Tima Kurdi (born 1970) is a Syrian-Canadian author and human rights activist. Born in Damascus, she moved to Canada as a young adult and is based in

Coquitlam Coquitlam ( ) is a city in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Canada. Mainly suburban, Coquitlam is the List of cities in British Columbia, sixth-largest city in the province, with an estimated population of 174,248 in 2024, and one of th ...

, British Columbia. Kurdi is the author of '' The Boy on the Beach'', which documents the circumstances that led to the death of her nephews Ghalib and Alan Kurdi, and their mother, Rehanna as they fled the Syrian civil war.

Early life and education

Kurdi was born in 1970 and grew up in a

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish language ** Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji) **Central Kurdish (Sorani) **Southern Kurdish ** Laki Kurdish *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern ...

family in

Damascus Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...

, Syria. She emigrated to Canada in 1992, at the age of 22 years.

Adult life

Kurdi is the founder of The Kurdi Foundation, through which she advocates for Canadians to be mindful of the needs of refugees. In 2018, she advocated for Canada to accept more refugees. Her memoir ''The Boy on the Beach'' documents her own family's efforts to escape the Syrian civil war and the circumstances that led to the deaths of Alan and Ghalib Kurdi (her nephews) and Rehanna (her sister in law), in 2015. In 2019, she expressed her distress that a movie about Alan's death was being made without the Kurdi family's consent by filmmaker Omer Sarikaya. Kurdi lives in Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada.

References

External links

* official website {{DEFAULTSORT:Kurdi, Tima 1970 births Living people Syrian emigrants to Canada 21st-century Syrian writers 21st-century Syrian women writers Women founders Organization founders Writers from Damascus Writers from British Columbia People from Coquitlam 21st-century Kurdish writers Kurdish activists Kurdish women activists Kurdish writers Kurdish women writers Canadian autobiographers Syrian human rights activists Syrian women activists Canadian human rights activists Canadian women activists 21st-century Canadian non-fiction writers 21st-century Canadian women writers Canadian women non-fiction writers Canadian women memoirists