Zarya Azadi is an entrepreneur, an activist for women’s rights, and an international Yazidi-Kurdish model. She is involved in the Spanish-based NGO, “Mundo Cooperante” for women in Kenya and Tanzania against female genital mutilation (FGM). As a model for the hugely popular House of iKons, she is pairing fashion with women’s rights. She launched her new campaign, “Evolve Your Heritage” at the last House of iKons Fashion Show in February 2020 to represent and support women’s equality and trying to form a new foundation to help others. At the show she sponsored Maasai bracelets and gave them out to the guests along with flyers about the heinous atrocities of female genital mutilation.
You did something controversial when you were younger. You were born in the Kurdish region of Turkey in Diyarbakir and during the civil war in Turkey your family fled to Germany as refugees in 1990. Tell us about your bold move.
I belong to an ethnic and religious minority group; I am Yazidi Kurd and immigrated to Germany with my family at the age of three as a war child. I am the first woman in my family and my entire community that decided to leave the parents’ house and to study abroad. This was very controversial at the time and still is, as the Yazidi community remains very traditional due to the terrible history of the survived genocides. After many months of debates and arguments, I convinced my parents to pursue my journey. With the love of my parents but no financial support, I moved to Oxford in England and successfully completed my Bachelor’s Degree at Oxford Brookes University in 2013. During my studies, I was working several jobs to support myself and also working as a catwalk and fashion model. Financial independence had been very important to me as a young person, just as it seemed very important to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Harry & Megan as a reason to withdraw from the royal family. I can understand this decision very well because I made this decision when I moved to England in 2008. What is making headlines since January this year and harsh criticism about the young royal couple was also with me in my community, as it had never been there before. It was unthinkable to make and implement such decisions. When I wanted to study in England at the age of 20 years, it was very difficult for my parents to accept this. Before me, no other Yazidi girl had dared to take a step that my parents could use as an example, so my parents needed time to accept it. In my day it was unthinkable for a young, unmarried daughter to go abroad alone because it was not only about the safety of the daughter but also the reputation and the honor of the family.
I have definitely created new opportunities for others from my community with this path and my career. It is always difficult for those who are first to try something new. The path is then paved for the new generation of women and considerably easier. I am happy I could pave the way even if it meant that I had to endure sacrifices.
Today I am an international Yazidi-Kurdish model, human rights activist, and entrepreneur and business women.
Share your experience as a fashion model and the relationships you have built.
I started modeling at the age of 17 in Germany by participating in the Miss Germany competition but didn’t make the first round which shouldn’t have come as a shock as there has never been a German girl of color representing Germany. This too is a form of racism in my opinion and should be addressed during the recent anti-racism demonstrations worldwide caused by the brutal death of George Floyd.
At the age of 20, I met my best friend and fashion designer Angel Sadel at the Oxford Brookes Fashion Show and became her muse for her fashion collection. I was told I had an exotic and unique look and therefore was walking for many multicultural fashion shows e.g. Alternative Hair Show at the Royal Albert Hall in London, Ethiopian Fashion Show ‘Habesha’, Pakistani Fashion Week, UNICEF Fashion Show and the South African Fashion Show all in London. I was also walking the catwalks at the Fashion Weeks in London, Los Angeles, Berlin, Milan, and Paris. At the beginning of my career, I also participated in various competitions e.g. Miss Oxford, Top Model Worldwide, and Top Model UK. I was also invited to the World Fashion Week 2014 Reception & Jimmy Choo Lifetime Achievement Award in Paris. It was the launch of the World Fashion Week by Jimmy Choo. I attended the event together with my designer friend Tina Lobondi, a Congolese fashion designer based in Paris and London who is one of the Co-founders of the new ESIMBI Magazine.
In 2014, I took a break from the fashion industry due to the genocides on the Yazidi community in Sinjar in Iraq caused by ISIS. A few years later I was contacted by my Yazidi community’s non-profit association to support them with their work. I was happy to help to raise awareness for humanitarian work such as women’s rights and education for children.
I continued with the modeling and have reconnected with some old friends from the industry and designer friends like Odair Pereira- fashion designer of Dair Designs, Mary Katrisiosi – jewelry designer of Tigerbite Jewels, Carolina Riffi Ollite- handbag designer of Carat23 and Savita Kaye form the House of iKons Fashion Show in London. I have been collaborating several times over the years and I am planning to continue for this and next year for upcoming projects.
“I want the world to see our beautiful culture but also highlight issues inside and outside our communities and the best way for me doing it is through art in forms of fashion and music.”
