The family came to Nashville as asylum seekers about two years ago. Now, they are among thousands facing an uncertain future.
‘USA, defend your Kurdish allies!’ Nashville’s Kurdish community outraged following Turkish attacks on Syrian Kurds
The Kurdish forces in Syria have been the United States’ main partner in the fight against ISIS. However, the United States and Turkey are also allies, which makes things complicated.
This Kurdish Nashvillian supports Trump. The reason is rooted in history.
During his first term in office, Donald Trump had a complicated track record when it came to Kurdistan. Following his reelection, a politically engaged member of Nashville’s Kurdish community weighs in.
Connecting Nashville to its sister city, Erbil
Have you met Nashville’s sisters? Sister cities, that is. If you didn’t know, the long-running Sister Cities Nashville program has formal partnerships with 10 international cities.
For Nashville’s Kurdish community, clothing and culture are interwoven
For Nashville’s Kurdish community — a people whose culture has historically come under fire — clothing is a tangible way of preserving their traditions.
A new wave of Kurds fleeing Turkey bring their own sound to Music City
Nashville has the largest Kurdish population of any city in the U.S., and most are from the Iraqi region of Kurdistan, also known as Bashur. They arrived in waves starting in the 1970s, with the largest influx prompted by Saddam Hussein’s genocidal campaigns in the late 1980s and early ’90s.
What is a ‘sister city’? Nashville prepares for cultural exchanges with Erbil, the capitol of the Kurdistan region of Iraq.
A partnership roughly a decade in the making is about to become official: Nashville and Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan region of Iraq, are in the homestretch of formalizing a relationship as “sister cities.” Erbil would become Nashville’s tenth sister — a designation that involves travel, cultural and professional exchanges.
Protests in Iran hit home for Nashville’s Iranian and Kurdish communities
In Nashville, the Iranian and Kurdish communities have held several demonstrations in solidarity with the protests in Iran in an effort to raise awareness of what’s going on. Many still have family in Iran and worry for their safety. In this episode, we’re joined by members of the local Iranian and Kurdish communities to hear about their concerns.
From Kurdistan to Nashville
In this episode, we’ll unpack how Nashville became a destination for Kurdish refugees starting in the late 1970s and then hear from local Kurds about their future hopes and ambitions for their community.
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