EASTERN KURDISTAN NEWS

[Anthea]

Kurds arrested in Iran

At least ten Kurds have been arrested on unknown charges by security forces in western Iran’s Kurdistan province, human rights monitors said on Thursday. Their belongings were also confiscated and family members were reportedly beaten

“The mass arrests were made by intelligence agents without a court order. According to local sources, officers entered the house and searched and confiscated some personal belongings, using verbal and physical violence to detain at least 10 people,” Paris-based Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) reported on Thursday.

“Security forces even beat family members” who were “trying to prevent officers from entering their homes illegally,” it added.

Confiscated belongings included laptops, cameras, mobile phones, and books, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), an NGO that monitors human rights violations across Iran.

Hengaw organization for human rights said that the security forces making the arrests were using cars from the Red Crescent, an international humanitarian organization.

Minority populations like Kurds and Balochis are subject to frequent violations including arrests and killings. At the beginning of the year, dozens of people were arrested in Kurdish cities. In the first ten months of the year, at least 392 people have been arrested, most of them on charges related to ties with Kurdish opposition groups, according to data from KHRN.

The United Nations’ human rights chief in March condemned Iranian state violence against Balochis and Kurds, expressing alarm over a “crackdown on minorities.” International monitors are concerned that human rights could further erode in Iran under hardliner President Ebrahim Raisi.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iran/121120211

[Anthea]

Kurds executed in Iran

Dozens of Kurds were arrested and several prisoners were executed in the Kurdish populated areas of Iran in December, according to a report from a human rights group published on Tuesday

Iranian security forces arrested at least 30 people, including a 16-year-old child, a cleric, and activists in the Kurdish cities of Iran, the Paris-based Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) said in their monthly report on human rights violations in the country.

Four of the detainees were arrested for attending the funeral of the executed Kurdish political prisoner Heidar Ghorbani, while a fifth prisoner was captured for posting about Ghorbani on social media platforms.

Tens of thousands of people, mostly political prisoners, are jailed in Iran on various charges including advocating for democracy and promoting the rights of women, workers, and ethnic minorities.

Zara Mohammadi, a Kurdish-language teacher in Iran, told Rudaw on Monday that she would be handing herself in to the authorities after she was sentenced to five years in prison on national security charges.

At least six executions were reported in the Kurdish provinces, including Ghorbani, who was secretly executed on December 19.

Iran is one of the biggest enforcers of death penalty in the world, with the number of its death sentences branded “troubling” by United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran Javaid Rehman in a March statement.

Ghorbani was arrested in October 2016 on accusations of being involved in the killing of three men affiliated with Iran’s Basij paramilitary forces.

He was sentenced to death in January 2020 by a court in Iran’s Kurdistan province.

According to data collected by Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), more than 230 people were executed in 2020. The report added that more than 72 percent of executions were done in secret and not reported by the government.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iran/040120221

[Anthea]

Human rights violations in 2021

At least 160 cases of Kolbar deaths and injuries were reported in Iran's Kurdish populated areas in 2021, according to a report from a human rights group

Various conditions resulted in the deaths of at least 46 Kurdish Kolbars and the injury of over a hundred others, the Paris-based Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) said in its annual report on Tuesday.

Out of the 46 murdered, “17 were killed by Iranian military forces and four by Turkish forces,” the report added, as Kolbars are the frequently targeted by Iranian border guards. Another Kolbar, 17, committed suicide after the border guards confiscated his mules.

Kolbars are semi-legal porters who transport untaxed goods across the Kurdistan Region-Iran border and occasionally the Iran-Turkey border. Most are pushed into the profession by poverty and a lack of alternative employment, which are particularly rampant in Iran's Kurdish provinces.

Aside from being targets of the border guards, they often fall victims to natural disasters.

Avalanches, frostbite, road accidents, drowning, and falling from mountain heights are also causes of numerous Kolbar deaths, with an estimated 24 Kolbars perishing from such causes in 2021.

KHRN’s latest report also addressed the execution of prisoners in the Kurdish areas.

“At least 30 prisoners were executed in various prisons in the western provinces of West Azerbaijan, Kurdistan, Kermanshah, and Ilam,” it read.

Heidar Ghorbani was executed on December 19, without the knowledge of his family, according to the watchdog.

The watchdog’s data showed that four Kurdish political activists of the Free Life Party of Kurdistan (PJAK) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDP-I) were assassinated overseas.

