Kurds in Sweden

Kurds in Sweden

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

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.

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

• 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

In 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

Honor killings

The 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

• Kurdish diaspora
• Immigration to Sweden
• Kurds in Denmark
• Kurds in Finland
• Kurds in Norway
• Kurdistan Region–Sweden relations

References

1. "NATO bid reignites Sweden's dispute with Turkey over Kurds". 24 May 2022.
2. "Stilla protest mot massaker". Archived from the original on 10 July 2012. Retrieved 19 August 2017.
3. "Sverige är världsledande på kurdisk litteratur". Författeren. 1994 – via saradistribution.com.
4. [Rohat Alakom - Kurderna, fyrtio år i Sverige s.98]
5. 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.
6. "Irakkriget och de mänskliga rättigheterna". PalmeCenter.se. 7 October 2004. Archived from the original on 2007-10-25. Retrieved 2008-06-24.
7. 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
8. "Kurder i Stockholm: "Ska skrika så hela världen hör"" (in Swedish). Svenska Dagbladet. Retrieved 10 October 2019.
9. "Six Kurds elected to Swedish parliament".
10. Milne, Richard (2022-06-06). "Sweden must not bow to Turkey over Nato bid, Kurdish-born MP warns". Financial Times. Retrieved 2022-06-06.
11. "NATO membership: Swedish Kurds concerned about Ankara's bargaining". Le Monde.fr. 2022-05-29. Retrieved 2022-06-06.
12. 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.
13. "Kurd killing sparks ethnic debate". CNN. 5 February 2002. Retrieved 4 May 2010.
14. "Australian links to brutal honour killing". 25 April 2008. Archived from the original on 27 February 2015. Retrieved 19 August 2017.
15. "Riksorganisationen GAPF - Glöm aldrig Pela och Fadime". Retrieved 19 August 2017.
16. "Distrust | RSF". www.russellsage.org.