'My Sister Soma Set Herself on Fire Rather than Wear the Hijab'

Richard Heath, Sheffield Today:

In a school in western Iran, a 14-year-old Kurdish girl died after setting herself on fire in protest over her right not to wear the hijab headdress.

The story nearly brings Iranian Kurd Kawa Kohnaposhe to tears. He escaped Kurdistan in 2000 after twice being arrested and tortured for supporting the Democratic Party of Kurdistan. READ MORE

He fled to Turkey, obtained false documents and eventually arrived in Sheffield via London and Coventry.

Meanwhile, the girl began to question certain details of Islam and refused to wear the hijab.

She was detained after school and after months of torment she decided to end her life.

Kawa never had the chance to say goodbye to the 14-year-old girl, his sister, Soma.

"I only had one sister. She was only 14 when she died. I never said goodbye to her and that has left me with a pain in my heart that won't go away. It will be with me forever," said Kawa, speaking at his Burngreave flat.

Kawa, aged 26, had little choice but to leave behind the oppression of Kurdistan after his every move became tracked by the Iranian intelligence service.

After leaving high school in the town of Mariwan, the then 19-year-old began teaching at a local school.

It was there where he began secretly teaching the pupils about the Democratic Party of Kurdistan. This act caught the attention of the Iranian government.

No Kurdish resident can have a Kurdish name. They cannot study their own language, celebrate their own festivals or even display their own flag. Those who do are captured and tortured.

Kawa was 20 when he was arrested, taken to the local jail and subjected to two weeks of mental and physical abuse.

He said: "They put me under pressure to tell them about my political work but I didn't say anything. They had no evidence against me.

"So they began playing tapes of women and children screaming because they were being beaten. Some were being abused sexually.

"Then they beat me. They tied my legs together and hung me from the ceiling and hit me with guns and sticks."

Kawa spent two weeks inside the jail, living in a cell so small he couldn't lie down.

He still suffers pain from the beatings and during an English course at Sheffield College had to leave class early so he could exercise his neck and shoulder.

Council figures show that Iranians have taken over Somalis as the largest ethnic group claiming asylum in Sheffield. There are 149 Iranian asylum seekers in 109 households in Sheffield. There are 129 Somalis in 60 households.
Kawa said: "Life is difficult in Kurdistan. There is always someone watching you and you are constantly denied celebrating your culture.

"Most people don't even know what the Kurdish flag looks like because no-one is allowed to have one."

Two months after he was released from jail, and having been constantly monitored by the Iranian government, Kawa was rearrested, locked up and again tortured.

"They did the same thing again but I wouldn't say anything to them.

"Those 21 days were horrible for me and for every single prisoner. They didn't treat us like humans.

"I got into politics for a reason – to change things. So, why would I tell them anything? If I did, they would have killed me."

Kawa left Kurdistan and claimed asylum in Sheffield after relatives warned him that people captured for a third time are either detained for life or killed.

One man who was seen with a Kurdish flag was arrested and allegedly splashed with boiling water before having his fingers chopped off.

He was then beaten, shot, cut open and his body was dumped outside his family's home as a warning to other Kurds.

"They would cut your body, they would take body parts from you. I had to leave because I thought they would kill me. If I went back there now I would be killed, it is as simple as that."

Kawa was granted leave to remain in the UK about four years after arriving here.

This spring he spent eight weeks shadowing teachers at St Patrick's School in Firth Park. He told the children stories about [l]ife in Kurdistan and helped improve his language and teaching skills.

Now Kawa plans to take a teacher training course in London. He will temporarily have to move out of his Sheffield flat, and take with him the Kurdish flag, which is hanging in his living room.