Kurdish Youth Festival: Many Voices; One Cause

Contact: Kurdish Youth Festival Committee

Website: www.kurdishyouthfestival.org

Email: kurdyouthfestival@gmail.com

MANY VOICES; ONE CAUSE

For the Third Consecutive Year, the Kurdish Youth Festival Will Become the Biggest and Best Avenue to Connect Kurdish Youth from Coast to Coast

Hailed as the only gathering of its kind in the United States, the third Kurdish Youth Festival is scheduled to, once again, deliver an unforgettable experience. The upcoming 2012 festival will take place in the Nation’s Capital, Washington, DC, on January 6^th-8^th and is promising to be the most exciting festival yet.

A youth-led coalition from various backgrounds have come together to form this year’s event coordinating committee. This group of young Kurdish men and women are determined to make the third Kurdish youth festival an enriching experience with a profoundly positive impact on the attendees.

The festival will feature scholarships, meet and greet opportunities, educational panels, discussion groups, and interactive workshops. All this is in addition to the festivals most talked about signature events: “Kurds Got Talent,” visual art competitions, and a celebration finale complete with live music and traditional dance. As in previous years, notable figures, authors, human rights activists, NGO leaders, and International artists are expected to be in attendance. This event will also provide a chance for sponsors and scholars from across the globe to make a lasting network with active Kurdish-American youth.

In an interview during the last Kurdish youth festival, a first time attendee said: “I walked into the hotel lobby in Dallas and heard a group of young guys and girls speaking Kurdish. I had to pinch myself a few times to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. I felt more at “home” during those three days than any other time and have made friendships that will last a lifetime. I encourage everyone to come to next year’s festival.”

Established to showcase, promote, and raise awareness about Kurdish culture, the festival aims to cultivate the talents and abilities of young Kurds in the United States while encouraging community participation. Today, it also serves as an annual reunion for old friends and a perfect platform for new connections.

The third annual Kurdish Youth Festival is in the planning stages, and final programming will be released in the following months.

To become a sponsor of this event or to receive more information, contact the organizing committee: kurdyouthfestival@gmail.com.

Alliance for Kurdish Rights Launch Video and Redesigned Website

Website:

Alliance for Kurdish Rights Contact them if you would like to contribute to their site!

Video:

Iran Executes Kurdish Activist Ehsan Fattahian

Here are the last words of Kurdish Activist, Ehsan Fattahian, who was executed this morning by the Iranian Government. May his soul and other innocent souls rest in peace. They will forever live on in our hearts.

Last ray of sun at sunset
is the path that I want to write on
The sound of leaves under my feet
say to me: Let yourself fall
and only then you find the path to freedom.

I have never been afraid of death, even now that I feel it closest to me. I can sense it and I‘m familiar with it, for it is an old acquaintance of this land and this people. I‘m not writing about death but about justifications for death, now that they have translated it to restoring justice and freedom, can one be afraid of future and destiny? „We“ who have been sentenced to death by „them,“ were working to find a small opening to a better world, free of injustice, are „they“ also aware of what they are working towards?

I started life in city of Kermanshah, the city that my country people consider grand, the birthplace of civilization in our country. I soon noticed descrimination and oppression and I felt it in the depth of my existence, this cruelty, and the „why“ of this cruelty and trying to resolve it made me come up with thousands of thoughts. But alas, they had blocked all the roads to justice and made the atmosphere so repressive that I didn‘t find any way to change things inside, and I migrated to another resort: „I became the pishmarg of Koomaleh,“ the temptation to find myself and the identity that I was deprived of made me go in that direction. Although leaving my birthplace was difficult but it never made me cut ties with my childhood hometown. Every now and then I would go back to my first home to revisit my old memories, and one of these times „they“ made my visit sour, arrested and imprisoned me. From that first moment and from the hospitality (!!) of my jailers I realized that the tragic destiny of my numerous compeers also awaits me: torture, file building, closed and seriously influenced court, an unjust and politically charged verdict, and finally death…

