BY: Azad Karimi
There was a lot of people motivating me to dedicate my life and work too early music, but if I must name one, it must be Hernan Vives, who was my first lute professor.
Interview
Argentinian Musician Sebastian Strauchler
By Azad Karimi
I want to write about International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. I refer to Wikipedia which writes about this:
The United Nations General Assembly has designated November 25 as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (Resolution 54/134).[1] The premise of the day is to raise awareness of the fact that women around the world are subject to rape, domestic violence and other forms of violence; furthermore, one of the aims of the day is to highlight that the scale and true nature of the issue is often hidden. For 2014, the official Theme framed by the UN Secretary-General’s campaign UNiTE to End Violence against Women, is Orange your Neighbourhood.[2] For 2018, the official theme is "Orange the World:#HearMeToo" and for 2019 it is "Orange the World: Generation Equality Stands Against Rape".
Historically, the date is based on the date of the 1960 assassination of the three Mirabal sisters, political activists in the Dominican Republic; the killings were ordered by Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo (1930–1961).[1] In 1981, activists at the Latin American and Caribbean Feminist Encuentros marked November 25 as a day to combat and raise awareness of violence against women more broadly; on December 17, 1999, the date received its official United Nations (UN) resolution.[1][3]....
I would like to share a feminist Kurdish song together and then write to you about violence against women in Kurdistan. This song was performed by Ms. Narin Feqi, a Kurdish singer from Syria living in Sweden. The name of this song is Hivi, which means hope!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWmRZahNazc
There is no doubt that Kurdish women have more freedom than women in other Middle Eastern ethnic groups but two things must be said:
1-This should not be extended to the present time, because the ugly morals of others have found their way into the secular Kurdish community, and they have gradually learned to be violent with women.
2-The traditional freedom that I mentioned has nothing to do with the higher education and intellectualism of the Kurdish community, but with their cultural habits, such as the type and sewing of the clothes they wear or the traditional foods they have.
With the Islamic Revolution in Iran under the leadership of Khomeini, who was a very fanatical mullah, the ideas of the Islamic government were created in the Middle East. One of the ideological foundations of this man was his apparent enmity with women's social freedom an issue that involved him with Mohammad Reza Shah of Iran.
In 1963, after the suffrage law was passed, he incited the Iranian Shi'a religious and conservative class to rebellion and violence against the Iranian king.
Unfortunately, fifteen years later, he became the undisputed ruler of Iran and fulfilled his terrible dreams.
He called on the ignorants and stupids to rise up, arguing that the king wanted to encourage Iranian women to commit immorality and corruption.
He veiled Iranian women in the black bag, and after him, other Sunni and Shi'a, fanatical groups in the Middle East began to interfere in women's individual and social freedoms. The negative impact of her thoughts after forty years is evident all over the world, for example in Iraqi Kurdistan.
While living in Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan, I heard about a Sunni Kurdish cleric say that the cause of breast cancer in women is the removal and epilation of hair under their eyebrows. LoL! Mulla, breast cancer in women, epilation, eyebrows...Lord! What a comic story...but sadness also...
Another story about Iraqi Kurdistan was reported in the media three or four days ago about Kurdish artist and sculptor Ms. Solin Evi. She was sentenced to six months in prison by the Supreme Court of Iraqi Kurdistan. She had complained to the director of an institution, claiming that the man had committed sexual violence against her. This story is from two years ago. Interestingly, the man has filed a lawsuit against Solin. He claims that Solin with two other people came to steal after working hours in the afternoon and beat him.
I read in the news that the Erbil Supreme Court had accepted her appeal and that Solin had to go to a behavioral rehabilitation center for six months.
Of course, there is a prison there and delinquent women are kept there.
In Kurdistan, there have been many protests over the past week, but Supreme Court Judge Abdul Rahman Zebari, has carried out the sentence. I read in the same news that the man that Solin complained about is an old man. LoL! Charity manager, Solin, Sexual violence, Old man... In a world where men are raped and even sexually abused, the person Solin complains about is a mummy!
I do not know how old that gentleman is, but apparently, Judge Zebari has decided to convict Solin, so for whatever reason we give, he has an answer or an argument for it. For example, the Judge may have to say that the man may have had a vasectomy or that he is suffering from late puberty problem.
Leaving aside the story of Solin and going to a strange case Kurdistan-Iran, in Kermanshah and Ilam the number of women who commit suicide due to sexual violence by family men or other men is high.The Kurds of Kermanshah and Ilam are Shi'a and Yarsan. Yarsans are not Muslims and their religion dates back to pre-Islamic times. They believe in reincarnation, which does not exist in Islam.
Shi'a Kurdish women suffer from more restrictions. Poverty, drug addiction, Shi'a religious beliefs and systematic unemployment in the area have created a conducive environment for violence against women in the home and in the community.
Of course, Kurdish honor or *Namousparezi* is another reason for this.
