Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am deeply moved and overjoyed being here in NY with all of you. I'm
also excited to be in the conference room of the workers' union which brings
forth ideas that have been a source of
inspiration for the whole world.
Dear friends, brothers, and sisters, I come from my Kurdish homeland,
which has been divided during the last century by the major forces into four
separate entities in four different countries. My people, the Kurds, are now
split and divided in Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. In every part of Kurdistan,
my people are forbidden to speak our language and are stripped of our natural
right to practice our culture. I know it seems so incredible and extreme but
this is the tragic truth. It's like forbidding a rose from being a rose.
Kurdish people are strong-willed and have deep-rooted beliefs and aspirations
for freedom and respect for life. This is why these superpowers did not succeed
in carrying out their evil plan of genocide, the plan to destroy the Kurdish
culture.
My people not only resisted and invented ways to survive but they also
created a high spiritual identity. I come from an intellect which has been
continuously under harsh persecution to this day. Generations of writers, poets
and artists have been sacrificing their lives for the Kurdish culture.
As a Kurd of the Diaspora, I have also lived 17 years of my life in
Greece. Those years have been a gift as I was able to connect with the highest
institutions of the generous Greek culture and its spiritual traditions. I
managed to give back to my new country my meager intellectual gifts as a poet
and as a scientist, but life was still difficult. Being invisible in
intellectual spaces, I suffered for many years under the persecution. As a
result I lost everything.
During all those dark years, my poetry was like a light coming from angels to save me; my writing brought me here, became my wings; became my spiritual passport to the United States and here rise again.
My wish is that cultural creations such as poetry, will give mental and spiritual strength towards stability throughout the world. Poetry must remain as the immortal logos, like light...
Dr. Hiva Panahi, Book party
4.12.2016, NYC
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