Kurdish language course for women in Damascus

The Women's Association Kongreya Star has initiated a Kurdish language course for women in Syria's capital Damascus.

The umbrella organization of the Kurdish women's movement in Rojava, Kongreya Star, offers a Kurdish language course for women in Syria's capital Damascus. The course is currently attended by 19 women from different age groups.

When the Syrian regime decided in 1965 to build an "Arab belt" in the Cizire region along the Turkish border, Bedouin Arabs were settled in the Kurdish areas from 1973 onwards. In the same turn, the place names were Arabized and Kurdish banned in schools and workplaces. The ban also affected the Kurdish media.

With the Rojava revolution, the Autonomous Administration and various organizations have made it their mission to revive the Kurdish language and to help promote it, also in the regions outside of northern and eastern Syria.

The language course initiated by Kongreya Star in Damascus is offered to women from the Zorava neighborhood (Arabic: Wadi al-Mashari). The neighborhood, which has been settled by Kurds for decades, is located in the Dummar district, which has been considered the most secure area in Damascus since the beginning of the Syrian civil war.

The language course in Zorava will be held at the Kongreya Star Women's Education Center and will last six months. The women's association is also planning further projects to learn the Kurdish language.