Everything I Learned About Kurdistan I Learned In The Sixth Grade: Raparin

Often on Sundays we begin our school week by gathering at the front of the school for announcments from the Principal and to raise the the flag... the Kurdish flag, that is.

Often in these moments, I have looked around at my students and watch how they talk, fidget and quiggle through these mornings. It's true, they are 11 and 12 years old - they fidget through most things. I guess what is particularly interesting to me is knowing that these kids grew up only knowing the Kurdistan where you could fly the flag and sing the national anthem. None of them are old enough to remember the struggle for this territory and not many have yet begun to learn about that history. Some have heard stories about when the Kurdish people rose up and pushed Saddam out of the north of Iraq. Most of their parents, uncles and aunts remember and were part of the "Raparin" or "uprising".

My husband remembers. He was there...

In 1991 uprisings in Iraq happened both in the North and South of the country. In the Kurdish north the uprisings against Saddam's regime began March 5, 1991 in the Kurdish city of Ranya. After two days, uprisings began here in Sulaimani. During the brief, roughly one-month period of unrest, tens of thousands of people died and nearly two million people were displaced. The Persian Gulf War Coalition established Iraqi no-fly zones over northern and southern Iraq, and the Kurdish opposition established the Kurdish Autonomous Region or what we know today as  Iraqi Kurdistan.

Student Family Biography Project - Parents meet at a wedding party.

As I was taking up their Family Biography writing projects, I was surprised at school today to find out that we would have a three-day weekend because of the holiday celebrating Raparin. I asked my students what they knew about the uprising that eventually lead to the creation of "Kurdistan" but was surprised to find that they did not know much.
Later I mentioned this to my husband and wondered out loud if they simply had not gotten to that in their history lessons. I wondered what history was being taught. Certainly their parents or other family would have talked about this significant event. Or so I wondered...

Student Family Biography Project - Work with a local Kurdish political party and capture by Saddam Hussein

What we are presented with here is the idea of how histories are transmitted and what is transmitted, over time to the next generation. At the same time these students did not seem to know much about the Raparin, they did seem to have a great deal of information about the genocide at Halabja. I wondered why they would know about this but seem to be at a loss when it came to the Raparin. Both events factor prominently in Kurdish narratives about the creation and preservation of "Kurdistan" and it seemed to me that in this emerging nation-state, there would be the presence of a strong, cohesive "national" narrative.

Student Family Biography Project - Kurdish migration out in the 1990s

So, as I do with all of my research, I turned to co-researcher, key-consultant, translator, sounding board and best friend...my husband... with these questions. As always, he was insightful. He pointed out that this conflict was not very long ago and not even a handful of years after the Raparin, Iraqi Kurdistan experienced a civil war. If we think about it, the Raparin only took place 26 years ago. I certainly remember the 1st Gulf War - I was a freshman in high school at the time. As for the civil war that eventually followed, well, this is not an uncommon occurance and we've seen civil wars follow major revolutions and wars for independence all over the World. Of course I understood that those memories were still very fresh and possibly painful, but what I had not considered was the complexity of the of the event and the feelings about it. The thing is ... those who lived through that time took different parts in the conflict - different political motives, different stations in society and different outcomes. There are plenty who are not proud of what they did during that conflict and the fact remains that those divisions are still potent today. There are those who benefited from the conflict, becoming powerful and wealthy. Still others feel the burden of their success through corrupt and ineffectual governance. Who's revolution was it? Is this the dream we struggled for? Did we struggle and die only to be oppressed by our own?

Student Family Biography Project - Class and ethnicity in Iraq

My husband asked me to consider his brother, who, during the 1st Gulf War and the Raparin, was a conscripted solider in the Iraqi Army. My brother-in-law, a Kurd from the north, was forced into service in Saddam's army and sent to Kuwait. Imagine - at the same time your countrymen are rebelling at home, you are forced into service, in a foreign country, by a government who has oppressed and harmed your own people. Meanwhile, your younger brother has fled "to the mountains" and has become Peshmerga (freedom fighter / rebel).You can begin to see the complex and conflicted layers. Twenty-six years later, with two children of his own, what would my brother-in-law tell his children about that time? About his actions, about the actions of their uncle and why they and their compatriots did what they did? Can he yet reckon with that moment in his own life, much less make sense of it in a clear narrative for his children?

In comparison, talking about Halabja as a national tragedy seems much more clear and simple. In that conflict, there was a clear enemy and a clear victim. In turn, it seems easier to create a clear narrative about that event. However, in the case of the Raparin, while their is a clear outcome which was "the creation of Kurdistan", I think there is still much grappling with who was the enemy and who was the victim. Who commited sins and who can be forgiven is still unclear. If we dig too deeply into these questions now, will we open ourselves to yet another internal conflict?

Perhaps it is better, for now, to hold it in our hearts and to focus on the here and now - going to work, enjoying picnics on the weekend and giving our children the material things we did not have.

I have to wonder, and it is hard not to sound superior and judgmental in saying this, but won't the next generation need to be able to come to terms with their history and the actions of their ancestors in order to go forward? Is this not as necessary as food, clothing and shelter?

The Safety Pin Movement In America 2016

(Photo retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/14/fashion/safety-pin-ally-activism.html?_r=0 )

But in America, are we not also struggling with understanding our own history? I think of the safety pin movement:

     "After the election of Donald J. Trump, fears are growing that segments of his base may physically or emotionally abuse minorities, immigrants, women and members of the L.G.B.T. community. As a show of support, groups of people across America are attaching safety pins to their lapels, shirts and dresses to signify that they are linked, willing to stand up for the vulnerable."

(https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/14/fashion/safety-pin-ally-activism.html?_r=0 )

While it was well-intended, those wearing safety pins seemed not to understand that they were socially able to wear the safety pin and show support because their own place of priviledge. A place in the structure of American society that was built upon the backs of others who were, and are, marginalized and oppressed. To dig deeply into that means that we deeply dig into the truths of who were are and what we have done to each other.

How do we reckon with that and won't the next generation need to be able to come to terms with their history and the actions of their ancestors in order to go forward?
Is this not as necessary as food, clothing and shelter?