Leyla Zana 

Lucina Kathmann

Kurdish writer Leyla Zana has been in prison in Turkey since 1994. She was born in 1961 in the Kurdish southeast of Turkey. Her husband Mehdi Zana was elected mayor of Diyarbakir, the largest city in the Kurdish region of Turkey, in 1977. After the 1980 military coup he was jailed. While she was going from jail to jail to see him in the 80s, she became the voice of the women whose husbands had been abducted by the Turkish military regime. 

In the 90s she brought her feminist perspective to the creation of the newspaper Yeni Ülke, one of the first Kurdish newspapers in Turkey. Though the Turkish government maintained it would permit a publication in Kurdish, it constantly harassed Yeni Ülke, eventually forcing the imprisonment, death or exile of almost all the people involved and finally the closure of the newspaper itself. Through her writing for the newspaper, Leyla Zana became a popular public figure. 

During a brief period of governmental openness starting in 1991, it became possible for Kurdish parliamentarians to be elected to the Turkish legislature. Leyla Zana was an obvious choice, and she was elected with 84% of the vote from her district. 

From the beginning she was a real representative of the Kurdish people, sometimes even speaking a sentence or two in Kurdish (at that time forbidden to be spoken in public) in the legislature. For a while parliamentary immunity protected her and her colleagues, but in 1994 the immunity was lifted and she and three Kurdish men parliamentarians were arrested and jailed. 

Leyla was accused of treason, though this charge was eventually reduced to a lesser one. As part of the evidence against her at her trial, such expressions of Kurdish identity as the color of her clothes was used as evidence against her. The prosecutor's statement reads: "The defendant Leyla Zana did on 18 October 1991 wear clothes and accessories in yellow, green and red [colors of the Kurdish flag] while addressing the people of Cizre." She was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment. 

Writing in Prison 

Since her imprisonment, she has written a book, Writings from Prison, published in English by Blue Crane Books, Massachusets USA, and many articles. In 1998 an article she wrote from prison about Newroz, the Kurdish holiday, caused her to be sentenced to a further 2 years imprisonment. 

Leyla Zana won the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 1995, and she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995 and again in 1998. The European Court of Human Rights ruled her trial unfair in July 2001. 

Leyla On Kurdistan 

In 1998, Leyla Zana wrote to the wife of the president of Turkey: 

"I want to tell you about a suffering land and the concerted efforts of the ruling circles to deny the very existence of its people. I am talking of the struggles of those who are standing up to oppression and working for peace, freedom , brotherhood, democracy and labor rights. In other words, I am referring to the reality of my country, of its peoples and the state of affairs now unfolding in it. 

"If it needs to be stated again, I belong among those who seek peace." 

Leyla On Feminism 

In 1994, writing about controversial Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen's ideas about women in Muslim cultures, Leyla Zana says: 

"Without having ever seen or heard her, I count her as a sister in the fight. Nearly all interpreters of the Koran have been men, and this is responsible for the present situation of Islamic women. In fact, my impression is that all the monotheistic religions are based on the dominance of men; the prophets, caliphs, apostles, popes, rabbis, ayatollahs ... all are men. A real emancipation only seems possible to me within the framework of a pluralistic and secular democracy. 

"In Algeria and Bangladesh, and no differently in Iran and Kurdistan, the fight of the women will be the most important force of democratic resistance against fundamentalist barbarity." 

What Can We Do? 

Politely worded letters asking for Leyla Zana's release to: 


His Excellency Abdullah Gul 

Prime Minister of Turkey 

Basbakanlik 

Cankaya 

Ankara, Turkey 

Fax 90 312 417 0476 

or 90 312 419 54 43 

abdullah.gul@tbmm.gov.tr (Email less reliable than other addresses.) 


His Excellency Cemil Çiçek 

Minister of Justice 

Adalet Bakanligi 

06440 Bakanliklar 

Ankara, Turkey 

Fax 90 312 417 3954 

Send a copy of your letter to the Turkish embassy or consulate nearest you, as Turkish diplomatic personnel have better and more powerful channels than the ordinary mails. 

Please also send a copy (letters or articles) or an account (demonstrations, talks with ambassadors etc.) to the International PEN Women Writers Committee at lucina@unisono.net.mx. We will try to get this encouraging information to Leyla Zana.