Signs of Ecriture feminine in the Sechischti lyrics of the Kurmanj nomads

Since folk poems are outside the realm of official literature, they have received less attention in the field of literary studies. Also, women are often overlooked as creators of literary works; and this has made it difficult to search for female individuality in the context of literary discourses. Thus, the role of women in shaping Kurmanj literature has not yet been addressed. This essay as a case study in the field of feminist literary criticism with an interpretive analytical approach, has tried to reveal the significance of female voice in the collection of Kurmanj Sechischtis, by discovering the signs of ecriture feminine. Sechischti lyrics are an important part of the literature and folklore of the Iranian Kurmanj nomads. A Sechischti has three hemistiches, each with eight to ten syllables, with words derived from nature and everyday life based on individual experiences and ethnic memories of anonymous poets. In search of these signs, the authors have examined 1386 poems; of these, 269 poems (a quarter of poems with gender identity) have obvious features of feminine expression. Sechischtis written by women, can be divided into five categories, in terms of subject matter: 1. love; 2. marriage; 3. immigration and war; 4. social role-playing; 5. advice, cursing, self-introduction etc. Signs of feminine expression in these poems are either denotative or connotative, each of which has been used in four different methods. In these short and simple folk poems, the woman’s soul is revealed without veil and mask and talks to the audience. She’s no longer a woman described by male writers, whether praiseworthy as a lover or a mother, or disgusting as a tempter or a witch. With the help of ecriture feminine, poetess describes the world around her through her own eyes for the audience, with all its amazing events and phenomena.