KDPI member Mousa Babakhani was found dead, bearing signs of torture in Erbil in August.

The KDPI is a Kurdish party which has waged an on-and-off armed war against the Iranian government since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. It is based in the Kurdistan Region.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iran/20012022

[Anthea]

Zara Mohammadi: Face of Kurdish Resistance

A Kurdish teacher and activist who defied the Iranian regime by teaching her mother tongue to children has been sentenced to five years imprisonment. Her incarceration has turned her into a symbol of national pride and resilience for Kurds in Iran

When the Iranian Islamic revolutionaries came to power, they repeatedly claimed that the Kurds were originally Iranian, along with other unrestrained declarations. Since 1979, clerics in Tehran have banned the Kurds from reading and writing in their mother tongue.

As a result, the overwhelming majority of Iranian Kurds cannot read and write in their native language. These cultural limitations resulted in the sentencing of Zara Mohammadi, a Kurdish language teacher, and civil society activist, to ten years in prison for simply trying to give her people access to a Kurdish education. While the sentence was reduced to five years, the incarceration is representative of Iran’s discriminatory policies towards its ethnic minorities including Ahwazi Arabs, Azerbaijani Turks, Baluchis, and Iranian Kurds.

The overwhelming majority of Iranian Kurds cannot read and write in their native language

29 years-old Mohammadi was first arrested in her hometown of Sanandaj (also known as Sine), on May 23, 2019. She is the director of the Nojin Socio-Cultural Association, an organization tasked with teaching the Kurdish language and literature.

In November 2019, the Iranian Human Rights organization reported that Mohammadi was “charged with national security offenses in relation to her civil society work empowering marginalized members of Iran’s Kurdish minority.”

Mohammadi had been subject to extensive interrogations by Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence Agency and spent about six months in prison where she endured questioning and torture forcing her to make false confessions. On December 2, 2019, she was released on a 700 million Iranian tomans (approximately $27,000) bail.

She was also charged with forming a group and committee that threatens the system’s stability and security and sentenced to five years in prison by a Sanandaj appeals court in February 2021.

“The five-year sentence by the appeal court without evidence, reason, and with no consideration to the truth is a total injustice,” Mohammadi shared on her Instagram on February 13, 2021.

Since Mohammadi’s incarceration, she has become a symbol of the resistance against Iran’s systematic cultural subjugation of Iranian Kurds and their national identity.

She has become a symbol of the resistance against Iran’s systematic cultural subjugation of Iranian Kurds

In a speech made in front of the court in Sanandaj, before turning herself to the Iranian authorities to serve her time, Mohammadi quoted the famous Kurdish poet, Qani, who is affectionately known as the poet of the oppressed. The line reads, “While in jail, my thinking on freedom will expand. Destruction is the fate of that enemy who has hope in prison.”

The Islamic Republic of Iran’s (IRI) constitution, written after the Islamic revolution of 1979 and amended in 1989, preserves the right of all nations and minorities to study and learn in their mother tongues. But in practice, that “right” is nothing more than worthless ink on lifeless paper. Mohammadi’s imprisonment is grave abuse of the IRI’s own constitution.

“The official language and script of Iran, the lingua franca of its people, is Persian. Official documents, correspondence, and texts, as well as textbooks, must be in this language and script. However, the use of regional and tribal languages in the press and mass media, as well as for teaching of their literature in schools, is allowed in addition to Persian,” reads Article 15 of the Iranian Constitution.

Article 19 stipulates, “All people of Iran, whatever the ethnic group or tribe to which they belong, enjoy equal rights; and color, race, language, and the like, do not bestow any privilege.”

During former Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s race for the presidency in 2013, he pledged to officially authorize the teaching of Iranian mother tongues [Kurdish, Azeri, and Arabic] in public schools and universities. He won the election with the ethnic minority vote, including over 70 percent of the Iranian Kurdistan vote, but subsequently neglected his promises after being elected.

Persian is the only official language for education. Students have never been permitted to use their mother tongues

Three years later, in 2016, university classes in Kurdish and the Azeri-Turkish languages were rumored to be offered for the first time in Iran. But a Kurdish student who recently obtained his master’s degree at Payame Noor University told Inside Arabia that Persian is the only official language for education. Students have never been permitted to use their mother tongues.

“When Zara Mohammadi wants to teach the Kurdish language to fellow kids of Sanandaj, the IRI sentences her with six years imprisonment. Why? Because Mohammadi’s deed is outside IRI’s political system,” Kamal Chomani, a Kurdish writer living in Germany and a nonresident fellow at The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, wrote in a Facebook post.

