be appropriately conceptualised when accounting for the oppression experienced by segments of the Kurdish population on the grounds of gender, race, religion, sexuality, ability and class. Other participants suggested that the lack of Kurdish statehood in itself forms the underlying basis of their oppression and that it is only through the establishment of a Kurdish sovereign state that oppression against Kurds can be appropriately addressed. Several participants expressed that, as part of a Kurdish ethnic minority, they did not feel part of the state of which they possess citizenship. A 32-year-old participant suggested that the possession of Iranian citizenship in itself did not render all citizens equal in Iranian society, and went on to highlight the intersectionality within experiences of oppression. I think it is a problem that Kurdish people — but not just Kurdish people, but also Turkmens and Arabs in Iran — are oppressed by the Iranian regime because they are Kurds, they are Turks, they are Arabs … Even though I had a nationality from Iran, being from Kurdistan of course came with oppression. Being oppressed also gave me a sort of identity that I was Kurdish, instead of being from Iran … Kurdish people are oppressed because of their Kurdish background, but also others are oppressed — workers, women, young people … So if you have your own state but you are a worker, then you are still oppressed by the state, by capitalism, as a worker. If you are a woman, you will still be oppressed because you are a woman.97 The participant starts by suggesting that citizens of Iran are differentiated on the grounds of ethnicity. The Iranian government’s expressed desire for an 94 95 96 97 See Bakkær Simonsen (n 42). Appadurai (n 36) 51–9. Intersectionality refers to Kimberle Crenshaw’s concept, used initially within the context of the marginalisation of black women in the United States’ justice system. Intersectionality was coined to conceptualise the way in which black women are marginalised on the grounds of both gender and race. This experience of marginalisation cannot be reduced to the sum of its parts, but rather must be understood as specific to the ways in which these forms of marginalisation intersect and interact: Kimberle Crenshaw, ‘Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics’ [1989] (1) University of Chicago Legal Forum 139. Interview with 32-year-old man (Kurdistan-Iran). 299