I Am Sam Kurdish High Quality

is a matriarchal whisper. It is the voice of my mother, my aunts, and the 10,000 Yezidi women who survived genocide in 2014. We carry them in our larynx.

If I say “Iraq” or “Turkey” or “Syria” or “Iran” — depending on where my family’s borders fell on some map drawn long before I was born — people nod like they understand. But they don’t. Because I’m not from those countries. I’m from Kurdistan. A place that exists in every way that matters except on most official documents. i am sam kurdish