On January 10, the second Zara Award ceremony was held by the Kurdshop Organization in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, with the participation of writers, intellectuals, and political figures from all parts of Kurdistan. The award was presented to Ms. Amina Amar, a well-known writer and translator from the West part of Kurdistan. The award was announced last year after the arrest and imprisonment of Zara Mohammadi, a Kurdish language teacher from Sna (Sanandaj), East part of Kurdistan, was presented for the first time to the Vejin Cultural and Art Center of Mariwan in the East part of Kurdistan for her efforts to insist on the rights of the Kurdish language. The award will be presented annually to a Kurdish individual or center in all parts of Kurdistan that has significantly and effectively served the Kurdish language and culture.

I wrote this introduction to this award to create the context to discuss some important comments on this award and the atmosphere of this ceremony this year, as well as to present an important topic, called the struggle for identity.

I prefer to start at the very beginning of the ceremony. Since I attended the ceremony (before the ceremony began), I analyzed and considered many dimensions in detail. What showed the importance of the ceremony and its award from the very beginning was the participation of several prominent academic, literary, intellectual, and political figures from all parts of Kurdistan. In other words, a nice balance was maintained between all parts of Kurdistan, which showed that the ceremony was not restricted to one part of Kurdistan and Kurdshop operates with a national mindset and in a broader context, and presenting the award to a personality from West part of Kurdistan proves this. The participation of personalities from all over Great Kurdistan in this ceremony tells us that Kurdshop wants to create a national atmosphere that brings Kurdish personalities from all parts of Kurdistan closer together and reminds us that our struggle for Kurdish identity is the same struggle and purpose.

The ceremony began in a hall designed with the Kurdistan flag with the national anthem "Ay Raqib" and a moment of silence to pay tribute to the souls of the martyrs of the Kurdish and Kurdistan liberation movements. The flag and the national anthem are two national symbols of any nation and country that are considered an important part of the identity of any nation and country. The same is true for Kurds, but in a situation where your land has been occupied and the attempts to occupy your mind and thoughts by the invaders continue intensively, respecting your national symbols is an insistence on your identity.

Walat Qaderi, President of Kurdshop, delivered a speech at the ceremony. Although some very important points were mentioned and pointed out in that speech, I will mention a couple of points here as appropriate. In his speech, he extensively discussed the discourse of Kurdishness and being Kurdish, the importance of the Kurdish language, literature, and culture, and the goals of the Kurdshop Organization, as well as the goals and objectives of the Zara Award. Overall, it was a completely Kurdish speech and emphasized one by one the points that we must keep in mind in the struggle for our identity. For instance, speaking, reading, and writing in our mother tongue in all aspects of our lives; continuous and insistent work on our language and the publication of texts and books in Kurdish to further enrich our language; choosing nice Kurdish names for our children; ownership of Kurdish culture, literature, and anything related to the Kurdish environment, etc. Each of these deals with a dimension of the struggle for our identity (the text of the speech is available on the Kurdshop website).

During the ceremony, an infographic on Kurdshop's activities in the past two years was published. This infographic well showed the breadth and nationality of the activities of this organization, each of which is very important and worthy of respect and appreciation. For lack of time, I will only briefly mention the Zara Award. In the introduction of this article, I mentioned this award and the idea of it.

In my opinion, the Zara Award is one of the most important awards presented in Kurdistan. The Zara Award is not only about owning a Kurdish language teacher who has been sentenced to prison but also about supporting all Kurdish language teachers, especially those who teach Kurdish in different situations (such as Ms. Zara Mohammadi). This award is an emphasis on the right to read and write in our mother tongue in all parts of Kurdistan and an emphasis on the rights that have been deprived of us by the invaders of Kurdistan. The Zara Award is another side of our struggle for identity.

Another of the most important effects of such awards and ceremonies is the development of Kurdish thought, national consciousness, and identity thought. The echo of this point in the media and social media will certainly attract the attention of people in general and youth in particular to the issue of the Kurdish language and the issue of Kurdistan. This in itself further bold the line between us and the other and is a shock to awaken people who are suffering from national alienation. This will greatly contribute to the further development of our language and this will strengthen us in the struggle I mentioned (the struggle for identity).

Then the ceremony continued with several pieces of Kurdish music and songs by two artists from the West part of Kurdistan, "Nurshin and Parwin" which gave a special artistic atmosphere to the ceremony. In the following parts of the ceremony, the report of the jury was read out and the name of this year's winner of the Zara Award was announced (this speech is also available on the Kurdshop website). Afterward, the Zara Award was presented to Khalid Jamil Mohammed as the representative of Ms. Amina Amar, and a professionally prepared video on the life and works of Ms. Amina Amar was shown. All these sections were conducted very well and ethically, each of which is worthy of mention and appreciation. In other words, there have been so many strengths that there is no way of criticism.

The attraction of this ceremony continued until the end of the ceremony and in the final part of the ceremony, the participants were surprised by the video message of Zara Mohammadi who sent to the ceremony. Although Ms. Zara is going through a special situation and her husband (Mr. Saywan Ibrahimi, a language rights activist) has been sentenced to 10 years in prison by the occupying Iranian regime, she conveyed her message with great courage. This film is available as the text of the speeches on the Kurdshop website.

In conclusion, I hope that we will see such struggles in this struggle for our existence and identity because our struggle is a struggle for identity, a struggle for being and existence.