Dalal Hassane
Latest Articles
To a Syria Far Out of Reach
This year marks 28 years since my father last walked the shores of the Mediterranean in his home city, Jableh. It is a country that returns to me in flashes of memory, but does not anticipate my return.
Harvard’s Targeting of CMES Should Alarm All of Us
The attack on CMES is an attack on us all, and it only further exemplifies what has been crystal clear for the last year and a half: At Harvard, only particular narratives are worthy of study — and particular peoples worthy of humanization.
The Genocide in Gaza Did Not Start or End With Doxxing
The occupation and bombardment of Palestine is unfolding before our eyes; the genocide will not cease once the trucks stop driving around campus.
Daye: A Woman Who Untangles Roots
To this day, hearing her switch between languages — her mother tongue, Sorani Kurdish, and Arabic — reminds me of the melding of cultures I’ve always hoped to embody. Yet I find myself replying to her in Arabic. Mama longed for me to learn Kurdish, but I was pressured to embrace my Arab half at the expense of my mother’s tongue.
A Free Kurdistan Starts with Language Preservation
While I feel empowered by the opportunity to learn the Kurdish language at Harvard, I am infuriated that others do not get the same chance. In different parts of Kurdistan, the act of preserving our indigenous language is often treated as criminal.
No Friends But the Mountains
From Rojava (“Syrian” Kurdistan) to Rojhelat (“Iranian” Kurdistan), the occupation poisons Kurdish society the same way Saddam poisoned Halabja. History is repeating itself through the erasure, gaslighting, and silencing of Kurdish people in the diaspora.
Jina Amini was a Kurdish Woman Like Me. Here’s Why That Matters.
Jina Amini was a Kurdish woman; call her such. Call her by her real name, not the one imposed on her by the regime. Realize the history behind the phrase “women, life, freedom,” and start chanting it in the language of the women who coined it. The language that I grew up hearing in my house, just as Jina did in hers.