The situation of the Kurds in Sanandaj, Saqqez, and Urmia is the same as in Kermanshah and Ilam, with the difference that they are Sunni and the Kurds of Ilam and Kermanshah are Shi'a and Yarsan.
I remember when I went to the Iranian-Iraqi border for a party mission, I saw Iranian Kurdish women engaged in Kulbari. Kolbari is a dangerous occupation that someone illegally transports and sells objects from one country to country. Kurdistan is a mountainous, cold, and dangerous region and more dangerous than these are the Iranian soldiers and snipers that target and kill them.
There, some Kulbars-Man came to me and complained to the Iranian soldiers and PKK militants, that they were harassing them.
At the same border point, I saw Iraqi Kurdish women shouting-crying and were going to the Iranian border because Iranian soldiers had stolen 700 sheep and goats and taken them to Iran.
For me, this is never an honor. Kurdish women should go to university and participate in administrative, economic, and political affairs, and fall in love and start a family and enjoy the blessings of being a woman but why should Kurdish women in Sardasht, Shno, and Piranshahr do this dangerous thing? You can ask this question to the leaders of Iran, they will answer you. But there is an interesting question here: Basically, why should the Kurds be demarcated in their land? for example, West and East Germany during the Cold War. But it is clear that Iran, Turkey, Iraq, and Syria are not large enough to be considered superpowers to polarize the world.
Violence against women in Turkish Kurdistan is similar to that in Iran and Turkey, although their Ottoman-style religious still call women Avret and Kolfat. Avert means the part of the body that should be covered in the Short, and Kolfat means the servant.What can I say?
Women in Iran have to go to prison to get freedom, fanatics and terrorists have to spray acid on women's faces in the streets of Tehran and Isfahan and no one has to defend them and the Iranian government continues to live with a dirty game: has preoccupied the Iranian people with human rights abuses, and it has preoccupied the governments of the world with international terrorism and the atomic affair. Iranian regime with this two-pronged game shrugs off her national as well as international obligations and now it has built an impoverished, isolated, bankrupt, and terrorist-breeding country from Iran and has left the issue of Kurdistan unresolved and anyone who talks about Kurdistan is introduced to the mercenary and spy of the USA, UK, Israel, and the Europeans and punished. In this very complex and violent equation, what is the position of the Kurdish woman? Please do not think too much, because...
I wish the best to my dear friend Sebastian. Tomorrow is the day to fight violence against women. As a man, I condemn the systematic violence against women and defend their rights to the best of my ability, and it is an honor.
Thank you!
Vestland-Norway
01- Please present yourself: (Name, education, Civil status, and...)
.My name is Sebastian Strauchler. I have studied in the Manuel de Falla Superior Conservatoire in Buenos Aires, to be a guitar concert performer and a professor in classical music. I have also a degree in Early Music.
02- What is your artistic specialization?
.I am now 100% dedicated to early music. I play plucked instruments from the renaissance and baroque era, as solo, duo, trios, chamber groups, or orchestras with choirs, solo singers, or any other instruments. I have played contemporary music with my instruments (lute, archlute, theorbo), and also release some new contemporary music from Argentine composers.
03- When and how did you become interested in this field of art?
.I made a couple of courses during my classical guitar studies and fall absolutely in love with the repertoire, instruments, and possibilities of this music. The freedom it has, the new sonorities for these days, and the ensemble options.
04- Who was your motivator?
.There was a lot of people motivating me to dedicate my life and work too early music, but if I must name one, it must be Hernan Vives, who was my first lute professor.
05- What was your parent’s reaction?
.They strongly support me in everything. Even today they are always in the first sit of my concerts when they can manage to go.
06- When started you such as a professional artist-musician?
.During my studies as a teen, I began to play a few concerts. Fortunately, the paid concerts were in crescendo during the years.
07- Are you thankful and happy because of your activities as a musician?
.Of course! It is the life I choose. I cannot be more thankful because I know that it is very rare to do what you love professionally.
08- How you see the view: Music, Orchestration, art, and culture?
.Well, to be honest, I think that the academic world of arts is too far away from people. We cannot reach the majorities because we are out of the education system and the big media broadcasters (TV, radios, etc.). On the other hand, in the concert halls, we almost see only seniors as public, so the perspectives are not very good for the future.
09- Can you become one part of the cultural movement for motivation in youth or new generation in your country and so then?
.It would be very nice if I can help anyone to join me in this incredible art. If just one person is motivated by my work or moved by some new feelings, my job is done and I will be thankful.
10- How can you help our world become a better place to live?
.My best efforts are put into bringing beauty and move the feelings of people with music. Playing forgotten melodies and new sounds for our contemporary ears that can wake up or train the muscles of emotion. I am really convinced that this is one great way of making people enjoy a stronger life and live a little more passionately.
11- Have you more words to say or suggest for our readers?
.Listen and support new music, go to concerts, painting exhibitions, read new writers books. Help to spread beauty in the world; it is always a good moment to share art. It does no harm. Everyone will be grateful and the ties between humans will be stronger and better
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BRtOHV5XBk