“Education in the mother tongue is a global right… postcolonial intellectuals consider… education in the mother tongue as the most crucial mechanism for combating colonialism and amending cultural distortion and intellectual aggression,” Chomani added.

Decades-long annihilation policies by Iran against the Kurdish language and culture have made it very difficult for Iranian Kurds to read and write in their mother tongue. Gradually, the language and its dialects are under the imminent threat of extinction.

Hawrami is a dialect of the Kurdish language and is spoken by some 23,000 people in Iran’s Kurdistan, western Iran, and in Iraq’s Hawraman area. In 2010, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) categorized the dialect as “definitely endangered.”

One year after President Ibrahim Raisi entered office, Iranian Kurds continue to be prosecuted and have their cultural, political, and economic rights denied.

Although the IRI may think that it has silenced Mohammadi – at least for the next five years – it never imagined that terribly inhumane measures against a young female teacher would make her a historic symbol of bravery and resistance for Iranian Kurds.

https://insidearabia.com/zara-mohammadi ... e-in-iran/

[Anthea]

Woman demands daughter's release

The elderly mother of prominent Kurdish political prisoner in Iran, Zeynab Jalalian, was detained on Monday and interrogated for several hours for calling on the international community to pressure Iran to release her daughter who has been in prison for 14 years, convicted on political charges

Jalalian’s 70-year-old mother, Guzel Hajizadeh, was detained after security forces raided her home in Maku, West Azerbaijan province, for posting a widely-circulated video on social media where she called on international human rights organization to work towards the release of her daughter.

Hajizadeh was interrogated for several hours regarding the content of the video and the people involved in recording it, according to Kurdistan Human Rights Network, a Paris-based NGO that monitors human rights violations in the Kurdish areas of western Iran.

Despite being released, the family residence remains under heavy security surveillance. Hajizadeh was also denied the right to speak to the media or to publish any other content related to the continuous detention of Jalalian.

Jalalian is just one of the hundreds of political prisoners being held in conditions in Iranian prisons that violate human rights. Last year alone, at least 500 Kurdish individuals were arrested in Iran, while 11 Kurdish prisoners died in unclear circumstances in prisons, according to a UN report from last month. The report also noted an increase in executions of Kurdish prisoners, compared to other ethnicities, with over 50 being recorded in 2021.

This is not the first time a member of Jalalian’s family is detained for speaking against her imprisonment.

In November 2020, her father Ali Jalalian, was arrested by ministry of intelligence officials for speaking to foreign human rights organizations and media.

In June 2020, Jalalian’s father told the rights watchdog that his daughter was being denied adequate medical care despite being in critical condition after contracting COVID-19 at Qarchak prison, southeast of Tehran.

Over the course of her 14-year imprisonment, Jalalian has been transferred across various prisons in the country, enduring inhumane conditions, torture, and contracting several viruses as a result of being prevented access to medical services.

She is currently being held at a prison in Yazd where she was transferred to in November 2020 and has since had a number of her rights restricted. Jalalian is entitled to few, short phone calls to her father and is not allowed to speak in Kurdish, only in Persian.

UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has ordered Iran to release Jalalian and provide compensation for her unjust detention but despite this, she continues to be held prisoner.

The political prisoner was born in the village of Dem Gheshlaq in Iran’s western Azerbaijan province. She had been involved in cultural and women rights activities in Kurdish areas of both Iran and Iraq.

She was reportedly tortured at the detention facility of the Ministry of Intelligence after refusing to confess to Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK) membership and beg for forgiveness on camera. Initially sentenced to death by the revolutionary court in Kermanshah for “enmity against God” in 2008, her sentence was reduced to life imprisonment in 2011 by the court of appeal.

PJAK is an Iranian Kurdish armed opposition group. While generally considered the Iranian wing of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the organization claims they are merely linked by a shared ideology.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iran/22022022

[Anthea]

The pain of Rojhelat's women

The sound of crying from the child who was separated from his mother in court still echoes in the ears of Gullalla. She’s angry that, as this helpless woman’s lawyer, she couldn’t convince the court how much of a tragedy the separation would be for this mother and child. The image of the sobbing rural woman does not leave her mind, and she’s reminded of the sight every day

In addition to the many legal discriminations that women in Rojhelat (Eastern Kurdistan) have to deal with, such as not having the right to ask for divorce, not obtaining custody of their children after separation, forced marriages, and domestic violence, some women also have to deal with outdated traditional and cultural discriminations, such as being victims of honor killings and being deprived inheritance shares from their families.

