Kurds in Sweden

Kurds in Sweden
Total population
	Approximately 100,000
Regions with significant populations
	Huddinge, Botkyrka, Västerås, Gothenburg, Örebro, Stockholm, Uppsala, Dalarna, Karlstad, Malmö, Borlänge, Falköping
Languages
	Kurdish, Swedish (some knowledge of Turkish, Arabic and Persian)
Religion
	Majority Islam
Related ethnic groups
	Kurdish diaspora

Kurds in Sweden (Swedish: Kurder i Sverige; Kurdish: Kurdên Swêdê) may refer to people born in or residing in Sweden who are of Kurdish origin.

Most Kurdish people in Sweden live in the capital Stockholm or in Uppsala.^[2] A majority of Kurdish political refugees choose Sweden as their host country and therefore they have a cultural presence in Sweden.^[3]

Chronological Kurdish arrivals to Sweden

1975: Huddinge becomes the first municipality offering Kurdish as a primary language.^[4]
1984: The education of Kurdish teachers in Stockholm begins.^[5]
1986-1990: Economical decline and the claimed mistreatment towards Kurdish people by the Turkish Republic led to immigration to Sweden.^[6]
1991-1995: The crises in Kuwait due to Iraqi invasion, the war in south Kurdistan, and mass exodus from Turkish Kurdistan into Iran.^[7]

Political representation

In October 2019, thousands of Swedish Kurds staged a protest in Stockholm over Turkey's military operation in northeastern Syria.^[8] In Sweden there are several MP of Kurdish descent such Amineh Kakabaveh, Gulan Avci, Lawen Redar, Sara Gille or Kadir Kasirga.^[9] Kakabaveh was delivered the majority vote for that the Social Democrat Magdalena Andersson would become Swedish Prime Minister in 2021.^[10] As in May 2022 Sweden made an accession bid to join NATO, Turkey demanded that Sweden ends its alleged support for the Kurdish People's Defense Units (YPG) and Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).^[11]

Controversies

Honor killings

The 26-year-old Kurdish woman Fadime Şahindal was murdered by her father in an honour killing in 2002.^[12]^[13] Kurdish organizations were criticized by prime minister Göran Persson for not doing enough to prevent honour killings.^[12] Pela Atroshi was a Kurdish girl who was shot by her uncle in a brutal honour killing.^[14] The murder of Pela and Fadime gave rise to the formation of the human rights organization Never Forget Pela and Fadime (GAPF). GAPF is a politically and religiously independent and secular nonprofit organization working against honor-related violence and oppression. The organization's name is taken from Pela Atroshi and Fadime Sahindal which is Sweden's best-known and high-profile cases of honor killings.^[15] The honor killing of Sara, an Iraqi Kurdish girl, was the first publicized honor killing in Sweden.^[16] These three prominent cases of Sara, Pela and Fadime, brought the notion of honour killings into Swedish discourse.^[12]