Tell us about your initiatives to change the world including #EvolveYourHeritage and #RedRibbon
I have launched my new campaign ‘’Evolve Your Heritage’’ at the last House of iKons Fashion Show in February 2020 to represent and support women’s equality and trying to form a new foundation to help others. For the last 12 years, I have been active as a human rights activist, never afraid of speaking my mind and supporting others in need.
There are more conversations regarding women’s rights that have not been discussed by the public yet. Uncomfortable topics which are considered to be taboos within many cultures around the world. I have been speaking about them in my community for many years and I am now ready to be more public about it with my new campaign ‘’Evolve Your Heritage’’ and the ‘’Red Ribbon’’ photo shoot to highlight and visualize women’s oppression today. The Red Ribbon symbolizes the virginity of a woman at the wedding ceremony and has to be worn around her waist to be shown to the community. Now we all know how humiliating this must be, especially if a woman doesn’t bleed in her honeymoon for whatever reason. That’s when it is considered that the family’s honor has been damaged. The honor of a family needs to be re-defined in the 21st century in my opinion. Therefore, my plea to ‘’Evolve Your Heritage’’ to maintain your culture but change ancient traditions for the sake of humanity. Today, I am an ambassador and collaborating partner with the NGO Mundo Cooperante from Spain who fight against Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in Kenya and Tanzania. I have connected with Mundo Cooperate as FGM is also practiced in the Muslim Kurdish community in Iraq.
I represented the organization at the House of iKons Fashion Show in February 2020 at my stand in the exhibition showroom. I purchased 200 Maasai Bracelts against FGM from Mundo Cooperante and cooperated them in my campaign ‘’Evolve Your Heritage’’ and ‘’Red Ribbon’’ to raise awareness against child marriage, forced marriage, women oppression, humiliation of proof of their virginity, domestic violence and female genital mutilation (FGM). As a sponsor of the House of iKons February’s Show this year, I filled the goody bags with my own Red Ribbon Pins, the Maasai Bracelets, and Flyers about the campaign and the organization. I am the first international Yazidi Kurd to run the catwalk at the House of iKons and am dedicated in supporting other Kurdish and Yazidi artists to achieve the same.
What do you want the world to know about your rich culture and heritage?
Being home with the family and spending more time within my own community has made me realize how colorful and rich my culture and heritage is. I fell in love again with my own culture. I personally am from a very artistic family. Music was a huge part in my household, my father being a popular folk singer and my uncle and cousins being famous pop-singer in the community. I’ve inherited my father’s vocals but didn’t pursue my dream of singing and took my father’s advice in studying a more secure profession and graduated in BSc Real Estate Management as the first Yazidi woman at Oxford Brookes University in England, UK. Within my own family and relatives, there are talented painters, writers, tailors, singers, musicians, photographers, and many more who fill the community and its culture with rich art.
Our food, music, traditional clothes, language, and script is my identity – my footprint. All these years I suffered from an identity crisis and after a few years of making an effort by spending quality time with my family and community to understand more, I have realized I have to be more active to show the world this colorful, rich and artistic side of us. There is more to us than a warzone. However, being disenfranchised from our homeland for so many years has slowed down our process in evolving in some of our ancient traditions. I believe we are in need of some reformation living in a modern western world. I do understand the fear of losing our identity as Yazidi Kurds but I believe adjusting is more beneficial and a better way of advancement than the current situations we are facing. We are facing an ethnical cleansing by the terror group ISIS who have been released again due to the betrayal of President Trump on the Kurdish troops in Syria last year. Allowing Turkey to attack the Kurds – former allies of America, was the biggest scandal and betrayal. This is the reason I have joined a few NGO’s to not only support our Yazidi community but also all Kurdish communities in Germany to unite and simultaneously to support fighting for women equality within our own communities. Without equality for us women in our community, it is very difficult to fight for an independent country. As Nelson Mandela once said: ‘’Freedom cannot be achieved unless the women have been emancipated from all forms of oppression.’’
We are the largest nation on this planet without a country. We need to evolve our heritage if we want to see progress and establish human rights within our own communities first and for everyone – for women, the LGBTQ community, and atheists. We Kurds also need to unite as a nation regardless of our different religious backgrounds.
I want the world to see our beautiful culture but also highlight issues inside and outside our communities and the best way for me doing it is through art in forms of fashion and music.
What would people be surprised to know about you?
