The article by Sheinei Saleem was published in OliveActive Magazine's Voices in the Summer of 2006. Click on the above images to enlarge or go to the magazine article or you may read it below.

As a young Kurd who lived in Kurdistan until I was 13 years old, I want more than anything to see a peaceful Middle East. Obviously all of the bad news coming out of this region of the world concerns me a lot. The Kurdish people, in particular, have already experienced so much pain and suffering over the past several decades. Ethnic cleansing against our people by our so-called Iraqi brothers and persecution at the hands of many tyrants has shed too much Kurdish blood. It is no wonder that a dream of an independent Kurdistan looms in the hearts of Kurds all over the world.

Most Iraqis identify themselves first as Kurds, Sunni Arabs or Shia Arabs, and then Iraqi, which suggests that Iraq is a place where different ethnicities merely do not belong. Indeed it is very difficult for the Kurdish people to have an Iraqi identity. As a minority, the Kurds have suffered extreme ethnic cleansing during the Anfal Campaign and Halabja Massacre where hundreds of thousands were slaughtered at the hands of other Iraqis. The Kurdish people became visible on the world stage when Jalal Talabani was elected President of Iraq. Talabani gave hope to Kurds everywhere that the days of persecution were over. Yet, instead of working towards an Iraqi state, most Kurds believe we should look towards our own sovereignty because it is our international right.

I'm not convinced that our future lies in a unified Iraq. As important as a free and democratic Iraq is to the world, it is equally important for Kurds to have a free and independent Kurdistan, comprised of regions that were unjustly annexed by Syria, Turkey, Iran and Iraq. It is our given right to have our own country, we are by far the largest ethnic group in the world without a country of our own.

Organizations like the Kurdish American Youth Organization (KAYO) are cropping up all over the world, employing young people who are working towards a goal of a free Kurdistan. "Our efforts seem like a drop in a bucket," one KAYO member said. "But the bucket takes drops from every one to fill. Even though it might appear small-our work when united has a massive affect and its effect is something that can be seen from a distance."

The future of Kurdistan begins with the youth. Our main objective is to create a united Kurdistan within a peacecul Middle East where mothers no longer weep over the corpses of their young ones and children are not orphaned because of their ethnicity and religion. After all, we are the same in the eyes of God.

http://mag1.olivesoftware.com/am/welcome/TSM/TSM-2006-06.asp