Let me say it more casually: after getting arrested in town of Kamyaran on 29/4/87 and after a few hours of being a „guest“ at the information office of that town, while handcuffs and a blindfold took away my right to see and move, a person who introduced himself as a deputy of the prosecutor started asking a series of unrelated questions that were full of false accusations (I should point out that any judicial questioning outside of courtroom is prohibited in the law). This was the first of my numerous interrogation sessions. The same night I was moved to the information office of Kurdestan province in city of Sanandaj, and I experienced the real party there: a dirty cell with an unpleasant toilet with blankets that had probably not seen water in decades! From that moment my nights and days passed in the interrogation offices and lower hallway under extreme torture and beatings and this lasted three months. In these three months my interrogators, probably in pursuit of a promotion or some small raise, came up with strange and false accusations against me, which they better than anyone knew how far from reality they were. They tried very hard to prove that I was involved with an armed attempt to overthrow the regime. The only charges they could pursue was being a part of „Koomaleh“ and advertising against the regime. The first „shobe“ of Islamic republic court in Sanandaj found me guilty of these charges and gave me 10 years sentence in exile in Ramhormoz prison. The government’s political and bureaucratic structure always suffers from being centralized, but in this case they tried to de-centralize the judiciary and gave the powers to re-investigate (appeal?) the crimes of political prisoners, even as high as death penalties, to the appeal courts in Kurdestan province. In this case the prosecutor Mr. Kamyaran appealed the verdict by the first court and the Kurdestan appeals court changed my verdict from 10 years in prison to death sentence, against the Islamic republic laws. According to section 258 of “Dadrasi Keyfari” law, an appeals court can increase the initial verdict only in the case that the initial verdict was less than minimum punishment for the crime. In my case, the crime was “Moharebeh” (animosity with God), which has the minimum punishment of one year sentence, and my verdict was a 10 year sentence in exile, clearly above the minimum. Compare my sentence to the minimum sentence for this crime to understand the unlawful and political nature of my death sentence. Although I also have to mention that shortly before changing the verdict they transferred me from the main prison in Sanandaj to the interrogation office of the Information Department and requested that I do a video interview confessing to crimes I have not committed, and say things that I do not believe in. In spite of a lot of pressure I did not agree to do the video confession and they told me bluntly that they will change my verdict to death sentence, which they shortly did, and demonstrated how the courts follow forces outside of judiciary department. So should they be blamed??

A judge has been sworn to stay fair in every situation, at all times and towards every person and look at the world from the legal perspective. Which judge in this doomed land can claim to has not broken this swear and has stayed fair and just? In my opinion the number of such judges is less than fingers on one hand. When the whole judicial system of Iran with the suggestion of an interrogator (with no knowledge of legal matters), arrests, tries, imprisons and executes people, can we really blame the few judges of a province which is always repressed and discriminated against? Yes, this house is ruined from its foundations…

This is in spite of the fact that in my last visit with my prosecutor he admitted that the death sentence is unlawful, but for the second time they gave me the notice for carrying out the execution. Needless to say that this insistence on carrying a death sentence under any circumstance is the result of pressure from security and political forces from outside of the judiciary department. Said people look at life and death of political prisoners only from the point of view of their paychecks and political needs, nothing else matters to them other than their own goals, even if it is about the most fundamental right of other human beings, their right to live. Forget international laws, they completely disregard even their own laws and procedures.

But my last words: If in the minds of these rulers and oppressors my death will get rid of the “problem” called Kurdestan [the province], I should say, what an illusion. Neither my death nor the death of thousands like me will be remedy to this incurable pain and perhaps would even fuel this fire. Without a doubt, each death points to a new life [ or beginning ].

Ehsan Fattahian

For more information please visit the following links:

Kurdish Herald

Alliance for Kurdish Rights

Amnesty International

New York Times

KAYO and Gift of Hope Overseas Request for donations to bring medical help to people in the Kurdish region of Turkey.

KURDISH AMERICAN YOUTH ORGANIZATION (KAYO) and Gift of Hope Overseas Request for donations to bring medical help to people in the Kurdish region of Turkey. Please help raise money, you can donate online, and your donation is tax deductible! Click here to donate!

