Since the Syrian revolution, the arts and culture in the country have taken some interesting turns. In the country, there is now two specific groups of artists: those that support the regime and those that rebel against it.
In this great schism of Syrian artists, there has been a rise of anti-regime artists coming from Syrian Kurdistan or Rojava. Many of these Kurdish revolutionary artists come from a generation that has grown up in a nation that does not respect their culture, only to become adults at the height of the Syrian revolution.
The Kurds are well known for their revolutionary music. Throughout their more recent history, their music has been played during many of their revolutions. Such revolutions include Mustafa Barzani’s revolution in Iraq in 1958 and the Kurdish revolution in Turkey in 1984. The "golden age" of Kurdish revolutionary music came after the formation of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) when bands such as Koma Berxwedan and Awaze Ciya were formed to sing and praise the revolutions the Kurds fight for.
Before the Syrian revolution, Kurdish culture was not encouraged by the government. Syrian communities had a very negative perception of Kurdish culture and the government banned Kurds from celebrating their folklore and from speaking Kurdish to one another. On several occasions, Assad’s regime would crack down on Kurdish artists and arrest them. Salman Ibrahim, co-director of Rojava's Center of Art and Democratic Culture in al-Jazeera canton, recalls these dark times. "We would sing and celebrate the revolution in private and in places away from the eyes of regime informants,” Ibrahim said, “Popular and folkloric songs helped us to preserve our spoken language, which the regime forbade us from using.”
Now, after several years of fighting in the Syrian revolution, several Kurds felt as though they have more freedom. Biman Khalaf, a 25-year-old native Kurd in the region, testifies to this. Being a singer in a Kurdish folkloric band from the age of 12, she grew up dealing with challenges against the government. Now, since the power of the regime has weakened in Rojava, she feels more encouraged by her family and friends to continue her career as a Kurdish singer. “I feel that we can finally spread our wings, especially after the regime forces left our regions in northern and northwestern Syria, which are now part of Rojava,” Khalaf said.
After five years of war in Syria, Kurdish artists are finally able to express their culture with the support of the Kurdish administration in Rojava. In Rojava, which is now one of the safest areas in Syria, Kurds can openly play popular revolutionary songs and support their fighters across the Middle East. In the region, many theaters in cities and villages are also being made to celebrate Kurdish folklore that was previously banned under the Assad regime. In this region, Kurds can sing their epics and songs about the deeds of their cultural heroes through the ages in their native tongue without the threat of imprisonment or death.
Unfortunately, in other areas, Kurds still struggle for the right to openly celebrate their culture. In the Kurdistan mountains in South Eastern Turkey, PKK members still actively fight the Turkish military forces for independence. As a result of this fighting, many Kurdish bands were formed to celebrate the revolution, support the PKK fighters, and oppose the Turkish government for not granting them independence. Many of these artists also fight in battles against the Turkish forces, and there is a growing list of names of talented musicians who have been killed for their cause.
Though Kurds still struggle in their fight for independence, it is reassuring that Rojava, a single region in a country divided by war, has now turned into a safe haven for Kurds to express their art and culture. Though Kurds still actively fight for their independence in Turkey, Syria, and Iraq, the fact that the Kurdish people were able to secure a safe environment to express their culture may foreshadow a more prosperous future for the Kurds and perhaps even a community that they can be able to call their own.