Despite the countless problems and barriers that women face, female activists in the Kurdish provinces of western Iran are refusing to stand for these injustices and are fighting the ancient traditions and outdated laws of the community.

Gullalla Watandust is a female lawyer from the western Iranian city of Mariwan, on the border with the Kurdistan Region. She’s one of the women who has become a beacon of hope for many in distress, who do not have the financial capacity to hire a lawyer and ask for their rights in court.

After a day of headaches and fatigue from being in court, Gullalla speaks to Rudaw English from her office on the third floor of a building in eastern Mariwan, and addresses the pain and problems of women in Rojhelat.

Gullalla, who’s worked as a lawyer for the past ten years, says that most of her cases involve problems of struggling women. “Most of the issues of women in Rojhelat are due to legal fragmentations", she explained, "such as not having the rights to request a divorce. The lion’s share of these fragmentations mainly impact the women negatively because the men have the right to divorce and abuse women as much they like. This is at a time when the Kurdish community still looks condescendingly at women who have been divorced.”

Gullalla, whose fatigue from the day in court can be seen through her eyes, added, “Additionally, women not having the right of custody to children over the age of seven, once they separate from their husbands is another issue, because sometimes they do not even follow the law of allowing mothers to raise their kids until the age of seven. Some fathers abduct their children and create bigger problems. Not to mention the many obstacles against women in the name of honor, which paves the way for violence against women.”

Other issues that women in Rojhelat face include forcing underage girls into marriage, as well as problems of inheritance. According to Iranian law, women are entitled to half of whatever the males in the family inherit. Yet, in some cases, especially in the villages and the tribal regions, they do not even receive half, and the negative mindset prevails that women who receive their half of the inheritance are not "good" women. The lack of freedom to pursue education and to go outside are some of the other problems.

Solving the issues women face requires a multi-dimensional movement

Gullalla, who is also a founding member of the “Women of Zhivano” organization which specializes in working towards obtaining rights for women, refers to the violence that a number of women in Rojhelat have been subjected to in the past year. “The asserted state of gender discrimination against women in Rojhelat, the same as the communities in eastern Nawin, is the product of the unending historical injustice towards women. In addition to the economic and social struggles, women get the fair share of domestic violence and misfortune,” she says.

Gullalla addresses the spread of social media use in Iran and Rojhelat, stating, “The social networks unveil the curtain on the injustices that women face, but if used with the wrong intentions, they can serve towards more suffering and injustice for women. What we formally see from the Iranian government in the media, is an orchestrated plan meant to oppress all women, which is something that needs to be revised.”

Gullalla believes that a good lawyer should not allow anyone to threaten them. She says, “Unfortunately, central feminism in Iran does not pay much attention to villages and the rural areas. However, if we wish to solve the issues of women in Rojhelat, we need a collective effort that covers all aspects of life, so that issues of women become the topic of discussion. Women’s rights activists, feminist men, and civil activists should try to raise awareness of the community.”

Gullalla also discusses an odd rule amongst Sunni Muslims, and especially followers of the Shafi'i madhab, which composes a large section of the Rojhelat population, which is called “Ta’ssib”. According to this rule, a part of the inheritance of men who only have female offspring and no male offspring will be given to their brothers and fathers. "In fear of this scenario, most men prefer to have boys over girls,” she says.

This is a highly problematic rule towards women in today’s world; one that encourages parents to desire only boys, and in many cases leads to girls being aborted as foetuses if the woman cannot give birth to boys. It’s either that, or she keeps giving birth until one child is a boy. Otherwise, her husband might marry another women and risk leaving her with no support.

Gullalla adds, “Even though March 8th is the international day for women and is a symbol for women’s fight towards gender equality, we should not only discuss women who are physically female. The rights of transwomen, people who were born in bodies of men but identify as women in spirit, should also be sought after. One of the failures of the Kurdistan and Iran feminist movements is that they have not raised their voice in support of Trans rights.”

Gullalla discusses another instance of regression in Rojhelat when it comes to freedom of girls, saying, “Girls my age, we could pursue an education in the faraway cities of Iran, but what shocks me is the fact that now, most families take a stance against their girls going to a university outside of their own cities, which is a regression that should investigated.”

