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The Rise of The Kurds in Syria
19.1.2012
By Nisan - Syria |
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January 19, 2012
Like many Kurdish people in Syria, I lived
between two worlds and was treated as a second-class
citizen. My family was one of many families going
through a transitional phase between Kurdish
ethnicity and endeavors to melt us into another
ethnicity. Both Syrian society and government pushed
us to integrate with the majority in Syria, but
without fully accepting us.
As a young girl I was in school I used to omit the
last letter in my surname so I would not be exposed
to mockery. It was hard for me to be Kurdish. Many
Kurd-haters wanted to obliterate everything that
makes me a Kurd. As I became a young woman, those
who hated my people had nearly succeeded in getting
me to turn me on my own people, and to brainwash me.
I began to detach myself away to avoid being called
a traitor by the majority of society.
But a turning point in my life came when my
grandfather passed away. At that time something
changed in me and I started to search for what makes
me a Kurd.
In Syria, anyone who seeks to learn the Kurdish
language is considered a traitor, Syrian security
forces insist that, "If there is education, then it
is an organization." My attempts to learn my own
language were doomed to fail because I felt guilty
about putting my Kurdish teacher in danger.
One day a man came to my work place in Damascus, and
asked where I came from. When I told him that I was
a Kurd, He looked astonished. He could not believe
that I was Kurdish because he thought that we are
all uneducated. Such views are endorsed and
supported excessively by the Syrian Baath party. A
party that has racist opinions.
Kurds are the largest minority in Syria, but there
are no exact statistics on the number of Kurds in
Syria because the Syrian government refuses to
acknowledge many Kurds or to conduct a census for
us, but we are estimated to compose 10% of the
population. The number of Kurds in Syria is smaller
than the number of Kurds in Turkey,www.ekurd.net
Iraq and Iran, and we are mainly located in the
north and northern east of Syria. There are a small
number of Kurds living in the capital Damascus; many
of them settled in it during the reign of Ayyubids
dnasty - dynasty from Kurdish origins- which ruled
most of the Middle East during the 12th and 13th
centuries.
Kurds have suffered outrageous acts of oppression in
Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria including mass murder,
suppression of language rights and exploitation of
Kurdish resources. Kurds were also forced into
poverty and deprived of education and national
citizenship. Because many Kurds in Syria were denied
the Syrian nationality, as a result of that they
were trapped in Syria and stripped from all rights.
For the Syrian government, it is as though Kurds do
not exist.
Though all Kurds are treated in a discriminatory
manner, but the stateless Syrian Kurds estimated to
number 200,000 people, have suffered more because
they were not allowed able to travel, continue their
education or get medical treatment in public
hospitals.
The Human Rights Watch report entitled “The Silenced
Kurds", states that during the 1962 census 120,000
Kurds were stripped of their nationality. The
pretext of the government for this act was to
identify "alien infiltrators". The census
arbitrarily classified brothers from the same family
and born in the same village were classified
differently. This was the beginning of the attempts
to Arabize the resources-rich northeast of Syria. As
a result of this census, many marriages were not
recognized by the state and the stateless Kurds were
not allowed to own property, deprived from getting
any passports and thus the freedom of movement.
Heyam Aqil, a Kurdish activist living in London told
me that a Kurdish woman suffering from breast cancer
and unable to afford treatment in a private
hospital, was prevented from getting treatment in
Syrian public hospitals because she was one of the
stateless Kurds.
But even the Syrian Kurds who kept their citizenship
were not considered lucky; the Syrian authorities
could strip them from their nationality if they
appeared not as loyal as they should be to the
regime. Many students were arbitrarily expelled from
their universities and schools, and some employees
working in governmental institutes were fired from
their jobs. In addition, Kurdish men are not allowed
to go to a military school or be promoted to high
military ranks.
Like men, Kurdish women suffered from political
oppression, but they also suffered from social
prejudice from Kurdish men. The attempts of
authorities in countries where Kurds live in to
dissolve other ethnicities in society changed some
social conducts in the Kurdish society itself which
started to dominate the social habits and traditions
in the countries Kurds live in.
Some negative practices and habits sneaked into the
Kurdish culture, like honor killing and limiting
women's freedoms. Kurdish women paid the price
twice, they were subjected to prosecution and
imprisonment, and at the same time they were denied
from many rights by their communities. In my
village, many girls were able to get their
elementary education, but rarely allowed to continue
to higher levels of education.
