Moorhead marks March as Kurdish Heritage Month

In Moorhead, March is now Kurdish Heritage Month. That's after the mayor issued a proclamation earlier this month, making the city the latest to celebrate its Kurdish population in this way. A community group estimates there are 3,500 Kurds in the city, or 8% of the population. Siham Amedy led the effort to submit this proclamation to the city. She's a member of the city's Human Rights Commission and a project manager at Creating Community Consulting. And she joins us now on the line. Thanks so much for being with us today, Siham.

SIHAM AMEDY: Yeah, thank you so much for having me today. I appreciate it.

NINA MOINI: Absolutely. Thanks for joining us from Moorhead. Why was it important to you to have March designated Kurdish Heritage Month in Moorhead?

SIHAM AMEDY: Well, March is very significant to Kurdish people all over the world. In Kurdistan, it is Kurdish Heritage Month in March. So a lot of significant dates. March 10 is Kurdish Clothes Day. We have our own significant clothing that we wear. And then March 16 is the remembrance day of when Saddam Hussein gassed villages and killed thousands of people in Kurdistan, which is in Iraq.

And then Navruz is on March 21 and celebrated on March 20-- the eve of March 20 at night, and then March 21 as a festival. And it's really significant to Kurdish people, particularly in Kurdistan and the different parts of Kurdistan and in diaspora all over the world. So it coincides with the spring equinox as renewal and a celebration of hope and resistance to oppressive regimes.

NINA MOINI: Yeah, it's the new year. My parents are from Iran, so I also have grown up celebrating Nowruz, and many people across the world do. It's a time of a renewal. It's a time of celebration. And so you all decided that you wanted to do this this month. How did this get on the radar? Like, I'm so curious to know how a Kurdish population of this size came to be in Moorhead.

SIHAM AMEDY: That's a great question. Yeah, yes. And it's very significant in Iran and Afghanistan. You're absolutely correct, so thank you for clarifying that as well. It's, you know, there was different groups of Kurdish people when the Gulf War happened, when the Iraq-Iran War happened that were resettled in the Fargo-Moorhead area. So with Lutheran Social Services, the resettlement agencies, during the war and even before that, so 1970s, when there were political asylees, there was a group that was resettled in Fargo-Moorhead again, so for several decades.

And then the next wave came in the late 1980s and early 1990s. And then my family came in the mid part of 1990s. So we were resettled here to work and to be a part of the community. And we really integrated and didn't really deviate too much as a lot of middle easterners do. I'm sure you have that experience. They, you know, focus on school and work and just building themselves up like that. And it's been a significant impact, especially in the realm of education, where there are there's a Kurdish class now being taught in the workforce, the women and support services in education.

There's been a great impact in Moorhead, and a lot of people are curious about their Kurdish neighbors that have been here for years. And, it's a very distinctive language and distinctive culture, cuisine, as you know from being from that region.

NINA MOINI: Yeah.

SIHAM AMEDY: So that's how it built up to have a large Kurdish population here.

NINA MOINI: Yeah, we've heard that with many groups in the state of Minnesota that it's almost like word of mouth. Someone will move somewhere, they're having a good experience, their family will come, other people will come. And before you know it, you have a little community. How has it been for you since you moved here and then growing up in Moorhead, trying to kind of balance maintaining your culture, the parts of your culture that you want to maintain and you want to bolster. But also, you mentioned neighbors being curious about their neighbors, kind of balancing all of that cultural stew, so to speak.

SIHAM AMEDY: Yeah, that's a great question. So I did grow up in Moorhead, particularly. I went to Moorhead High School. I went to Concordia College in Moorhead. It was great. We had a good Kurdish community here that supports each other, a large one that's available. You know, we were close knit. And a lot of my family friends here, they're not my blood relatives, but when we moved here, we called each other cousins because we were all in Guam together and we all took the same last name, Amedy, which is from my birth town of Amadiye on the border of Iraq and Turkey.

And so it certainly was challenging. There were some points of othering and discrimination, especially when you tried to burst the bubble of ESL or the stereotype of working at, say, big labor jobs and retail. But it's really exciting now that we have more access to education and seeing that that other generation really not only get bachelor's degrees, but Master's degrees and open businesses now.

So it had its challenges, definitely, but we found a support to support each other to, you know, be there during weddings and funerals and celebrations as a community and be close knit whenever there is something. So it certainly had challenges, but there were definitely some good things, too. Navigating both cultures with the expectations culturally of being a female, too, can be extremely challenging and carrying both of those cultures and navigating it in a way that's respectful of both, and then wanting to integrate into my community and contribute to society like I saw my peers doing.

And our families didn't have the opportunity to get education during Saddam Hussein's regime because of all the conflicts. And so it was very important that we did that here, especially, as we know, most parents want their children. And that was a challenge in itself, navigating that. And then really just showing who I am and why I'm here. A lot of people were confused. Why Kurdish people in Fargo-Moorhead, of all places, especially Moorhead with that rich history of Scandinavian heritage. So, yeah.

NINA MOINI: And so you have the support. You have this proclamation for this month. What's left for the rest of the month, and kind of what's your vision for taking this even further and building community?

SIHAM AMEDY: You know, we have great festivals that happen here within the historical society in Moorhead. We have those celebrations. Like I said, Kurdish people have kind of flown under the radar. But as the population continues to grow, like you said, as people from other communities come, as resettlement actually is coming from now, refugees from Syria-- Kurdish refugees from Syria in the last couple of months and years-- we're starting to maybe expand our celebrations or festivals.

There are a couple of businesses and restaurants and really distinguish. There is still some complexities with being of Kurdish identity in the region and just navigating that. And just-- it's hard being from a region with conflict. I mean, so many of immigrants and refugees and asylees have experienced that. But it adds a level of another nuance when you're not the dominant, when you're the minority from the area you're from.

So expanding on the roots and really having it be a festival of celebration, of inviting-- even, we have some students from Iran that like to celebrate in the community and just really expanding on that and getting support, getting some resources here for arts and culture, and really inviting the greater public to really celebrate a renewal, a new year of spring equinox, where I appreciated because my indigenous friends also said spring is the renewal, the new year for us.

NINA MOINI: It is a renewal, Siham. Yes, thank you so much. I wish we had more time, but I appreciate you stopping by and telling us about all the great things happening in Moorhead. Thank you so much.

SIHAM AMEDY: Thank you. Bye.

NINA MOINI: That's Siham Amedy, a human rights commissioner in Moorhead and a project manager at Creating Community Consulting.