Farzad Kamangar, the Kurdish language activist and teacher, was born in 1976 in the village of Afriyan in Kamyaran. Kamyaran is located between Sna (Sanandaj) and Kermashan. Their family had previously lived in the village of Afriyan, but with the start of the Iranian People's Revolution, the village was evacuated due to pressure from the regime. Farzad was the fourth child of five brothers and sisters. With the beginning of the Iranian People's Revolution, the pressure and oppression on the Kurdish people increased and the regime's policies had an impact on the region. The fighting between the Kurdistan Peshmerga forces and the regime had spread throughout Kurdistan. Farzad's acquaintance with the world and his childhood was mixed with war, the sound of cannons and guns, the massacre, and the migration of the Kurdish people.
He attended primary and secondary school in Kamyaran when the Halabja massacre happened and their father was exposed to chemicals due to his work on the border and died several months later. After his father's death, the costs of living fall on 12-year-old Farzad. He had to do jobs like labor, selling fruits, etc. After completing ninth grade, he began studying teaching education. After completing his teaching course, he was not awarded a teaching certificate because of his different ideas and was accepted as a teacher two years later.
Despite being a teacher in the villages, Farzad continues his studies at the Teachers' University. He loved children very much, especially Kurdish children who were deprived of all their rights to life, nationality, and childhood. He worked as a teacher in the villages of Kamyaran for about four years. Farzad Kamangar said, “Let my heart beat in the children's chests”.
He was pressured by the Iranian regime for his activities and was often summoned by the Teachers' Education Department.
Farzad's work continued in prison, such as opening a library of 2500 books in Rajaei-Shahr Prison.
On April 29, 2010, Kurdish teachers Farzad Kamangar, Farhad Vakili, Ali Haidarian, Shirin Alam Huli, and Mahdi Eslamian were executed in Evin Prison in Tehran.
Farzad Kamangar, a teacher who devoted his heart and mind to educating children, was executed only because he was a Kurd. Before his execution, he wrote a letter saying:
“Because we are Kurds, we are hanged. Our people everywhere must know this. They wanted to take away the light from my mind with the darkness of prison, but I saw a flower grows even in darkness and silence. Let them speak any language they want, let my heart beat in someone else’s chest. My only demand is that it becomes a living working child fighting against inequality. Let my heart beat somewhere in this endless world. Just be careful, because that person’s heart is full of untold stories of the people of a country suffering from history. Let my heart beat in a child's chest, to shout in my mother tongue - Kurdish. In this endless world, I want to be a wind and carry the message of love to all humanity."
Today, we see that there are many teachers and activists like Farzad Kamangar who are fighting for their mother tongue either with their pens or with their voices. Even now, we see that the Kurdish invaders continue to put pressure on Kurdish language activists.
