Kurds in Sweden (Swedish: Kurder i Sverige; Kurdish: Kurdên Swêdê) may refer to people born in or residing in Sweden who are of Kurdish origin.
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| Approximately 100,000 [1] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Huddinge, Botkyrka, Västerås, Gothenburg, Örebro, Stockholm, Uppsala, Dalarna, Karlstad, Malmö, Borlänge, Falköping | |
| Languages | |
| Kurdish, Swedish (some knowledge of Turkish, Arabic and Persian) | |
| Religion | |
| Majority Islam | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Kurdish diaspora |
Most Kurdish people in Sweden live in the capital Stockholm or in Uppsala.[2] A majority of Kurdish political refugees choose Sweden as their host country and therefore they have a cultural presence in Sweden.[3]
Chronological Kurdish arrivals to Sweden
edit- 1975: Huddinge becomes the first municipality offering Kurdish as a primary language.[4]
- 1984: The education of Kurdish teachers in Stockholm begins.[5]
- 1986-1990: Economical decline and the claimed mistreatment towards Kurdish people by the Turkish Republic led to immigration to Sweden.[6]
- 1991-1995: The crises in Kuwait due to Iraqi invasion, the war in south Kurdistan, and mass exodus from Turkish Kurdistan into Iran.[7]
Political representation
editIn October 2019, thousands of Swedish Kurds staged a protest in Stockholm over Turkey's military operation in northeastern Syria.[8] In Sweden there are several MP of Kurdish descent such Amineh Kakabaveh, Gulan Avci, Lawen Redar, Sara Gille or Kadir Kasirga.[9] Kakabaveh was delivered the majority vote for that the Social Democrat Magdalena Andersson would become Swedish Prime Minister in 2021.[10] As in May 2022 Sweden made an accession bid to join NATO, Turkey demanded that Sweden ends its alleged support for the Kurdish People's Defense Units (YPG) and Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).[11]
Controversies
editHonor killings
editThe 26-year-old Kurdish woman Fadime Şahindal was murdered by her father in an honour killing in 2002.[12][13] Kurdish organizations were criticized by prime minister Göran Persson for not doing enough to prevent honour killings.[12] Pela Atroshi was a Kurdish girl who was shot by her uncle in a brutal honour killing.[14] The murder of Pela and Fadime gave rise to the formation of the human rights organization Never Forget Pela and Fadime (GAPF). GAPF is a politically and religiously independent and secular nonprofit organization working against honor-related violence and oppression. The organization's name is taken from Pela Atroshi and Fadime Sahindal which is Sweden's best-known and high-profile cases of honor killings.[15] The honor killing of Sara, an Iraqi Kurdish girl, was the first publicized honor killing in Sweden.[16] These three prominent cases of Sara, Pela and Fadime, brought the notion of honour killings into Swedish discourse.[12]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "NATO bid reignites Sweden's dispute with Turkey over Kurds". 24 May 2022.
- ^ "Stilla protest mot massaker". Archived from the original on 10 July 2012. Retrieved 19 August 2017.
- ^ "Sverige är världsledande på kurdisk litteratur". Författeren. 1994 – via saradistribution.com.
- ^ [Rohat Alakom - Kurderna, fyrtio år i Sverige s.98]
- ^ Rohat, Alakom (2007). Kurderna : fyrtio år i Sverige (1965-2005) [The Kurds: forty years in Sweden (1965-2005)]. Serkland. ISBN 978-91-976363-1-5. OCLC 637638581.
- ^ "Irakkriget och de mänskliga rättigheterna". PalmeCenter.se. 7 October 2004. Archived from the original on 2007-10-25. Retrieved 2008-06-24.
- ^ Chatelard, Géraldine, Centre on Migration, Policy and Society, Working Paper No. 68, University of Oxford, 2009, Migration from Iraq between the Gulf and the Iraq wars (1990-2003):Historical and socio-spatial dimensions Archived 2016-01-11 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Kurder i Stockholm: "Ska skrika så hela världen hör"" (in Swedish). Svenska Dagbladet. Retrieved 10 October 2019.
- ^ "Six Kurds elected to Swedish parliament".
- ^ Milne, Richard (2022-06-06). "Sweden must not bow to Turkey over Nato bid, Kurdish-born MP warns". Financial Times. Retrieved 2022-06-06.
- ^ "NATO membership: Swedish Kurds concerned about Ankara's bargaining". Le Monde.fr. 2022-05-29. Retrieved 2022-06-06.
- ^ a b c Hellgren, Zenia; Hobson, Barbara (1 September 2008). "Cultural dialogues in the good society: The case of honour killings in Sweden" (PDF). Ethnicities. 8 (3): 385–404. doi:10.1177/1468796808092449. S2CID 210759790.
- ^ "Kurd killing sparks ethnic debate". CNN. 5 February 2002. Retrieved 4 May 2010.
- ^ "Australian links to brutal honour killing". 25 April 2008. Archived from the original on 27 February 2015. Retrieved 19 August 2017.
- ^ "Riksorganisationen GAPF - Glöm aldrig Pela och Fadime". Retrieved 19 August 2017.
- ^ "Distrust | RSF". www.russellsage.org.