Never Forget Helebce

Kurrî Şîrînim

Kurrî şîrînim metirse cêt nayellim, cêt nayellim
Were be diway şillip û wirrî qaçe mandokanî mina, lêm win nabî
Eweta şax û deştû doll
Şestew rehêllew baw boran

Çokî be giştîyan dadawe
Bawke koll be kollekeşit
Be gij girmey hewira eçê
Çarey reşî yawete ber riqî agirî çexmaxe

Pê hellgire pê hellgire
Agadar be lêm winabî
Rolle nazdarekey daye
Cuce şîrînekey babe

Dillnîya be tirs’ le xêwi xeyallû le dêwî efsane nebê nebê nebê

Lem hatine bê şûmare
Lem koçe gele yek care
Lem dîmene xeyallîya
Ke mêjû lêwî xalliye

Tarmayekan tarmayekan tarmayekan

Le jêr taşe berdî spî û dewenî reşû kilore
Le tirsana hemû helldên

Petokey kollit tund bigre lêt nekewê
Her bigeyne bin dîwarê

Petokey kollit tund bigre lêt nekewê
Her bigeyne bin dîwarê
Asarêk kone hewarêk

Legell pelluy çawekanima
Bot deguşim
Bot deguşim

Ke birsît bu nextê nanî reqim pêye
Be şekrî rohî minewe bîkirmêne
Ke sermat bu baweşî min agirî kizey cergî min
Ber qerare ber qarare
Be bejini wirdû mandute
Be bejini wirdû mandute

Serinc edem
Beser çawe geşekanta
Çêjî ‘îbaret derrêjî
Wekû tawanêkit hêbê be lawî
Wekû tawanêkit hêbê be lawî
Xot be gewreyek ezanî, ezanî

Be gerdêkî gerdinma bî
Destim bigre destim bigre
Ez gurîse lêm winabî

Bese zîtey çawekan’
Binuwe kurrim wa beyana
Binuwe kurrim wa beyana
Hewir egirî, hajey çemî legell baran û beyane legell baran û beyane

To singî babe lêfete
Miniş baran miniş baran
To singî babe lêfete
Miniş baran miniş baran
Şew garit şad
Binuwe kurrim, wekû caran

Eger çi tawe tarzey şum
Perde kuley mergî mine ta beyanî
Serû şanî babe to xoş ke mihrabe
Beser toda danewîwe piştî babe
Eger carê dillopê aw be hêmini maçi kirdi
Bizane, bizane firmêskî mine xîlîska be milî wirdî
Bizane eşiqi babeye serî kirrnoşî bo birdî

Debime xorakî jiyan’
Mehrûmit nakem lem cejine
Mehrûmit nakem lem cejine
Be gezî ahim depêwim
Qate cilê pirr bem bejinet
Qate cilê pirr bem bejinet

Legell ‘alam û temenî xeyallîta xeyallîta
Egrîm beser çarey reşî minallîta minallîta
Cejinaneket le miştaye
Nazanî hestit der birrî

Çawerrêy bûkî beyanît
Tîşkî hetawî pê bikirrî
Tîşkî hetawi pê bikirrî

Every time I hear this song, which is very often, I close my eyes and try to sift through my memories of 1993... My mama tells me I used to sing it to my neighbors at the age of 4, with an absolutely adorable lisp. Our neighbors would ask me to sing it over and over again, and like a broken record player, I would.

-Nuha

Click to listen:

From the pages of my mother's diary

Translated from Kurdish: An anonymous telephone call from an Arab man warned Azad against a death warrant released by Saddam Hussein. His boss insisted that he stay, but he knew he was seconds away from meeting death. He walked out of his job and came home to tell me we had to leave our home, again. He walked into the house yelling, “Get the kids ready and let’s leave.” I was cooking and turned off the stove to get my kids. I left the house, unchanged and looking disheveled. It was May of 1987, when Azad, the children and I, along with a few thousand Kurds who had Pêşmêrge family members and/or didn’t want their sons and husbands fighting under Saddam’s regime, fled to Iran. My husband’s brothers, Pêşmêrges, Hiwa and Kamaran, who was later martyred, took my daughters and walked at a faster pace. Azad and I hadn’t realized we had strayed from the path we were supposed to be heading. We kept walking until a man in Kurdish clothes holding a cane with a sack* at the end of it, yelled, “Mall kawline, where are you going?!” Azad asked, “Why?” The man told us we had stepped into a mine field. I stopped dead in my tracks and felt my legs shaking, I thought I would fall on my face. My face turned pale and my eyes widened. When Azad noticed this, he took our son from my arms while reassuring me and reminding me it was best not to panic. Seconds later, the most heroic words escaped my husband’s mouth, “Please don’t be scared and don’t panic. I will lay my foot down, pick it up, and you put yours there.” I could not believe what I was experiencing and as I think back to that day, I realize Azad’s facial expression had not changed a bit. We walked 150 feet with my heart beating at an unimaginable rate. The 15 minutes seemed like 15 lifetimes.

