Nazand Begikhani

Nazand Begikhani is a contemporary Kurdish writer, poet and academic researcher, and an active advocate of human rights.

Begikhani, born in Koysinjak (Koya) in Iraqi Kurdistan, has been living in exile since 1987 when she sought refugee status in Denmark. She received her M.A and Ph.D in comparative literature from the Sorbonne in France, and published her first collection of poems in Paris, 1995. She has published five poetry collections in Kurdish and Bells of Speech is her first collection in English. She has also translated works of Baudelaire and T. S. Eliot into Kurdish. Her works in English and French have been published by the Poetry Magazine, Ambit magazine, Poetry Salzburg Review, Modern Poetry in Translation, Exiled Writers' Ink, Action Poétique, etc. Her poetry collections have been translated into Arabic, Persian, French, English and German.

Nazand Begikhani is also an active advocate of human rights and is a founding member of the network campaign, Kurdish Women Action against Honour Killing (KWAHK), later changed to Kurdish Women's Rights Watch (KWRW). She has provided expert advice on honour-based violence (HBV) to a number of government bodies. Between 2007-2009, she sat on the board of the High Commission to Monitor Violence Against Women in Kurdistan Region and participated, as an expert witness and independent observer, in its seasonal meetings. Her work has had considerable influence on action and strategy to address HBV in Kurdistan. She has published academic work in Kurdish, English and French.

Nazand Begikhani has worked with the Kurdish Institute of Paris, the Kurdish Cultural Centre in London and BBC Monitoring. She is currently a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Bristol and Editor-in-Chief of the Kurdish edition of Le Monde Diplomatique.

Poetry Works

• Yesterday of Tomorrow, Collection of Poetry, Association of Kurdish Artists in France, Paris, 1995.
• Celebrations, Collection of Poetry, Aras, Iraqi Kurdistan, 2004.
• Colour of Sand, Collection of Poetry with Dilawar Qaradaghi, Aras, Iraqi Kurdistan, 2005.
• Bells of Speech, Ambit Books Publishers, London, 64 pp., 2006. (English) ISBN 0900055111
• Bells of Speech, Collected Poems, Ranj Publishers, Sulaimaniya, 2007.(Kurdish)
• Love: An inspired Absence,Poetry Collection, Ranj Publishesrs,Sulaimaniya, 2008
• Ranin Al-kalam, Translation of collected poems Bells of Speech into Arabic by Qays Qaradaghi and Muhammad Afif al-Hussaini, Dar Al-jamal, Lebanon, 2011
• Couleur de Sables, translation of Colour of Sand into French by Shakour Bayz and Bertrand Foly, L'Harmattan, Paris, 2011.

Selected books and anthologies featuring Nazand Begikhani's work:

• Circulation of Meaning: A selection of media internviews with Nazand Begikhani, Ranj Publishers, Sulaimaniya, 2008.

• "Honour-based violence among the Kurds: The case of Iraqi Kurdistan” Honour : Crimes, Paragigms and Violence against Women”, edited by

Dr Lynn Welshman and Sarah Hussain, Zed Books, September 2005.

• “Here Me There” in Crossing the border: voices of refugee and exiled women, edited by Jennifer Langer, Five Leaves publications, 2002.

• “Kurdish women: A space for the self”, in The Silver Throat of the Moon: Writing in Exile”, edited by Jennifer Langer, Five Leaves, 2005.

• Modern Kurdish Poetry", an anthology of Kurdish poetry by Kamal Mirawdali and Stephen Watts, Upsala, 2006.

• “Voice“ in Inspired Verse by Wyndham Thomas (Corsham Print, Easter 2007).

• “The war was over”, in The Poetry of Recovery by Sante Lucia Books, USA, 2007.

• “At a happiness symposium in Wales” in Fragments from the Dark by Jeni Williams & Lateafa Guemar, Hafan Books, 2008.

• “An ordinary day” in The Forward Book of Poetry by Forward Ltd in association with Faber and Faber, 2007.

• “Anfal genocide: Collective Memory and Kurdish Political Will, in Silence and Mass Murder by Heme Kake Rash, Sardam Publishing House, April 2008.

• “After Shocks: The Poetry of Recovery for Life-Shattering Events”, by Tom Lombardo, Saint Lucia Books, Atlanta, Georgia, 2008.

External links

• Nazand Begikhani, Exiled Writers Ink!.
• Nazand Begikhani, New Writing Partnership.
• Poetry Reading by Nazand Begikhani, British House of Commons, May 2007.
• Poetry Magazine, No.17, 2001.
• Nazand Begikhani, Start the Week, BBC Radio 4, 25 December 2006.
• Interview with women's rights campaigner Dr Nazand Begikhani, June 2006.

Persondata
Name	Begikhani, Nazand
Alternative names
Short description	Kurdish writer
Date of birth	1964
Place of birth	Iraqi Kurdistan
Date of death
Place of death