Rojava girl promoting the Kurdish language through her bookstore

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Rona Qadir’s dream finally came true when her father opened a small bookstore for her on her 13th birthday on September 22, 2021. Now, she is encouraging children in her hometown of Qamishli in northeast Syria (Rojava) to read Kurdish books. 

Rona is a student in the 7th grade at a Kurdish school. She told Rudaw’s Dilbxwin Dara via Skype late Wednesday that only a few Kurdish children read books in their mother tongue language. “Most of them read Arabic books … Therefore, I decided to open a bookstore.” 

The young girl complained about the lack of bookstores for children in Rojava. “Most of the bookstores in Qamishli are dedicated to adults,” Rona said in a fluent Kurmanji dialect of the Kurdish language. 

Her father, Qadir Ageed, is a writer. He told Rudaw English late Thursday via Whatsapp that Kurdish writers from the Kurdistan Region and southeast Turkey (Northern Kurdistan) have donated dozens of Kurdish books. “We gave them to children for free,” he said.

Ageed complained that the support they receive from Kurdish institutions is not enough. 

“If this bookstore was in another place [country] it would be supported a lot by all institutions but unfortunately no one here supports it,” the Kurdish writer said, adding that they do not seek to make an income from the bookstore and that they cannot even make the monthly salary ($50) of her female employee who takes care of the bookstore when Rona is at school.

The crippling financial crisis in Syria has discouraged many people from buying books as some can barely afford essential goods and other expenses. 

The bookstore is named after Rona. It has hundreds of Kurdish, Arabic and English children's books on stories, poems and puzzles, the majority of which are in Kurdish.

Rona is planning to launch a magazine and to hold book fairs to further boost the Kurdish language. 

The Kurdish language had been banned in Syria until Kurds established a self-administration a decade ago following the Syrian uprising. Although Kurds study their mother tongue in Rojava, many prefer to use Arabic. Even the local authorities publish most of their official statements in the Arabic language. 

Ageed said that children’s books are more expensive than other books because they include colored illustrations and are printed in better quality.