On the 4th of April 2022, Ms. Alina Jabbari, CGDS Visiting Scholar and former Jan Warner Visiting Scholar hosted two guest speakers through Zoom, Sipan Salim and Peshmerge Morad, in her class, “National Identity and Diaspora Politics” (IST 399). They were invited to present and share their experiences and personal perspectives in relation to Kurdish identity and migration, and how their identity was transformed and shaped in diaspora. Coming from Bashur and Rojava respectively, as well as having migrated in different decades (1999 and 2012 respectively), they touched upon how they perceived their Kurdishness before migration and how this intersected with their religious identity. Reflecting on their migration, their presentations showcased the various factors that play into how living in diaspora shapes and affects people. The presentation was especially compelling because their narratives intersected with each other’s, and the crossing of each other’s paths in the Netherlands made an exchange possible that, without migration, would not have been.
Image: a world map shows a small black concentration in Kurdistan, and larger, green concentrations in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.