The lawyer and women’s activist concluded her thoughts. “Even though it is the responsibility of women to fight for their own rights, to achieve this equality, upstanding men should join the battle so that we can have a fortunate community.”

According to a recently published report from the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, from March 2021 to March 2022, at least 94 women committed suicide in different cities of Iranian Kurdistan, and 41 women were killed. According to that same report, the rate of women suicide has declined compared to the previous year, but the rate of women being murdered by their close ones has increased.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iran/070320222

[Anthea]

Click Photos to Enlarge:


Nowruz Rituals in Palangan

Nowruz Celebration in the historical Village of Palangan, Kurdistan Province, Iran. Kurdish People in traditional Costumes during the Nowruz Ceremony in the Kurdistan

Before the Islamization of the Iranic peoples in Asia, the Zoroastrian religion was believed in by the ancestors of the modern Kurds.



In Zoroastrian doctrine, fire is a symbol of sight, goodness and purification. Angra Mainyu, the demonic anti-thesis of Zoroastrianism, was defied by Zoroastrians through creating a big fire every year, to symbolize their defiance and hatred for evil and the arch-demon.

In Palangan village whitch It may not be as well known as Shiraz and Isfahan, but has plenty to offer for explorers willing to get off the well worn track including its unique architecture, scenic nature, tasty food, authentic village life, and mysterious history.

Palangan (which means ‘leopards’) is located about 50 kilometers Northwest of the city of Kamyaran in the Kurdistan province. According to the latest census, about 1000 people live here, mostly employed in the local fishing industry.

The village is spread over both sides of a steep valley. In the middle flows the Tangi Var River, which eventually pours into the Sirwan River and flows into Eastern Iraq. Connecting both sides of the village are several narrow bridges. Like most of Kurdistan, the surrounding nature is filled with endless scenic spots to explore, have a picnic, or just relax.



Palangan is most famous for the distinct terraced structure of the stone houses. The roof of each house is the yard of the one above it. This ecofriendly design makes the entire village look like a steep staircase carved into the rocky chasm.

Palangan is not the only village in Iran with this design (Masooleh, on the banks of the Caspian Sea, is also similar), but differs from the others because of the villager’s unique Kurdish cultural heritage.

Culture of Palangan village

Palangan offers visitors a glimpse into a lifestyle that has all but disappeared from the modern world. Far away from the endless distractions of big cities, the villager’s simple lives are filled with calm and tranquility.

Watching livestock cross the bridges, listening to the soothing sound of the river, and simply resting under the shade of the mulberry trees allow one to reconnect with mother nature and reach a deep sense of inner peace.

On Fridays (the day of rest in Iran) the villagers dress in traditional Kurdish attire, and after Friday prayers, go home to relax. Some common leisure activities include horse riding competitions, tug-of-war, and folk dance.

Without a doubt the best time to visit Palangan is during the annual Nowruz (Iranian New Year) celebration, usually held in the middle of March (the exact day is declared by the village council a few weeks before and varies year by year, but is always held a few days before the actual New Year).



At this time, the entire village assembles next to the river. A large torch is lit (and kept on for several days), important villagers make speeches, and then traditional Kurdish singing and dancing begins.

History of Palangan village



No one knows the exact date Palangan was founded, but it has been inhabited since the pre-Islamic period. The city itself has been completely destroyed and rebuilt stone by stone several times.

The current location was built 500 years ago, with ruins of the previous village located about 2 kilometers away.

Pieces of history are scattered all around Palangan.

A piece of an ancient gate was uncovered by archaeologists near the village, with an ancient inscription that has not been translated until today. There are several ruined bridges in the river, the best preserved one being from the Safavid Era (about 500 years old), but the oldest ones being estimated as being at least 1000 years older. Furthermore, the village contains a very old graveyard that has graves written in Kufic script (meaning they are from around the 8th century).

Less than a kilometer away, on top of the mountains, lie the ruins of an old castle. Just like the village, no one really knows who first built it or when that was. It is filled with rooms and surrounded by ruins of bridges, mosques, and gardens.

Many different rulers and nobles took advantage of its unique location, both strategically and as a place of leisure. The castle was held under siege for three months by invading Arab forces in the 7th century (though after it surrendered the people were given amnesty). Centuries later, the castle was used as a palace for the chiefs of the Kalhor tribe.

