Woman in Proverbial Idioms of Kurdish Language

This research has examined 10,000 proverbial idioms in the Kurdish Language, focusing on two dialects of southern Kūrmānji (Sūrānī) and Kermāshānī –Lorī–, of which 200 ones idioms were specifically related to women. Then, the nominated proverbs were categorized through qualitative method and Qualitative Content Analysis based on social attitudes toward women in each proverb in order to identify the existing attitudes toward women and their social position in the community. The results claim that most of the idioms convey a negative attitude toward women; consequently sexist clichés and language can be easily seen. It is also understood that their scope, gravity and application are impacted by the economic infrastructure, i.e. the livelihood and production within the masculine society. For example, peoples’ lifestyle –whether urban or rural- as an infrastructure has had an instrumental hand on their application and large numbers of anti-woman proverbs in rural areas than the urban ones.