Arranged marriages are common in the Kurdish
society, so women must marry whom their families
choose. Most of my female cousins married this way.
I still remember my cousin Guleh when she was
combing her hair in our house many years ago before
she traveled to another country to marry a man she
had never met before. But most women accept this as
part of their costumes, “The Kurdish woman is
devoted to her family no matter what level of
education she reached or from which social rank she
came from. She fights for her people," the activist
Heyam said. Women literally fight for their people,
and women fought hard to prove that they are as able
as men. Some Kurdish women joined "The Pêşmerge
Force for Women" in Iraq, or the PKK women fighters
in Turkey and Syria who live in mountainsides and
seek to be known for their womanly strength. These
strong women were always compared to the Amazons.
Though hese women are allowed to join armed forces
in remote areas, but usually they are not allowed to
trave for work or education in remote areas. But
still, it is notable that the Kurdish society in the
recent years is taking massive steps toward more
gain of political rights, human rights and women
rights.
Historically, Kurdish women used to assumed power in
their communities and ran the affairs of their
tribes. Kurdish women enjoyed more freedom than
their counterparts like Arabs, Persians and Turkish
women. Matriarchal and patriarchal authority could
both be found. Kurdish women also once played more
notable roles, for instance, Asenath Barzani was one
of the first female Rabbis in history. Though
assuming power by Kurdish women decreased and some
women lost many rights through the years; today
Kurdish women engage in social activities like work,
dancing and singing equally with men. I still enjoy
the memory of weddings in my village where men and
women held hands in a big circle to perform the
local dance.
The recent uprising in Syria brought more respect to
Kurds after they joined all components of Syrian
society in the movement for change. "They want to be
part of the march for rights, and participate in the
formation of a new constitution for Syria where
Kurds' rights are recognized," Heyam said. In 2004,
a major unrest broke out in the Kurdish inhabited
areas in Syria. The regime used all means possible
in its crackdown against the Kurds, and in the years
after the regime incited hatred against Kurds as
traitors and enemies. Kurdish women were a major
part of the unrest, because for years, many young
Kurdish soldiers were brought dead to their families
for unknown reasons. The Kurds were not perceived as
humans by the Syrian regime and could be shot by
army officers without explanation.
In my conversation with activist Heyam she told me
that things changed a lot for women after the unrest
in 2004. Women and men joined hands against the
oppression they were facing. In 2006, the Kurdish
Women’s Union was created to defend women rights and
spread awareness, empower women and society. Kurdish
women started to engage in their society and their
life much more than before.
At the beginning of the revolution, the Syrian
regime tried to bribe Kurds, as well as other
minorities. Minority rights were denied for decades
and only recently did the regime decided to
recognize their rights and not harm them in an
attempt to turn the Syrian society on each other and
isolate the Arab Muslim Sunni. The regime wants to
claim that what it is facing is not a revolution,
but a sectarian strife were the Arab Muslim Sunni
rebels wants to kill other sects and ethnicities.
The Kurds insisted on joining the revolution, and
their participation in the wheel of change shattered
the regime's claims of any sectarian strife.
Heyam Aqil says that inside Syria Kurdish women and
men are organizing fund raising, marching to topple
the government and forming the "Kurdish National
Council" as the framework for the future political
life. Heyam told me that those who live outside
Syria are also working where they live in to spread
awareness about their rights and urge governments to
act and support the Syrian people. Heyam said that
Kurds often organize protests in front of Syrian
embassies, meeting with officials and lawyers to
explain their struggle.
The voices of the Kurds are rising. In the recent
years, thousands of organizations and forums
specialized in Kurdish affairs and rights were
established. Our determination crossed years of pain
and struggle till we reached the age of web 2.0
where our voices can reach. The existential fight of
the Kurds as a nation taught every Kurdish man and
woman to speak up and face challenges. Almost every
Kurdish individual is a proud messenger that always
seeks to deliver his/her spirit and culture.
Some Kurds, like me, might get confused about their
identity, they might let go part of their inner
soul, might lose confidence under pressure. But the
moment I embraced the essence of my nation, I
breathed.
This piece is part of my recognition and
appreciation of being a Kurd; an attempt to
celebrate my Kurdish spirit.
This article is part of a writing assignment for
Voices of Our Future a program of World Pulse that
provides rigorous new media and citizen journalism
training for grassroots women leaders. World Pulse
lifts and unites the voices of women from some of
the most unheard regions of the world.
Copyright ©, respective author or news agency,
worldpulse.com
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