* When my mother described the Kurdish man carrying the cane and sack, my imagination fled to a media-portrayed image of a hobo. He was no less than an angel though.

Can every Kurdish woman be an activist?

During an interview for the “Raise Breast Cancer Awareness in Kurdistan” campaign, a journalist asked me whether or not every Kurdish girl could be an activist. Although I quickly responded affirmatively, the question continued to linger in my mind. It also took me back to my childhood when my mother told us stories about her days as an activist with my father. Fearing her stories would be forgotten, my father purchased a diary for her; in which she has written for over a decade. Occasionally, she reads me excerpts from her diary and asks me to translate them for her. One of my favorite stories is one that occurred four years before I was born:

“In 1985, I left my daughters with my mother-in-law in Helebce and returned to Slêmanî with Azad and an undercover Pê to transfer secret papers which contained tasks that needed to be carried out by other undercover Pêşmerges in Slêmanî. Knowing we would encounter several checkpoints, we decided to put the papers between Hewramî bread. We took our seats at the back of the bus hoping we would attract less attention. It wasn’t long before our bus was forced to stop by Baath soldiers who boarded the bus shouting at us while inspecting our bags and anything else we carried. In an attempt to not appear pale with fright, I began to pinch my cheeks, hoping to regain some color. A soldier halted before me, reached for the bread and angrily asked, "What is that?" Calmly, Azad responded, ‘Hewrami bread – my mother made it for us.’ The soldier shot me a sceptical glance and at that moment I could think of nothing else but my daughters and the kinds of lives they would live without a mother or a father. Luckily, my fears were laid to rest as he turned around and walked off the bus. We reached 7 additional checkpoints only to be treated harsher each time.”

My father continuously reminded my mother that she could choose to live a different life, one that didn”t consist of constant danger and relocation. However, my mother was a firm believer in fighting for the Kurdish cause and would not hear of it - even after giving birth to her fifth child. Hearing such stories from my mother, aunts and sisters, I begin to think of other courageous women who have struggled for the Kurdish cause as well as women’s rights. One woman in particular is Leyla Zana who was imprisoned for pronouncing the concluding sentence of her oath in Kurdish. She was recently sentenced once again to another 10 years for her speeches. Aside from their birth years, my mother and Leyla Zana share significant similarities; they are Kurdish activists, mothers, and both worked under dangerous conditions but were persistent in their endeavor.


Our history presents us with countless stories of other brave women who fought endlessly for the same cause, under various circumstances. Some prominent female figures include, Adîle Xanim who received the title of Khan Bahadur by the British administration and saved the lives of several British officers during World War I, Leyla Qasim, executed in 1974 for working against the Baath regime, and Hepse Xanî Neqîb, who actively promoted education and handled the jailing of British Administrators under Shex Mehmûd Berzincî’s orders. In 1930, Hepse Xan sent a petition to the League of Nations protesting the encroachment on Kurdish rights in Iraq. Other women include, Zekîye Heqî, the first female judge in the Middle East, Asenath Barzani, one of the very first female rabbis, and Fatima Xanim, who administered 8 villages after her husband’s death. At a time only males were entitled to participate in parliamentary elections, she was chosen by the villages to vote on their behalf. The following women also contributed eminently to Kurdistan as well as Kurdish women’s rights movement; Rabi’a, Mina Xanim, and Meryem Xan. There are several other names but literature on Kurdish women is very limited.

Young Kurdish women in America have also stepped up and are, not only playing active roles in their communities but, demanding change. In an article entitled, "Supporting Our Young Kurdish Women," Ms. Sheinei Saleem talks about a young Kurdish girl’s determination in pursuing an education after high school. She points out that this individual was not permitted to attend college but her "personal courage and determination" helped her accomplish that goal. Ms. Sheinei will agree with me when I say, young Kurdish women everywhere need to demand equality and take all paths necessary to achieve their desired goals and dreams. To answer Gurgin Bakircioglu’s question, yes, every Kurdish woman can be an activist and our past and present provide clear proof of that.