Kae Bahar > Quotes

“Even with the best doctors, engineers, lawyers and police, you can only lead a dull, meaningless life without the many masterpieces of art to bring you joy, tickle your brain and keep your soul fresh. Art is the magic potion that pacifies broken hearts and motivates us to love life. Without Art we will only have hate, intolerance, dictators and wars. The most powerful army will never be able to build a healthy society without good art. Art is the freshest breath of life, it is the soul of life.”
― Kae Bahar, Letters from a Kurd

“army. I am only sixteen. I never dreamed of this life. I wanted to go to university, to become a lawyer, to help women, who are doubly oppressed, firstly by the Turkish government because they are Kurds and secondly by the males in their families because they are women. I could not follow my path in a civilised way because I am facing an uncivilised opponent. I must resort to the gun, and if necessary, will die by it.”
― Kae Bahar, Letters from a Kurd

“…the good we get from art is not what we learn from it; it is what we become through it…We”
― Kae Bahar, Letters from a Kurd

“Take my advice, Mary. Never get married to someone you don’t love or who doesn’t love you.”
― Kae Bahar, Letters from a Kurd

“Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria are equally our enemies, and we would surely do better to die united, than bow to the enemy’s pressure and fight each other. This has been our downfall throughout history. Our Kurdish leaders have fought for so long amongst themselves that they have forgotten the plight of our people, and forsaken many golden opportunities to achieve our goals.”
― Kae Bahar, Letters from a Kurd

“The last time I was in the women’s baths was five years earlier. I used to like going there and loved all the games the women played and the jokes they told. Inside the wet steamy hall, they were like noisy children, with no men around to control their joy. These naked women, whose bodies were of all shapes and sizes, had fun; they threw water over each other; they combed each other’s hair, made jokes and sang songs. They did all that women were not allowed to do anywhere else. In there, I wished I really was a girl. ”
― Kae Bahar, Letters from a Kurd

“I wanted life to be a film so that I could rewind it to when I first saw Gringo on the big screen. I was sitting happily between Flathead and Hercules, feeling the luckiest and most protected child in the world. Back to the time when I rode with Happiness on the bike in Qala, when Aida and I first kissed, and when Papula and I danced under the cascading water from the hose. I did not want to stop running, or stop thinking of those wonderful times when I had been happy,”
― Kae Bahar, Letters from a Kurd

“When I saw Soldier Blue, my heart was broken and I believed your people treated the Native Americans atrociously. They suffered terrible injustices, just as my people and I are suffering now at the hands of the occupying powers in our land.”
― Kae Bahar, Letters from a Kurd

“have read the Qur’an a couple of times, and guess what?’ He stopped, and I did the same. ‘Each time I read the Qur’an, I got more and more shocked about all the calls for violence; Kill the infidels! The macabre threats of burning in hell for ever. But what I most dislike about Islam, the so-called  religion of peace, is the lack of any democracy or freedom. Your Prophet Muhammad made sure to leave no choice but to follow him and obey his orders: Do as I say or else you will burn in hell, and you will burn for eternity if you oppose my words, for mine are the words of God and they can never be questioned or altered. What is the difference between that and Saddam’s? Muhammad and Saddam, just the same, two men seeking power, to expand their empires, they terrorise without ever taking into consideration people’s feelings about what they want to believe and how they wish to live.”
― Kae Bahar, Letters from a Kurd