In the year 1215 the Ardalan tribe kicked out the Kalhours and occupied the castle, establishing their vassaldom. They continued to live there until the mid-1600s, when the Persian ruler Shah Safi decided to have it destroyed.

Near the castle, there are remains of even more ancient graves which local legend claims were those of a group of Jewish refugees from a forgotten time fleeing an ancient enemy.

Link to Article and Photos:

https://surfiran.com/nowruz-rituals-ira ... -palangan/

[Anthea]

Newroz fire lit across East Kurdistan

Newroz celebrations continue in East Kurdistan where people take to the streets in masses against assimilation and bans

Grand celebrations took place in five regions of Mariwan province and Sine on Sunday.

MARIWAN

Thousands of people took to the streets to celebrate Newroz. Starting from the early morning hours, masses filled the squares to celebrate Newroz in the villages of Kanîdînar, Çorûnen, Deştîbîlo, Giwêzekire.

An enthusiastic celebration in Sine was attended by thousands of people welcoming the New Year in traditional dress and performing the traditional dance govend.



Several institutions had called for broad participation in the celebrations against the Iranian regime’s policy of making Newroz meaningless.

[Anthea]

Struggle for Kurdish education in Eastern Kurdistan

According to the 1979 Iranian constitution, minorities in the country have the legal claim to be taught their own language in schools

However, over 40 years since the drafting of the constitution, this right is yet to be implemented fully in many areas and Kurds of the country, as well as other minorities, still struggle with the inaccessibility to an education in their own language.

A new Rudaw documentary titled Mother Language from director Sarkew Msgari depicts the lack of Kurdish education in the cities and villages of Estern Iran (Rojhelat), and the impact of that exclusion on young and eager Kurdish students and their families.

“They have three Persian language lessons a day… It would be much better to have one Kurdish lesson instead of one of those Persian lessons,” said Luqman Yousifi from Bokan’s Salamat village, lamenting his son Diyar’s inability to study his own language.

Frustrated by the situation, many Kurdish parents have sought to hire private teachers and tutors to teach their children in the Kurdish language, believing that teaching their children their mother language is worth the financial complications that some families might be subjected to.

“Last year they had a teacher who said we cannot teach the Kurdish language because we are not allowed by the education ministry… He is right. They do not dare. We have to find another way and find a Kurdish private teacher for our children here in the villages, and there are many people who are eager to have a Kurdish language class,” said Qadir Yousifi, a farmer from Salamat, adding that they would pay all the expenses needed for their children to be taught Kurdish.

In addition to children, many adults also yearn to be able to read and write in their mother tongue, deciding to pursue an education in the later stages of their lives by any means necessary.

“In our area there were schools, but there were no girls in them. They [families] did not allow girls to study back then, only their sons. I really like to be able to read and write. I would give all my fortune to learn,” said Sabri Qadri, who, due to her passion for learning, started going to school after getting married and giving birth to three children.

Article 15 of the 1979 constitution of Iran states “the official language and script of Iran, the lingua franca of its people, is Persian. Official documents, correspondence, and texts, as well as text-books, must be in this language and script. However, the use of regional and tribal languages in the press and mass media, as well as for teaching of their literature in schools, is allowed in addition to Persian.”

Kurdish teachers and activists have for years fought to implement this right in the areas that do not necessarily comply by it, to no avail.

“Neglecting Article 15 of the constitution is neglecting the history and civilization of Iranian ethnic groups and the people of Iran,” said Aziz Nimati, a language instructor.

“The main reason is that they do not provide the rights to the ethnic groups and minorities in Iran, especially Turks, Kurds, Gilakis, and many others. There are many minorities in Iran. It is not only the Kurds that they [Iranian authorities] want to stop from learning their mother tongue,” said Suhaila Mohammadi, a Kurdish language instructor.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iran/070520221

[Anthea]

Return to local theater

DIVANDARREH, Iran - The city of Divandarreh hosted its fifth comedy theater festival in western Iran (Rojhelat Kurdistani) this week, for the first time after a three year hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic, with eight theatrical productions from across Rojhelat being presented to the audience

Around 90 kilometers north of Sina, Divandarreh, is home to 80 thousand people, the majority of which live in the rural areas and keep themselves busy with farming and livestock herding.

On the other hand, there is the entertainers, most of which work in the comedy sector in Sina’s television and radio stations, pursuing their dreams and concerning themselves with organizing such events.

