Respond Blog
The role of anti-Kurdish language violence in the devastation of the 2023 earthquake
By Raman Salah
One effect of linguicide – the calculated destruction of a language – is that during times of disaster and emergency, government response and relief measures like critical information and outreach are not accessible in a language that many of the people most affected by the crisis can understand.
Histories and geographies of Kurdish suppression
By Leila Lorenzo, Raman Salah
The Kurdish language is the 40th most spoken language among the world’s 7,000 languages.
Kurdish speakers are dispersed across borders, leading to diverse linguistic environments shaped by different state policies. There are an estimated 35 million Kurdish speakers representing linguistic minorities spread across five different countries …
Kurdish language as Kurdish identity
By Raman Salah
Kurdish language is part and parcel of Kurdish identity, for many of the people with whom Respond spoke.
“As we say in Kurdish… our language is our identity.” – Gordyaen Jermayi (emphasis added)
Memories of anti-Kurdish discrimination and forced assimilation
By Raman Salah
“This language is my language. As someone whose language has been restricted, banned, prohibited, and many people went to jail and got punished for speaking or writing in, for publishing in it – yeah, definitely, I feel a personal connection to the concept of language violence.” – Berivan*, Sorani speaker in Bashur
Anti-Kurdish language violence in schools
By Raman Salah
While language violence occurs in many contexts, from disaster relief and humanitarian aid to legal, medical, and psychological support, one of the most insidious and intergenerationally significant sites of institutional language violence is the school system.
The fight for Kurdish language survival
By Raman Salah
“I can protect my language from being forgotten by reading and writing, communicating with friends and family in my mother tongue.” Tavge*, a teacher, translator, and Kurmanji speaker from Rojava
Kurdish people in their daily lives and in their relationship with their stories, communities, and dialect, are at the forefront of the fight for language justice across Kurdistan.