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May 15, 2007
News
Kurdish poet reads acclaimed work in UK parliament
KRG
London, UK - The tragedy of the Anfal genocide was brought alive at Britain’s Houses of Parliament on Monday through a poetry reading by Kurdish writer Nazand Begikhani.
Ms Begikhani, whose family suffered in the Anfal genocide campaign by Saddam Hussein in the late 1980s, read poems from her acclaimed collection of work in English, Bells of Speech. The poetry reading took place as the trial of Ali Hassan Al Majid, known as Chemical Ali, continues in Baghdad.
The poems, about loss and survival, were recited at a reading jointly hosted by British MP Ann Clwyd, Tony Blair’s special envoy to Iraq on human rights, and Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman, Kurdistan Regional Government High Representative to the UK. Officials from the US, Turkish and Cyprus embassies and from the UK government also attended.
Bells of Speech, published by Ambit Books, has been well received in the UK. Two poems from the collection have been selected for anthologies of English poetry, including Inspired Verse by Wyndham Thomas, and a collection of literary works by refugees to be edited by Jenni William at the University of Swansea.
Sister Wendy Beckett, a well known UK art critic who selected the poem Voice for Inspired Verse, writes in her introduction to the anthology, “Nazand Begikhani has lost father and brothers to racial hatred. She is a genocide survivor who devotes herself the seeking justice for the Kurdish people and all who are persecuted. She believes happiness is our right, and sings of it with wistful certainty.”
Ms Clwyd, who has long been a friend of Kurdistan and an advocate of human rights in Iraq, said, “Nazand’s poems vividly illustrate the experience of the Kurdish people, and particularly Kurdish women, over recent decades.”
Ms Begikhani was presented with a plaque on behalf of Chnar Saad, the Kurdistan Region’s Minister for Martyrs and Anfal Affairs. Ms Abdul Rahman, who made the presentation, said, “The genocidal Anfal campaign took place 20 years ago but the people of Kurdistan live with the appalling health and environmental consequences to this day.”
She added, “Nazand’s work is significant not only as poetry in its own right but also as a way of telling the world about the Anfal.”
Hide and Seek in Bergalu *
A fresh summer morning
on the lower slopes of Bergalu village
two children played hide and seek
women planted trees in their garden
When a warplane roared in
rushed us face-down to the ground
After four heavy circles
and a shower of shells
a thick line of smoke
billowed from the land
Eighteen years on
on the lower slopes of a village
an old woman can be seen
circling around an empty hole
chasing the shadow of two children
playing hide and seek in Bergalu
* Based on a true story. From Bells of Speech by Nazand Begikhani, published by Ambit Books.
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