Hêja Netirk: modernising Kurdish music.
Hêja Netirk is a Kurdish multidisciplinary artist - singer, songwriter, actress and producer. We discussed traditional views on female artists, living in exile and how music acted as a revolutionary force for her - both against the Turkish state and her family which had deep rooted sexism which often stood in her way when she was developing her craft.
Her early interactions with creativity began first during high school, when she was involved in theatre productions. Despite her grandmother's reluctance for Hêja to stay late after school in order to practise, she continued her passion. During her studies at Boğaziçi university, one of the most prestigious in the country, she was part of a folklore club and quickly became responsible for collective and archiving Kurdish Dengbêj songs. Dêngbej is a traditional form of oral literature.
The folklore club soon became a vital part of her life, with the increase in importance of the club, she was required to take centre stage and perform. This was deemed impossible by her family, especially her father. For a young, Kurdish woman to be ‘exhibiting’ herself on stage was thought to bring shame to the family’s name. Hêja stopped her creative endeavours and gave herself fully into her academic work. She knew that writing her thoughts and opinions would grant her much more creative freedom - her family would be far less likely to read her work, whereas performing on stage was a much more visible act of rebellion.
Just before she was due to go to Columbia university in America with a Fulbright scholarship, Hêja was imprisoned for 9 months by the Turkish state. In prison, she took guitar lessons for a month, taught herself simple chords and caught onto rhythms. She wrote her songs ‘Derî Lêket’ (The door slammed), ‘Ne Ne’ and ‘Belkî’ (Maybe) these formed ‘Stranên Neşûştî’ which literally translates to ‘Unwashed Songs’ but the alternative, and other common meaning is used for someone who hasn’t washed after having sex, it is also commonly used for people who bring about bad luck. Hêja’s aim with this title was to highlight how everything in these songs is disrupted and disorderly - holding a mirror onto the lives of Kurdish women who are bound by patriarchal expectations and surrounded by gender norms.
Hêja told me “I had been fighting against the huge state…but then, I was scared of my family - what their reaction would be to me performing” the fear regarding her family is a fear that a lot of Kurdish women have been raised with. A single seed planted into us from childhood, by our parents. During adulthood, fearing our parents morphs into a fear of breaking their heart. The fact that these two things are held in the same regard: fearing our parents’ potentially violent outbursts and being fearful of breaking their hearts is potentially a manifestation of how much emotional baggage some Kurdish women are deemed responsible for.
Hêja’s music bends the traditional into something wonderful. She has the capacity to rap and sing a dêngbej kilam in the same song. Overtime, Hêja has observed that “the manner in which we consume music has changed significantly, it used to be a conscious act where you would call your friends over for the evening, put the cassette in, listen to every lyric with amusement”. Her desire to create modern Kurdish music stems from a love for the language and “to make Kurdish live”. After fleeing to Germany, to escape a longer prison sentence, she became fearful “ for everyone who came here, time froze. During my first year of exile, I was so angry… I was scared, that I too would freeze time, that I would look and behave exactly the same in 20 years time, when the new wave of immigrants come”
Currently, Hêja is juggling multiple projects, she is part of a duo ‘Birds of Babylon’ and in the process of creating her first full album ‘Pistepistek Bilind’ (A loud whisper) which is funded by German Music fund Initiative Musik whilst also producing short films. She is an example of a Kurdish woman who has clawed her way out of a system so determined to silence her.
Check out Hêja’s latest album here: Hêja Netirk's New Music
