Syria’s Qamishli witnesses issuance of Kurdish children’s Rona magazine
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – On Monday, the first edition of a children’s cultural magazine, written in Kurdish, was published in the city of Qamishli, northeast Syria.
The magazine was named Rona. The first edition was distributed in Qamishli to several children and families attending the first release ceremony.
Rona Agid, owner of the first children’s library for Kurdish books in Qamishli, told North Press, “After two years of opening the library, today we release the first edition of the monthly Rona magazine.”
She added that the purpose of issuing the magazine is to encourage children to read and write, and to develop their talents and abilities in singing and writing in the mother tongue.
She also noted that it serves to pull children away from the internet and social media platforms to enhance the role of children by encouraging them to write.
The 16-page-magazine is diverse in its content designed for children, according to Agid.
The issuance of the magazine coincides with the anniversary of the Kurdish Language Day.
May 15 marks the Kurdish Language Day. It was first celebrated in 2006. On this day in 1932, the first Kurdish magazine was printed in Latin alphabet in the Syrian capital, Damascus.
The magazine was named Hawar (Help in English) by its founder Celadet Ali Bedirxan, a Kurdish writer and journalist.
For over decades, the Syrian government, especially after the Baath Party took power in 1963, prohibited the Kurds from learning or speaking their mother language. It even adopted the system of Arabization, where it turned the names of the towns and villages from Kurdish to Arabic.