Languages Coming out to Protest

 

After 40 days of protests in Iran, the rest of the world is starting to feel its effects and its powerful message. During all this time, 3 simple words have spread throughout the world breaking Geographical barriers, cultural barriers and off course, language barriers. No matter what language do you speak, certainly you have heard those 3 words:

Zan, Zendegi, Azadi ( زن، زندگی، آزادی ) in Persian; Jin, Jiyan, Azadî in Kurmanji, or in Sorani we have ژن، ژیان، ئازادی that in English we all understand as the popular slogan: Woman, Life, Freedom.

But this slogan has made its way to many more languages. If you speak French, you have heard : femme, vie, liberté. In Spanish speaking countries they used banners with the words: Mujer, vida, libertad. In Italy you can see the same banners containing the words: Donna, vita, libertà.

In Arabic we have المرأة، الحياة، الحرية . In Israel, the Iranian community for their protest they used אישה, חיים, חירות ; Less common languages had also their slogans. Kurdish community in Basque country (Spain) used: Emakumea, bizitza, askatasuna. In Hungarian they translated as Nő, élet, szabadság. In Sweden they prepared banners using the slogan Kvinna, liv, frihet. In Georgia, the media reflected this phrase: ქალი, ცხოვრება, თავისუფლება. (Kali, tskhovreba, tavisupleba) For reasons I am not going to explain here, Ukrainians also got very interested in those protests, and the way they translated those words was: Жінка, життя, свобода. (Zhinka, zhyttja, svoboda)

Very few people know that this slogan is not new. It has been used for more than 20 years and is closely associated to the Kurdistan Worker’s Party, also known by its initials PKK (Partiya Karkerên Kurdistanê, or پارتی کرێکارانی کوردستان ), a socialist guerrilla operating in Kurdish areas of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria. Mahsa Amini, whose death has sparked protests in Iran, was herself a Kurdish and resident of a Prominent Kurdish area.

In my opinion, and as I perceive it, it is the first time that a slogan translated into so many different languages had generated such an impact on the way of perceiving a protest. 3 simple words, easy to understand and translate, and which can be used by those who want to join the Iranian protests, regardless of their ethnic or national origin.

I think that one of the reasons why Translation has been so involved in those protests, unlike other protest that also spread around the world (For, example, in Black Lives Matter, in practice, people have been using these same words whether they speak English or not, and translation played a minor role, mostly for education purposes) Has to do with the use of 2 languages at the beginning of the protests, where Persian and Kurdish were simultaneously used, something rarely seen. 

Humanity will still face more challenges. We will increasingly see the use of simple slogans that can be easily understood, not only to catch the attention of the rest of the world, but to invite them to participate.

The only problem I find, if they want the rest of the world to listen to them, is that many videos and stories coming out from Iran, remain still untranslated. This limit the audience who can understand them and know what is going on. Even for me, who speak Persian, I often find myself unable to understand the context of some of them. But the brave Iranians have been able to win the sympathy of the rest of the world. Whatever they are fighting for, they will eventually gain the support of the rest of the world.