“The cities in Kurdistan province each have their own identity, and due to the fact that there are many comedians in Divandarreh and there’s a positive reception from the people, we are trying to make this city the center of comedy theater,” said Hussein Moradi, an organizer of the event and well known comedian, told Rudaw English on Sunday.

While Divandarreh has comedy, the other cities of Kurdistan express their artistic creativity in other forms, with Saqqez being home to Kurdish theater and Mariwan hosting annual street theater festivals.

The festival has also provided a platform for talented female entertainers to display their prowess in front of the audience.

“When I first started doing theater, it was an example of breaking the social norms,” said Chro Kargar who’s been practicing comedy theater for the past eleven years.

“My hobby was theater, and I wanted to become a successful theater actress. That’s why I had to pass through an extremely challenging path and battle the closed-mindedness of the society, until I could convince my family and the community that theater is not only for men,” she added.

After the pandemic disrupted most of Iran’s artistic expression, activities and festivals are starting to return to their natural course, and are becoming a source of escape for those who struggled the most during COVID.

“People are thirsty for rest and are seeking an escape from that tragedy [the pandemic] and this festival has the power to provide an escape from the hardships,” Qani Niknafs, who lost his father due to the coronavirus, told Rudaw English while attending the festival.

The fifth comedy theater festival started on Saturday and concluded on Monday.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iran/19072022

[Anthea]

Kurdish opposition parties reunite

The Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) and Iran's Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP-Iran) on Sunday announced their reunification after they split nearly 16 years ago, calling the reunion “a new stage” in their opposition to the Iranian state

“Today, the Democratic Party is ending an unpleasant period in its history by regaining its unity,” read a joint statement from both parties, adding that the reunion “will be the beginning of a new stage in the struggle of this party against the regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran and against any centrist mentality that denies Iran's multi-ethnicity and the national rights of different components in Iran.”

The KDPI is a Kurdish opposition party that has waged an on-and-off armed war against the Iranian government since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The party split following its 13th congress in 2006, but the KDP and KDP-Iran have been engaged in several rounds of unification talks over the years.

The statement said that the reunion has been one of the “legitimate demands and sacred wishes” of the people of Iran’s western Kurdish region (Rojhelat Kurdistani), adding that senior members of both sides have never dismissed the idea of reunification, but have considered it “a goal” and not just “a possibility”.

Going forward, the party’s organizations and bodies will reunite and resume under the name of the KDPI and through the “guidance of a common leadership” and “bilateral agreements,” the statement highlighted.

The KDPI was founded in Rojhelat’s Mahabad by Kurdish leader Qazi Muhammad in 1946 under the name of the Democratic Party

In the 1980s, it fought alongside other Kurdish parties in a war against the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Crops (IRGC) and other security forces in Iran’s Kurdish region when larger opposition eventually forced them out. Since that decade, they have been based in the Kurdistan Region prompting Iran to shell areas in the Region in what it says are efforts to target the group.

The reunification of both parties comes after a rights organization recently reported that Iran has stationed a large number of troops, armed with heavy weaponry, on the border areas between Iran and the Kurdistan Region, in an attempt to “infiltrate” the Region’s borders.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iran/21082022

[Anthea]

Mahsa Amini tortured to death

Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini, arrested last Tuesday by the Islamic religious police, was taken to hospital two hours later after losing consciousness. She passed away on Friday afternoon at Kasra Hospital in northern Tehran. Originally from Saqqez in Kurdistan province, Amini was arrested in her brother’s car on a visit to the capital to see their relatives

The 22-year-old woman’s death in custody by the hijab police has led to indignation among the people and several anti-regime protests in different cities.

While the Islamic Republic officials alleged that Amini’s death was caused by previous health conditions including epilepsy, hydrocephalus, and cardiovascular diseases, his father, speaking to Ham-Mihan newspaper, denied the claims.

A source from the hospital where she died told Iran International on Saturday that her brain tissue was crushed after “multiple blows” to the head, adding that Amini was taken to Kasra Hospital in the capital Tehran while she was not responsive and brain dead. The source added that her lungs were filled with blood when she was transferred to the hospital, and it was clear that she “could not be revived."

The source emphasized that Mahsa's condition "was such that she could not be saved nor was surgery possible because her brain tissue was seriously damaged, and it was clear that the patient was not injured by a single punch and must have received many blows to her head."

A photo of Mahsa on the hospital bed showed her unconscious with very clear signs of bleeding from her right ear. Several doctors, including Mahdiar Saeedian, editor of a health magazine, pointed out on social media that otorrhagia (hemorrhage from ears) proves that her coma was caused by trauma to the head.

