Kurdish Culture and Bridging the Gap
Kurdish culture and bridging the gap * KurdishMedia.com - By Helene Sairany * 29/01/2007 00:00:00 “For me the world is a garden of culture where a thousand flowers grow. Throughout history all cultures have fed one another, been grafted onto one another, and in the process our world has been enriched. The disappearance of a culture is the loss of colour, a different light, and a different source. I am of the side of different source. I am as much on the side of every flower in this thousand-flower garden as I am on the side of my own culture.” - Layla Zana, 1995. In an interview with a prominent Turkish journal, Layla Zana perfectly captures the essence of how I feel about living in the United States (U.S.) and bridging the gap between American values and my Kurdish culture and values. As Kurds, how do we want to define our culture? As an American Kurd who has lived in the U.S. for 11 years, I must say that there are many things that differentiate Kurds from Americans. Kurdish