Are you looking for a way to support the people protesting in Iran?
Zhina Amini (Reported as Mahsa Amini, her birth name) a Kurdish woman was killed earlier this month by the morality police in Iran for wearing a headscarf in what they deemed to be an improper manner. Protests have since broken out across the country and a number of other Iranians have been killed since.
The internet has been shut down in many places and deaths are incredible common. The last time the Iranian government shut down the internet like this, over a thousand people died.
So what can you do?
Share Iranian people’s words and news about what is going on.
Recognize that this is not about Islam but about a tyrannical government (so don’t use this as an excuse to be Islamophobic). These people need our support, not our commentary.
Help support Iranians gain access to proxies through apps like the Tor Project’s Project Snowflake. This will pair you, who is likely in a safer country (I say as someone in the US who assumes much of following is in North America or Europe), with an Iranian person trying to access the internet as long as you are online. This is a really simple step you can take to help Iranians connect to the outside world so they can use their voices and let loved ones know they are alive.
A Yazidi girl fleeing ISIS, Iraq-Syrian border 2014.
Yazidis are a Kurdish ethnoreligious minority in Iraq. They believe God created the world but entrusted the Peacock Angel Tawûsî Melek to have power over it. When God made the race of man, he commanded all angels to bow to Adam but the only one who disobeyed was Tawûsî Melek.
"How can I submit to another being! I am from your illumination while Adam is made of dust"
This story is similar to the one of Iblis (aka Lucifer or Satan) in the Quran, but unlike Iblis, Yazidis believe Tawûsî Melek to be a source of good not evil.
Humanitarian aid for the victims of Turkey’s aggressions
Turkey has been bombing civilian infrastructure in Rojava (north eastern Syria) since 4th of October 2023, and the region is heading for a humanitarian catastrophe. Turkey has bombed more than 150 targets so far: Much of the region's vital infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed in a matter of hours. Turkey’s attacks have so far caused dozens of civilian deaths and injuries and destroyed 80 per cent of civilian infrastructure, including water and power supplies, hospitals, residential areas, schools, oil fields, factories and warehouses. Hundreds of thousands of people have been cut off from electricity and water supplies for days now. The Covid hospital in Dêrik, one of the most important hospitals of its kind in the region, was completely destroyed by the Turkish air strikes. Numerous other health facilities have been destroyed, hospitals cut off from electricity, cold chains broken - there are calls for blood donations. As Turkey’s attacks continue, the humanitarian situation is expected to deteriorate further and the death toll to rise. The Kurdish Red Crescent (Heyva Sor a Kurd) is on the ground providing vital humanitarian assistance. Support the work of Heyva Sor a Kurd with your donations!
Bank account
Heyva Sor a Kurdistanê e. V.
Kreissparkasse Köln
IBAN: DE49 3705 0299 0004 0104 81
BIC/SWIFT: COKSDE33XXX
Reference: Rojava
PayPal: paypal.me/heyvasorakurdistane
*please note:
Due to an order from the ADD Rheinland-Pfalz, we are currently unable to accept donations from Rheinland-Pfalz.
Kurd in a Kaftan made by Midjourney. I'm not sure that Midjourney understands what kind of weapon (sword or rifle) that the Kurd is holding. But the kaftans look fabulous!
Sometimes i wonder if my life would have been better with my father in my life, He is my only connection to my kurdish side, when i turned 3 months old my father was sent to an immigration interview after being an asylum seeker for nearly 5 years in scotland. When he got there he told them about me and they didnt belive him and sent him back to iraq the same day, nobody was notified. My mother had to call the office a week later asking about my father after someone panicing and hanging up and her waiting soneone picked up and just simply said "we dont have him" the brittish government made me a fatherless child and i cant tell if it was an improvement or not as my father wasnt the greatest man but he wanted me.
I honestly wish i could find my father learn my father tounge (is that the word?) And embrace what was stripped of me for years
I was reading through a gossip forum about influencers and ended up learning that Kurdish politicians in Iraq spent money funded by the US to be sugar daddies to some instagram models.
I didn't even know that a Kurdistan government exists, but it goes to show how the US is involved in backing regimes in so many places that the average American has never heard of.