Kani Xulam is a native of Kurdistan and has spent most of his adult life advocating for the right of Kurdish people to self-determination. He studied International Relations at the University of Toronto, earned a BA in History at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and completed an MA in the International Service program at American University.
The Kurds, who number in the millions, lack political agency in the Middle East. Kani Xulam, like many Kurds, sees this as a grave injustice. During his college years, he represented Kurdistan at the Model United Nations, where a non-binding resolution was passed recognizing the Kurdish people's right to self-determination.
After college, Kani Xulam joined 196 students in a sit-in against the First Gulf War. He was arrested, defended himself in court, and was sentenced to 18 hours of community service, planting saplings in Santa Barbara. While those saplings have grown into trees now, the Kurdish situation has only worsened. Believing in the existence of right and wrong in the nation’s capital, he moved to Washington, DC—to side with the right, with the hopes of hastening the emancipation of the Kurds. But the city on the Potomac is governed by a different principle—the strong dictating to the weak.
Undeterred, Kani Xulam participated in a hunger strike on the steps of the Capitol, urging members of Congress to speak out on behalf of their imprisoned Kurdish colleagues. 153 members signed a letter asking President Clinton to intervene. On the advice of his doctor, Kani Xulam broke his fast on the 32nd day.
Kani Xulam's advocacy for the Kurdish people and his resistance to legal harassment in the U.S. instigated by the Turkish authorities were highlighted in the documentary “Good Kurds, Bad Kurds: No Friends But the Mountains.” Stephen Holden of the New York Times praised the film as “searing” and noted that it “delves deeply into the history and politics of Kurdistan.”
The history of Kurdistan remains, alas, searing. Kani Xulam’s work continues. Emulating the example of Dr. King, his work includes a 221-day vigil in front of the Turkish Ambassador’s residence, a sit-in at the Turkish Embassy, and a 24-day walk from the Lincoln Memorial to the United Nations building in New York on the 100th anniversary of the Treaty of Lausanne, which sanctioned the partitioning of the Kurdish homeland without the consent of its inhabitants.
