Kurds in Sweden (; ) may refer to people born in or residing in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

who are of Kurdish origin. Most

Kurdish people Kurds (), or the Kurdish people, are an Iranian peoples, Iranic ethnic group from West Asia. They are indigenous to Kurdistan, which is a geographic region spanning southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, and northeastern Syri ...

in Sweden live in the capital

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

or in

Uppsala Uppsala ( ; ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the capital of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019. Loc ...

. A majority of Kurdish political refugees choose Sweden as their host country and therefore they have a cultural presence in Sweden.

Chronological Kurdish arrivals to Sweden

*1975:

Huddinge Huddinge Municipality () is a municipalities of Sweden, municipality in Stockholm County, east central Sweden. Its seat is located in Huddinge (), which is a part of Stockholm urban area. The municipality is, with its approximately 110,000 inhabit ...

becomes the first municipality offering Kurdish as a primary language. *1984: The education of Kurdish teachers in

begins. *1986-1990: Economical decline and the claimed mistreatment towards Kurdish people by the Turkish Republic led to immigration to Sweden. *1991-1995: The crises in

Kuwait Kuwait, officially the State of Kuwait, is a country in West Asia and the geopolitical region known as the Middle East. It is situated in the northern edge of the Arabian Peninsula at the head of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to Iraq–Kuwait ...

due to Iraqi invasion, the war in south Kurdistan, and mass exodus from

Turkish Kurdistan Turkish Kurdistan or Northern Kurdistan () is the southeastern part of Turkey where Kurds form the predominant ethnic group. The Kurdish Institute of Paris estimates that there are 20 million Kurds living in Turkey, the majority of them in the ...

into Iran.

Political representation

In October 2019, thousands of Swedish Kurds staged a protest in

over Turkey's military operation in northeastern Syria. In Sweden there are several MP of Kurdish descent such Amineh Kakabaveh, Gulan Avci, Lawen Redar, Sara Gille or Kadir Kasirga. Kakabaveh was delivered the majority vote for that the Social Democrat

Magdalena Andersson Eva Magdalena Andersson (born 23 January 1967) is a Swedish politician and economist who has been serving as Leader of the Opposition since October 2022 and Leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party since 2021. She has served as a Member of ...

would become

Swedish Prime Minister The prime minister of Sweden (, "minister of state") is the head of government of the Kingdom of Sweden. The prime minister and their cabinet (the government) exercise executive authority in the Kingdom of Sweden and are subject to the Parlia ...

in 2021. 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 The People's Defense Units (YPG), also called People's Protection Units, is a libertarian socialist US-backed Kurdish militant group in Syria and the primary component of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The YPG mostly consists of K ...

(YPG) and

Kurdistan Workers' Party The Kurdistan Workers' Party, or the PKK, isDespite the PKK's 12th Congress announcing plans for total organisational dissolution, the PKK has not yet been dissolved de facto or de jure. a Kurds, Kurdish militant political organization and armed ...

(PKK).

Controversies

Honor killings

The 26-year-old Kurdish woman Fadime Şahindal was murdered by her father in an honour killing in 2002. Kurdish organizations were criticized by prime minister

Göran Persson Hans Göran Persson (; born 20 January 1949) is a Swedish politician who served as Prime Minister of Sweden from 1996 to 2006 and leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party from 1996 to 2007. Persson was first elected to the Swedish Parliame ...

for not doing enough to prevent honour killings. Pela Atroshi was a Kurdish girl who was shot by her uncle in a brutal honour killing. 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. The honor killing of Sara, an Iraqi Kurdish girl, was the first publicized honor killing in Sweden. These three prominent cases of Sara, Pela and Fadime, brought the notion of honour killings into Swedish discourse.

Notable people

* * Evin Ahmad * Amineh Kakabaveh * Soran Ismail * Rojda Sekersöz * Evin Incir * Balsam Karam * Dilan Gwyn * Gulan Avci * Dee Demirbag * Kurdo Baksi * Dilba *

Jwan Yosef Jwan Yosef (born 6 September 1984) is a Swedish-Syrian painter and artist. He specializes in plastic arts and is based in London, England. Early life and education Yosef was born in Syria, to a Kurdish people, Kurdish father and an Armenian peo ...

* Rawez Lawan * Nalin Pekgul *

Darin (singer) Darin Zanyar (born 2 June 1987), prefessionally known as Darin, is a Kurdish-Swedish pop singer and songwriter born in Stockholm. He first came into prominence on the television talent show '' Idol''. Darin has released nine studio albums, eight ...

* Hayv Kahraman

References

{{Portal bar, Kurdistan, Sweden Ethnic groups in Sweden