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NEWS
18 March 2004

Veil lifts off once-forbidden Kurdish folklore music
The fall of Saddam Hussein's regime has allowed the once-forbidden Kurdish music to spread throughout the country. Even such unlikely fans as Arab taxi drivers and Turkmen teenagers are singing along with the renaissance of a culture that spent nearly three decades in obscurity.
Story from Washington Bureau

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More on minorities

Kurds struggle to find voice in Turkey
As death threats and angry slogans greet a recent performance in Kurdish by one of Turkey’s most popular singers, many human rights advocates in Turkey feel Ankara still has a long way to go to meet European Union standards on minorities
28 December 2003
Turkey: Killed for singing Kurdish folk songs in bar
A young man, Emrah Gezer, was killed because he and his friends had been singing Kurdish folk songs in a bar
03 March 2010
Turkey: Broadcasting in local languages allowed without time limit
Autorities has granted permission to 14 radio and tv stations in Turkey to broadcast in Kurdish, Zazaki, and Arabic without time limit
03 March 2010
Syria: Musicians arrested for singing Kurdish songs
Seven men, including members of a wedding music band, were arrested at a Kurdish wedding party. In court they were accused of singing patriotic Kurdish songs.
18 January 2010
Turkey: Ferhat Tunç sang at large rally for Alevi rights
Ferhat Tunç was one of the artists who performed in Istanbul on 8 November 2009 in front of 200,000 people protesting for the rights of a religious minority
09 November 2009
Iran: Trial against two Kurdish singers
Two Kurdish singers are to be sentenced for “propaganda against the [political] order”, reported Shâr News from Saqqez in western Iran on 17 November 2008
21 November 2008
Finland / Sweden / Norway: The destruction of a minority's music culture
Ethnomusicologist Ilpo Saastamoinen shares his insight and personal experiences with the oppression of Sámi music culture
21 April 2008
Mari Boine
Video interview with Norwegian and Sámi singer Mari Boine about her personal experiences with the religious ban of joik music
31 March 2008
UK: Brighton first city to outlaw 'hate music'
The British seaside town Brighton has become the first place in the UK to ban music that "incites hatred towards minorites"
06 December 2007
Denmark: Reggae concert under close surveillance
200 activitsts demonstrated against Jamaican rapper and DJ Elephant Man in Copenhagen on 21 May 2007 because he has incited to violence against homosexuals in his songs
23 May 2007