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    Chro Is My Name: Memoir of a Kurdish Hero's Daughter
    Chro Is My Name: Memoir of a Kurdish Hero's Daughter
    Chro Is My Name: Memoir of a Kurdish Hero's Daughter
    Ebook207 pages2 hours

    Chro Is My Name: Memoir of a Kurdish Hero's Daughter

    By Chro Zand

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    CHRO IS MY NAME

    This book is in part autobiographical. It is interiorly non-fiction. It recounts events in my life, in my beloved country of Kurdistan and in countries where I have sought refuge. It retails my life's journey, my transition from a land of peace and beauty to a country I had not initially chosen.

    It was initially the title of a short story I wrote in 2008. It was published in Newcomer Magazine and later in a collection of short stories named JWAR, which I wrote and published in Kurdistan in 2010. Finally, it was in the School of Continuing Studies program of the University of Toronto.

    My journey is not a history of my land. I experienced it in the land of history, in that cradle of civilization known as Mesopotamia. My journey is not a statistic or the number of a nation's genocide. It is not a history of the occupation of my land. It is not the story of a politician or religious belief. It is my memoir of my journey in life. I wrote this memoir for the sake of writing it and in order to share my journey with readers. However, the more I press the pen, the more details reveal themselves. The more I remember, the more tears I shed. It does not matter how much we express ourselves, write about, or relive things that happened to us. There are things in our lives that we won't relive or write about; more things will remain secret and go to the grave with us.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTellwell Talent
    Release dateSep 27, 2022
    ISBN9780228884590
    Chro Is My Name: Memoir of a Kurdish Hero's Daughter
    Author

    Chro Zand

    Chro is a Kurdish Canadian freelance writer who currently lives in Toronto. She is the author of, Chro is My Name, her memoir published in 2021. The story of Chro is My Name is included in the School of Continuing Studies program in the University of Toronto curriculum. She has a diploma in Art and Literature and a Bachelor degree in Journalism.Chro was born and raised in Sulaimani, Kurdistan by parents with hearts of gold. Her marriage ended in divorce after producing a son and a daughter, whom she loves immensely.She was one of five million refugees who fled Kurdistan after the April 1991 Apprising and genocide against the Kurdish nation. After the last dinner in 1991, her family never got together again, not even for her marriage. A period of residence in Turkey, in part once again as a refuge.She has been a Certified Language Instructor by TDSB since 2003 and is the first to teach the Kurdish Sorani dialect through Toronto District School Board. She has been a certified interpreter and translator with Canadian and American clients since 2000. She is a member of PEN Canada. She won an international short story contest. Earlier in Kurdistan, at 16, she received her first award in writing. She was nominated for Miss Kurdistan at age 17.Chro experienced some joy and a solid foundation from her father, her great mentor. Her father became her best friend and her world. Chro's father is a father of the federation in her land. He wrote 40 books. He is the first person to have written Kurdish Geography, draws a map of his beloved land, having traveled for 13 years on foot through almost all of Kurdistan.Chro struggled in her land for her freedom of speech. Her mother's language was prohibited, her native land occupied, and her nation was subjected to genocide. She has the memory of war, her destroyed, looted, and burnt house in the mountains. She has the memory of Halabja, a Kurdish city onto which Saddam's planes dropped poison gas in the spring of 1988. She left her homeland. She never saw her first home again as the deadly date hunts her still.Once, when Chro faced the danger of being tortured and death, she broke into a song often sung by Kurds. She fell in love with words, and writing short stories became her first focus as a storyteller to write her memoir and share it with the world.Chro is fascinated by design and loves music. Her green thumb and charming garden transform tears into laughter as she longs for new days to come.

