Migration, memory, and narrative: Gurbet koshuks of Uzbek women living in Antakya

This article focuses on the practice of singing koshuk accompanied by the mouth kopuz, def, or daira at women’s gatherings, as recounted in the narratives of Uzbek women who were resettled in Türkiye from Afghanistan in 1982. It also examines the songs that survive in memory from this practice, which I call gurbet koshuks. I use this term because anonymous and improvised koshuks prominently express longing for family and homeland following separation through marriage. The aim of this study is to understand how women transformed this practice into a space for expressing feelings of mourning, longing, separation, yearning, reproach, and gender roles through koshuk. It also investigates the transformations the practice underwent after migration. In Afghanistan, women gathered to share common emotions, making koshuk a reflection of shared feelings, empathy, and solidarity. During the early years of migration to Türkiye, however, the practice took on a different form, as women recorded koshuks on cassette tapes and sent them to their families. Today, easier access to communication technologies and the widespread use of social media have contributed to the decline of this practice. As a result, only a small number of women still retain in their memories these increasingly forgotten koshuks. Analysis of the narratives and koshuks shows that women who were forced to leave their homeland because of war, internal conflict, or early marriage experienced intense feelings of gurbet, driven by a deep longing for the parents, siblings, and homeland they left behind.