By Nick Kossovan: “Despite our suffering, nobody cares about us. We have shared our stories, but even then, they have not done anything for us.” – Leyla Telo, a survivor of the Yazidi genocide. Some films make you “realize.” Ezda, a short documentary film by emerging Kurdish-Canadian filmmaker Halime Aktürk, in which Ezda, a survivor of…
.jpg)
Category Archives: Culture
Mufti Penjweni, The Awakening And Righteousness Poet
The faculty of Kurdish studies of the college of languages at the university of Sulaimaniyah in partnership with the District Directorate of Penjwen, is organising a conference about the great Kurdish poet of the locality of Penjwen, Mufti Penjweni, on 18th and 19th of August 2018. Bookmark on Delicious Recommend on Facebook Share on Linkedin Tweet about…
Kurdish Communities in Los Angeles Celebrate New Year and Hope for a Better Year
By Dr. Amir Sharifi: While Jewish Kurds in Washington DC celebrated Hanukkah, the festival of light on Dec 31, in the West Coast, there were two New Year venues: one held by the Kurdish Community of Southern California on Dec 30 and the other by Niroj Kurdish Cuisine on the New Year’s Eve. Both events…
Screening of 7 Kurdish Movies at New York Film Academy in Los Angeles
New York Film Academy Showcasing Kurdish Cinema New York Film Academy Los Angeles; Kurdish Cinema, December 16, 2016 7: 00 PM to 10:00 PM The prestigious New York Film Academy will be screening seven Kurdish short films and documentaries for the first time. The event organized by Khalid Hamalow, is a 100-minute program of seven…
Why Daesh Destroyed Yazidis’ Musical Instruments
Barakat Ali, professional tambur musician, interviewed by Amy L. Beam: Daesh smashed all the tamburs in Shingal as part of their goal to destroy Yazidi culture. Barakat Ali, professional Yazidi tambur musician from Khanasor, Shingal, explained why in an interview with Amy L. Beam. I have been playing the tambur since I was eleven. Now…
Kurdish PEN Writers Meet, Watched By Police
By Berivan Dosky, Co-Chair, Kurdish PEN: This is to inform you that on 20-21 May 2016 under difficult circumstances we held our 9th Congress in Amed/Diyarbakir as there was a heavy police presence and tense atmosphere. The Congress coincided with a few events: 1. A book fair in Amed 18th – 21st May where there was…
Kurdish Artist Challenges Stereotypes and Empowers Women
By Karen Dabrowska: “Go for it!” That is the loud and clear message from Kurdish artist Evar Hussayni as she inspired the young people who came to her art class in London’s P21 Gallery. The theme of the class was identity. “Identity to me is so important as a Kurdish woman,” Hussayni said. “ Whereever I…
Allow Her Husband to Witness Her Giving Birth
By Tania Kurd Mirza: She is in childbirth, she is in so much pain, she feels like she is going to die…but the pain is joyful pain, she is giving birth to her child…yet why is her husband not allowed to be with her? In Kurdistan, hospital employees do not allow husbands to stay with their…
Why Are Violence and The Need to Belong Linked Together?
By Biryar Bahhaalddin: Have you ever thought what you will do if one day you are driven out of your own town just because you belong to a particular nationality? I experienced this when Saddam Hussein regime’s decreed to expel the Kurds from Xanaqien Karkuk and other places in Kurdistan to the Middle and Southern…
Rojan, Live in Concert, LA, August 2
By Dr Amir Sharifi: Rojan, Live in Concert, August 2, 2015, 7:00 PM Wilshire Ebell Theater 4401 W 8th St, Los Angeles, CA 90005 Rojan, the folk diva of Kurdish music, an impassioned singer, and explorer of different styles and genres of Kurdish and classical Persian music, and an advocate for women’s rights returns to Los…
‘Girls Should Not Shout!’
By Tania Mirza: “I am dead but nobody is searching for my murderer” “Who and what do I defend … For this dead body?” These are some of the sentences from a Persian movie that I watched recently called ‘Shhhh Girls Should Not Shout’. This amazing movie reveals the enormity of the many hidden social…
Book Review: ‘Dependent Rational Animals: Why Human Beings Need the Virtues’
By Heyrsh Abdulrahman: The author, Alasdair MacIntyre, has used this book to convey different concepts about human beings. This helps people understand why humans are considered to be animals and should be treated with care like other animals. The author views human human beings as dependent on their bodies and linked biologically in different ways…
The Weeping Snow
By Abdulkadir Saeed Sarchinary: Extracts from ‘The Weeping Snow’, a novel by Abdulkadir Saeed Sarchinary, translated by Yasin Aziz. This story is about the victims of the Halabja chemical attack. A child loses all his family and is taken to Esfahan, East Persia and grows up with a Persian family. After many years he goes…
How Kurdish Education Neglects Homegrown Experiences of the Peoples of Kurdistan
By Aras Ahmed Mhamad: Two critical minds investigate the inherent challenges of the Kurdish educational system – why does it keep looking West? While language can be one of the main factors of unity among members of a society, it can also be a devastating factor and the source of unbalanced relationships between peoples, nations…
Mythology in the Art of Zuhdi Sardar’s Kurdish Balakian Women: From Baghdad to North Hollywood
By Dr Amir Sharifi: Legend has it that a king in Kurdistan ordered his men to go to Asia and Europe to find the most beautiful women and bring them back so that he could marry them. Upon their return many years later, they learned that the king had died. The men had fallen in…
