Qamishlo students call for official recognition of Kurdish

In response to a decision by the Ministry of Education of the Syrian transitional government, which reduces Kurdish language instruction in schools to only three lessons per week, students in Qamishlo continue to hold demonstrations and protests, asserting that education in one's mother tongue is a right for everyone.

In this context, several tenth-grade students from the Hittin and Martyr Jer schools in the city of Qamishlo spoke to our agency, calling for the decision to be amended.

Student Khanaf Hassan said: "We have come out for the sake of the Kurdish language; we are demanding our rights through our own language. Our language is our identity, our culture, and our history it cannot be eradicated or brought to an end. It is the language of our ancestors and our parents. We will continue to defend it until the end, and we will resist on this basis so that the values ​​of our revolution may be inscribed in the pages of history."

For her part, student Jian Mahmoud stated: "We demand to be educated in our own language and to secure our rights, as well as the rights of our language. We want Kurdish to be an official language, with all subjects taught in Kurdish.

She added: "From the first grade until now, we have been studying in Kurdish. Now that we are in the tenth grade, we would face great difficulty if we were forced, from this point forward, to study in Arabic." Demands to Amend the Decision

Student Malak Lazgin Ali stated: "As Kurdish students, we will never accept that Kurdish-language instruction be limited to just three lessons. It is our mother tongue, and it is our right to study and learn it. Therefore, we demand that it be given official status."

She added: "We are not against any other language, neither English nor Arabic and we want to learn them all. However, Kurdish must be official for us across all subjects; we have been using it for instruction for over ten years since the beginning of the revolution and thousands have sacrificed their lives for it."

For his part, student Ahmed Ahmed said: "For 13 years, we have been studying and learning the Kurdish language. This year, it was decided that Kurdish would be limited to only three lessons in our schools, which is why we reject this. We are not against the Arabic language, but we insist that our own language be official and that we study our subjects in Kurdish."

In closing, Ahmed expressed his hope that this decision would be amended for the sake of all students.

ANHA