Kurdistan24.net | Wladimir van Wilgenburg

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Aynur Doğan, a Kurdish vocalist, songwriter, and instrumentalist, received the international WOMEX 2021 Artist Award in Porto, Portugal, on Sunday. 

“The jury note we recognize your long-term dedication to preservation and importance of Kurdish culture,” Ton Maas, editor of online magazine MixedWorldMusic.com, said during the award ceremony.

“With your voice, you are giving voice to your own community.”

“Thanks again to everyone for this unforgettable day,” Doğan tweeted on Sunday.

“It is for her long-term dedication to the preservation and innovation of Kurdish and Alevi culture, for maintaining the highest artistic integrity in the face of political pressure and, in doing so, for being a model for all that sing against the silencers,” the world music expo said in an Aug. 26 press statement.

Read More: Kurdish artist Aynur wins WOMEX 2021 Artist Award

Doğan, 46, was born in the Kurdish province of Dersim (Tunceli) in a region of Turkey that Kurds refer to as Northern Kurdistan (Bakur).

She fled to Istanbul in 1992 to escape fighting between the Turkish Army and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). 

In 2002, she released her first album.

Over the years, Doğan has become one of the most well-known musicians from Turkey and a representative for the Kurdish people, according to her official biography.

A Turkish court banned one of her songs, Keça Kurdan (the daughter of Kurds), back in 2005 on the grounds that it incited Kurdish women to fight in the mountains, thus serving “terrorist propaganda.” That ban has since been lifted.

Doğan’s music is based on traditional Kurdish folk songs, many of which are at least 300 years old, her website says. The lyrics of her songs are about the life and sufferings of the Kurdish people in general and Kurdish women in particular. 

She has performed all over the world and received several international awards.