Against Kurdish Erasure

Excerpts from Sleeping in the Courtyard, edited by Holly Mason Badra:

• “My Roots Were Somewhere With You” by Nahid Arjouni

• “Dream and Reality” by Meral Şimşek

• “Waiting” by Holly Mason Badra

With Kurds in Rojava (Western Kurdistan) and Rojhelat (Eastern Kurdistan) facing insurmountable violence and displacement at the hands of the Iranian, Syrian, and Turkish forces, we in diaspora mobilize in anger and strength. Rojava offers an example of Kurdish liberation so rooted in feminist, ecological, and participatory practices that it must be protected. The threat of erasure follows us from Rojava to Rojhelat where the martyrs that spark revolution and move us to action across the globe are Kurdish women like Jina Amini and Rubina Aminian.