Three ethnographic projects on Kurdistan,
published on BBC online in Persian language
Newsdesk, August 31, by Kameel Ahmady ,--
Kurdistan is a land that does not exist on any maps,
but remains important in the lives of many
nonetheless. The Kurds are regarded as the world’s
largest people without their own homeland, the
contours of history having betrayed their ambitions
for self-determination endlessly.
Kurdish culture and language have been suppressed,
as Kurds were often seen as a threat to the national
autonomy of ruling powers.
In the face of this, they have managed in many
instances to maintain their traditions, beliefs and
identity; and because the Kurds are one of the
region’s most numerous groups, theirs is a rich and
diverse heritage. Lack of unity and traditional
divisions and political rivalries have impeded any
efforts for the Kurds to achieve autonomy. But
Kurdistan today is not only about traditional
culture, as Iraqi Kurdistan rests on the brink of
massive development, Turkey’s EU membership is bound
to change the place of minorities in the republic,
and Iran is currently at the centre of world debate.
This realities behind such complex developments, and
the dignity in the lives of a people who have faced
denial of their identity by those in power as well
many cultural changeless the Kurds themselves face
with. |
Kameel Ahmady is a London-based originally haling
from Iranian Kurdistan; an anthropologist and visual
ethnographer who has worked extensively on issues
relating to Local cultures, migration, minority
rights and Middle East affairs. |
|
The BBC online is currently featuring a series of
stories focussing on East Kurdistan (Iran), which
will represent these realities through photographs
and text. Viewers will be offered a rare glimpse of
a forgotten region of a country much in the media at
present; life in Kurdistan, underdevelopment of the
predominately Kurdish north-west of Iran. This
series of news reports is the work of visual
ethnographer Kameel Ahmady, himself a Kurd hailing
from Iran.
The majority of Kurds in this area are Sunni
Muslims, although they have a secular social
structure, which nonetheless remains very
traditional in many respects. In the first series of
images at BBC Persian, viewers will be taken on a
journey into the sectarian groups and places of
spirituality and worship which have been
traditionally practiced by the Kurds. Through
images, viewers will be introduced to the
significance of the personages of Shaihks, Sayids
and Amamzadas, also referred to in Kurdish as Chak
(good person). One of the most famous of these Chaks,
Budaq Sultan, lies in a tomb in Mahabad.
This was once a small village in the region of
Deryazz, until the leader of the Kurdish Mukrian
Tribe, Budaq Sultan made it the capital of his
regional government, with the permission of the
Safavid king. His tomb is a very popular place of
pilgrimage among Kurdish women – a commonly held
idea is that visiting Budaq Sultan’s tomb and
setting prayer and placing stones in its ancient
brick walls will increase chances of fertility.
Young girls go there to play chil dana (‘40’), a
traditional game in which players spread stones in
groups of five and seven, and the last odd stone
will hold their wish come true.
Also, in the mixed Kurdish/Turkish town of Meyandwab,
the local Shi’iaAzeri Turks practice prayers in much
the same way as the Kurdish Sunnis, apart from the
significance of Moharam (‘the month of moaning’),
and Ashora, where the Amamzads play a very important
roll.
In one of the regional villages in Hawraman, on the
border of Kermanshahan, Kurdistan province is a
village of Hajij, where the shrine of Kuce-e Hajij
is laid at the village entrance. Kuce-e Hajij (‘man
with no facial hair’), believed to be the son of the
Shi’ia twelve Imams, who died at the age of twenty
eight. His presence in Kurdistani Hawraman brings
very large numbers of pilgrims from all over Iran
and Kurdistan. On Friday nights, it is common to
hear the sound of daf (the traditional drum), and
singing by both men and women in divided groups, in
jubilation for the birth of Mohammad (Molud Xani)
and to ask for God’s blessings (Nazer Karden) in
other months of the year.
1. Pilgrimage in Kurdistan:
In Persian language on BBC
The second story, a day in the life a pastoralist
family, will take viewers to the outskirts of the
town of Mahabad, not far from the village of Shilan
Awi, which was the birthplace of Hemin Mukriyani, (Mamosta
Hemin), a famous poet. Kak Hussein’s family and
three of his sisters have more then one thousand
sheep and goats; they are already divided between
the sisters and brothers and marked by different
colours to their owners. One of Hussein’s sisters,
Gohar says she once had lot of admirers (xozbin),
but she only ever loved one man. She said ‘my
brother Kak Hussein didn’t agree, since then none of
us talked about me getting married and I have been
living with my anger and promised that I will never
get married with anyone’. While an extreme case,
this sort of practice has occurred in traditional
Kurdistan, though views are slowly changing.
2. A day in the life a pastoralist family in
Mohabad:
In Persian language on BBC
The third story highlights the situation of road
traffic in Iran, from a human perspective. Iran is
believed to have the highest automobile accident
records in the Middle East, and in this reportage
the lens captures everyday life on the roads of the
mainly Kurdish areas where people take any moving
vehicle available to leave the towns on Fridays, the
Iranian weekend. The practice of going to the fields
and mountains for days outside the city is still
very much alive among the Kurds. This is the
landscape of their birth and where they have grown
up, and the idyllic mountain scenery is the perfect
respite from the crowded roads and streets of the
urban areas. Young men and women wear their best
clothes, taking the opportunity to meet with one
another.
3. Road Life:
In Persian language on BBC
BBC Persian online will follow these stories with
features on schools, the life of the elderly in
Kurdistan, and the situation of Kurdish women’s
rights. Subsequently, many of these stories will
appear in English on the main BBC website. The aim
of these stories is to reveal the often hidden
everyday lives which shed light on traditions and
modern conditions alike.
Such work although do not complete the full picture
nor provide a complete account of human experience,
however, to the extent that this work helps to
illustrate those small and often forgotten
realities. There is not much written on Kurds of
Iran or their forgotten struggle.
His ethnographic work has been published previously
by BBC, featuring Newroz in North Kurdistan (Diyarbakir)
, and women’s role in the olive trade, along with a
project on Kurdish Yezidi and their way of life in
south Kurdistan (Iraq).
Kameel Ahmady is a London-based originally haling
from Iranian Kurdistan; an anthropologist and visual
ethnographer who has worked extensively on issues
relating to Local cultures, migration, minority
rights and Middle East affairs. His recent works can
be viewed at,www.kameelahmady.com, Kameel Ahmady can
be contacted at : ka61@kent.ac.uk
Top |
® 