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      Book preview

      Chro Is My Name - Chro Zand

      Chro Is My Name

      Memoir of a Kurdish Hero’s Daughter

      Chro Zand

      Chro Is My Name

      Copyright © 2022 by Chro Zand

      Edited by Frank A. Campbell

      Inside design by Von Langoyan

      Cover design by Ashton Franklin

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

      Tellwell Talent

      www.tellwell.ca

      ISBN

      978-0-2288-8458-3 (Hardcover)

      978-0-2288-8457-6 (Paperback)

      978-0-2288-8459-0 (eBook)

      Table of Contents

      Dedication

      Prologue

      More Praise for Chro Is My Name

      Chapter 1: Fleeing Home

      The 1991 Uprising

      Last Dinner

      Fleeing to The Borders Before Midnight

      The Anguish of Separation: Third Night

      The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

      Refugees Fell into Restless Sleep

      In the Moonlight

      Chapter 2: Home: The Place I Always Wanted To Go Back To

      My Birthplace: Sulaimani

      The Image of the War Haunts Me Still

      War

      News from My Parents

      Chapter 3: Memo From A Teenage Girl

      My Childhood

      High School Student Protest

      Life on Campus

      The Graduation Battle

      Your Mother Tongue

      Me: A Volunteer Village Teacher

      Chapter 4: The Best Year Of My Youth

      Forbidden Love

      Halabja

      Giving Birth to a Baby Boy

      The War That Split Us Apart

      I Learned

      Chapter 5: Life In Baghdad

      Living in Exile

      Giving Birth to My Baby Girl

      Our Rental House in Baghdad

      Discrimination

      The Lie of Love

      Return to My Birthplace: Sulaimani

      Chapter 6: Fleeing The Home Country

      At the Border

      Life in Turkey

      Sivas, the Forbidden City

      If I Could Tell You

      Chapter 7: Canada: New Chapter In My Life

      Ending up in The Land I Had Not Chosen

      Nostalgia, Far Away from Home

      My Lost ID

      Take Away

      Chro is My Name

      Chapter 8: Karim Zand: Why So Many Respects The Dad I Adore

      Karim Zand’s Published Books

      Aspects of the Life and Work of Karim Zand

      Translation of the New Testament

      Karim Zand’s Journey

      My Father and I

      Daddy’s Hat

      Take Me

      His Final Words

      Final Words

      Love Letter to My Dad

      Acknowledgements

      More Praise for Chro Is My Name

      About the Author

      Dedication

      THIS WORK IS DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF MY father, Karim Zand, who enriched my life in ways I would never have imagined. He gave me the strength and confidence to be the person I am today. I owe you, Father.

      One wish that I had in my life was that my father could read everything I have written, but our dreams don’t all come true. My dear father left this world, and he is resting in peace now.

      I affectionately dedicate this book to my loving son Las and daughter Liza.

      This book is also dedicated to my mother, Ama Zand, and to all mothers who wait for their children to return. It is dedicated, as well, to people who lost their loved ones in the nations’ genocide, those who wait for the loved ones from whom they may never hear, and to those lost loved ones who may never return. In a special way, I dedicate it to refugees, those living in asylum who have struggled in the transition to life in new lands where they find themselves. To my brother Shko Zand, who has been one of them and whom I love the way I love my children.

      I wish that there would be no wars, and that all human beings would live peacefully and not based on distinctions of gender, skin color, religion, nationality, or belief. And that no political power would use their weapons to massacre people of other nations.

      There is no winner in war. War splits us apart. It becomes a separation of our soul, and many don’t survive it. After the last dinner in 1991, which is detailed in a later section of this book, my family never got whole again, not even for my marriage.

      I dedicate this book and these sentiments to the memory of my loving father. Because of him, I will always be proud to be called a Daddy’s girl. For the world, you are one person. For me you are my world.

      Prologue

      MY PAST BECOMES MORE PRESENT

      THIS BOOK IS IN PART AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL. IT IS ENTIRELY non-fiction. It is a recounting of events in my life in my beloved country of Kurdistan and in countries where I have sought refuge. It retells my life’s journey, my transition to a land of peace and beauty, to a country I had not initially chosen.

      Chro Is My Name was originally the title of a short story that I had written in 2008. It had been published in Newcomer Magazine and later in a collection of short stories named Jiwar written by me and published in Kurdish in 2010 in Kurdistan. Finally, it was in the program of the School of Continuing Studies of the University of Toronto.

      I was born with a name that was dear to me. My name, Chro, is the name of a bud or a small flower that blooms in spring. I have always loved my name and the image it gives me of myself; it has been an influential part of my life in different cultures, for various reasons.