The skull CT scan of Mahsa Amini shows bone fracture, hemorrhage and brain edema, Iran International reported on Monday.

The medical documents and dozens of exclusive images sent to Iran International by a hacktivist group vividly show a skull fracture on the right side of her head caused by a severe trauma to the skull, which corroborate earlier accounts by her family and doctors about her being hit several times on the head, proving that the Iranian police's claim that she suffered a heart attack was untrue.

Images of her chest show bilateral diffuse alveolar hemorrhage and damage due to aspiration pneumonia, secretion retention and superimposed infection. Doctors say the results are compatible with acute respiratory distress syndrome due to brain trauma.

[Anthea]

Protests for Jina Amini

According to Iranian state television, at least 17 people were killed by state forces in protests over the death of Jina Mahsa Amini, while civil society associations say the deaths are at least 31

After the murder of 22-year-old Jina Mahsa Amini by the "morality police" on 13 September, the protests, which started in Rojhilat Kurdistan and spread throughout Iran, are entering their 7th day and the balance sheet is getting heavier. According to an official report released on Thursday (22 September), 7 activists and 4 policemen have been killed since the protests began.

State television, on the other hand, did not elaborate on the number of demonstrators, reporting that "17 people, demonstrators and the police, lost their lives in the events of the last few days." However, the Oslo-based NGO Human Rights of Iran (IHR) reported that at least 31 civilians were killed by state forces.

Three paramilitaries "mobilized to confront the rebels" were killed on Wednesday in Tabriz (northwest), Qazvin (centre) and Mashhad (northeast), according to Iranian news agencies. According to the same source, a member of the security forces was also killed during the protests in Shiraz (centre) on Tuesday. According to the Fars agency, 7 demonstrators were killed on Wednesday.

Iranian authorities reported that six demonstrators have been killed on Wednesday since the protests began, four in Kurdistan (northwest) and two in Kermansha (northwest), where Jina Amini lived.

Iranian officials denied security forces were involved in the protesters' deaths.

[Anthea]

Iran Restricts Internet Use

Due to security issues and discussions, restrictions may be imposed on the use of the Internet

Mahsa Amini, 22, was detained on September 13 in Tehran by the morality police for improperly wearing a veil and sent to one of the Faraj centers, belonging to the police and military reconnaissance service, for an explanatory talk. The girl allegedly suffered a heart attack and was rushed to the hospital, where she died on September 16.

People have blamed Mahsa's death on the morality police. Protests were organized in various cities of the country, and videos were published on social networks in which young women cut their hair and burned the hijab veil or the rusari headscarf with which Iranian women must cover their heads.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi instructed the Interior Minister to thoroughly investigate the causes and details of Mahsa's death and expressed condolences to her relatives.

Last Monday, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps commander in Kurdistan visited the young woman's relatives. He also expressed his condolences and reassured them that a proper and non-preconceived investigation would be conducted into what happened.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Ira ... -0011.html

[Anthea]

Protests in East Kurdistan and Iran

The Iran Human Rights Organization reported that 76 people, including 6 women and 4 children, were killed in the demonstrations that have been continuing for 10 days

Mass demonstrations to protest the murder of Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in East Kurdistan and Iran continued for the 10th consecutive day despite the brutal crackdown by the Iranian regime. 76 protestors have been killed by the security forces during the demonstrations so far.

Images circulated through social media networks show demonstrations held in Sine, Mahabat, Sardeşt, Meriwan, Diwander, Qurwe, Kirmaşan, Urmiyê and other provinces of East Kurdistan on Monday.

Helicopters and planes were reported to have been flying over Bane, Seqiz and Sine skies for the last few days. House raids and detentions of activists continue in the meantime.

Protests were staged last night in Tehran, Yezda, Mashhad, Tabriz, Burazcan, Bucnurd, Shiraz and other cities in Iran.

Moreover, the Iranian regime forces hired some foreign forces to suppress the demonstrations. Eyewitnesses revealed that there were Arabs among the armed forces mobilized to disperse the demonstrators in the city of Mashhad.

It is reported that the Iranian regime forces used Basij children, a paramilitary volunteer militia, to suppress the protests in some cities.

The Iran Human Rights Organization reported that 76 people, including 6 women and 4 children, were killed in the demonstrations that have been continuing for 10 days.

According to the Iranian government, 41 people have died so far.