Kurds in Sweden may refer to people born in or residing in the Sweden of Kurdish origin.
Most Kurdish people in Sweden live in the capital Stockholm or in Uppsala.[2] A majority of Kurdish political refugees choose Sweden as their host country and therefore they have a cultural presence in Sweden.[3]
Chronological Kurdish arrivals to Sweden
1975: Huddinge becomes the first municipality offering Kurdish as a primary language.[4]
1984: The education of Kurdish teachers in Stockholm begins.[5]
1986-1990: Economical decline and the claimed mistreatment towards Kurdish people by the Turkish Republic led to immigration to Sweden.[6]
The 26-year-old Kurdish woman Fadime Şahindal was murdered by her father in an honour killing in 2002.[11][12] Kurdish organizations were criticized by prime minister Göran Persson for not doing enough to prevent honour killings.[11]Pela Atroshi was a Kurdish girl who was shot by her uncle in a brutal honour killing.[13] 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.[14] The honor killing of Sara, an Iraqi Kurdish girl, was the first publicized honor killing in Sweden.[15] These three prominent cases of Sara, Pela and Fadime, brought the notion of honour killings into Swedish discourse.[11]