      The uprising on April 1, 1991, is covered in the first chapter of this book. It is an unforgettable memory of anti-Kurdish genocide. Chapter eight, dealing with my father, is a short part of his long journey. That chapter mentions his 15 published books, including his translation of the New Testament of the Holy Bible. This was the first translation of the New Testament from French to Kurdish. I couldn’t separate his memoir from my own.

      Now, my past has become a distant place, and I sometimes choose to go there, turning the pages of a young girl’s book, my book. I sit under the bright sky, looking for a bit of sun to lighten my way and take me back to my childhood, to the native land, to the place where I was born and where I want to be buried.

      My journey is not a history of my land. It is what I experienced in the land of history, in that cradle of civilization known as Mesopotamia.

      My journey is not a statistic or the number of a nation’s genocide. It is not a history of the occupation of my land. It is not the story of a politician, or of a religious belief. It is my memoir of my journey in life. I wrote this memoir for the sake of writing it and in order to share my journey with readers.

      However, the more I press the pen, the more details reveal themselves. The more I remember, the more tears I shed. I believe it does not matter how much we express ourselves, write about, or relive things that happened to us. There are things in our lives that we won’t relive or write about; more things will remain secret and go to the grave with us.

      The moment I reunited with my parents after seven years of separation leaving my country was very emotional.

      I had a difficult life shaped by war. Indeed, it was beyond my understanding, as I always wanted to be close to my parents. I could have avoided much suffering, and my life could have been different. However, even after many years of living abroad, I couldn’t decide to return to where I belong, to the life I missed.

      To me, everything was meant to happen just the way it did. And I feel that there is an element of destiny in all those events. Though, I do not have an urge to convert to a religious belief. I am spiritual but not a religious person, I do not want you to see me as a victim, and I do not have any regrets for what happened in my life. In the end, I am humbled by this thought.

      Now, my past becomes more present to me.

      More Praise for Chro Is My Name

      Your memoir has moved me, your writing has come a long way since your time at the Sheridan Centre, and your story is powerful. Thank you for sharing it.

      Your pungent little memoir is testimony to the pride and resilience of the Kurdish people, and a young mother’s courage in the turmoil of war and oppression. Your story opens eyes and hearts to refugees who bravely build new lives in Canada.

      — Don Sellar is a retired journalist

      Chro is My Name is one woman’s heartfelt and startling memoir: the journey of how she survived the 1991 genocidal massacre of the Kurdish people by Iraq’s Saddam Hussein. Chro was among the five million Kurds who left the country. Alone with one child and pregnant with her second, she walked to a refugee camp where she learned to survive with little food and only a tent in the mountain for shelter. She began in her mind to write this powerful story.

      Born to a distinguished Kurdish family, Chro arrived in Canada with $200 in her pocket and two cherished photos of her beloved mother and father to sustain her. Chro is My Name is the poignant story of her perilous path to safety and her struggle to make a new life in Canada for herself and her children.

      — Joyce Wayne’s most recent novel is Last Night of the World. She is the former director of the Sheridan Centre for Internationally Trained Journalists.

      CHAPTER 1

      Fleeing Home

      The 1991 Uprising

      IT WAS THE FIRST WEEK OF MARCH 1991. THE TREES WERE covered with green buds and were full of promise. March is a significant month for Kurds. Many things have happened in March, good and bad, sad and happy. The Iraqi-Kurdish Autonomy Agreement was finalized and announced in March 1970. The Kurdish New Year, Newroz, is celebrated in March. On the other hand, also occurring in March was the notorious Al Anfal Campaign, which was part of the Kurdish Genocide. This was the Halabja chemical attack, also known as the Halabja Massacre. It is also called Bloody Friday, although it took place on March 16, 1988, which was a Wednesday. On that day, chemical bombs destroyed the entire city of Halabja, killing between 50,000 and 182,000 Kurdish civilians (men, women and children). Years after the uprising, the Kurdish government rebuilt the city of Halabja, and included a monument as a symbol of the massacre.

      April 24, 1974, was the day that changed the life of my childhood friend, Chiman H. Mahmood. It was the day when the entire city of Qaladiza was bombed and when Chiman lost her left leg.

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