That I am a Yazidi Kurd (laugh). I have heard the phrase ‘I’ve never met a Yazidi Kurd before.’’ and ‘’You are so different than the rest,” so many times in my life. People describe me as a very open-minded person and being from a culture like mine does surprise a lot of people. I have definitely broken a lot of stereotypes by simply being me. All my life I have been told to integrate into the western society which I believe I did well but never agreed to assimilate. I have never abandoned my culture completely and always kept in touch with my family and relatives during my stay in the UK. I have tried to educate them by introducing them to other cultures. I’ve given parties and BBQs inviting everyone I knew including my family when they visited. I loved the exchange of different people and culture my entire life. My mom also told me that I liked to decorate my room with posters and sculptures from other cultures. That is maybe one of the reasons why I love traveling so much.
I believe the sacrifices, the struggles, and the fights that I had to fight on many fronts at the same time to live a simple modern life is a surprise because not many women survive that. The fact that I have never given up on my family and community despite the conflicts and no support that I was facing, does surprise a lot of people. Most women usually run away or elope. I did not do that. I understood my parents’ struggle and their point of view and why they have the mind-set, most of it is caused by the wars and genocides my ancestors were suffering. So I tried to educate them and show them a different way of living by being the example.
I openly speak about the issues that affected me in my life and that are currently in the news. I speak about mental health issues, sexual abuse, domestic violence, rape, racism, discrimination, and politics. However, people experience me as a very funny person; I laugh a lot and joke around, sing and dance. If you meet me for the first time, you probably never assume my life story nor that I am a Yazidi Kurd. Most people identify me as a mixed-raced person (a mix of Middle Eastern and African usually) before I tell them about my cultural background.
Another thing most people are surprised to hear about me is that I have never traveled to Turkey, nor do I speak Turkish. The Turkish and Kurdish conflict is the reason I have never visited my homeland and it is still difficult today.
Through your tireless effort to raise awareness for women’s rights and education for children, what has struck you the most?
What has struck me the most? This is a deep question and the answer will speak volumes. That women don’t support each other enough!
Women do not support each other in difficult times, even though they suffer from oppression, and knowing their daughters will suffer the same. Speaking from my personal experience but also observing issues of friends and relatives with their families has shown that the majority of the problem in a community is the community itself. Let me explain.
Most families share a lot of love and care for one another; however, their lives are mainly directed towards the expectations and standards of the community that is out-dated. What other people think of the family is more important and relevant than the acknowledgment of their own children’s talents, abilities, dreams, and desires. No compromises are made to preserve the family’s reputation which leads to conflicts within the family. And a lot of women tolerate the abuse and oppression, yes; even some of them believe it is right. They will not help and support you to gain more freedom than them. Equal rights are irrelevant to them as they tolerate their lives according to the community. And jealousy between women has been an issue from the beginning of time.
The issues that I have been trying to raise awareness all these years within my own community have been very clear even before my time. So why has there not been any change yet, right?
Well, that is simply because the women before me tolerated the traditions and did not fight for equal rights. Why? Because it would have damaged their own and their family’s reputation to fight for women’s equality. Many associate equality only with the freedom to live out their sexuality. So it is shameful to even ask for gender equality. And this is also comparable to very similar communities that I grow up with e.g. with my Pakistani/ Indian/ Arab/ Chinese/ African friends with different religious backgrounds e.g. Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism. It takes a lot of courage and strength to fight for equality, especially when you do not have a lot of followers. Just take the Black Lives Matter Movement as an example. Only now after so many years of protests, the entire world is now marching on the streets against racism. So it is important to make friends in other communities that suffer from the same issues to get together and raise awareness together. Finding a network that supports you and your views should be the first step to set an example. Even if it means that you are the first and only one in your family or community. Don’t let other people’s opinions diminish your own views.
Share some of your passions
I have so many passions and interests in life, it’s really exhausting sometimes (laughs). Last year the journalist and economist Ms. Çiğdem Gül first identified me through her Intercultural Network for the Highly Gifted network as a highly intelligent person who tends to have multiple passions and interests. For the first time, I felt being in a society that was encouraging, supporting, and understanding (laughs). On the one hand, I have always campaigned for equality, starting with my own life situation. I also campaigned for the equality of my friends with their ethnic minority backgrounds. During my studies, many of my friends recommended that I study human rights law. Sometimes I regret not having done it. But then I look at the governments and the system we all live in and question myself if it is all in favor of the people. One of my greatest passions is to fight the good fight and that is human rights, so activism is a good alternative. But I am also passionate about art and love to dance, sing, be creative, and design passionately. During my studies, I was also famous for connecting people because I was mingling with so many different people from different ethnical backgrounds. So it was justified when my friends demanded BBQs at my house (laughs). I am definitely a globetrotter and always been someone with an inquisitive mind. I am very passionate about dancing Salsa and Bachata but also love to dance the Kurdish folklore dances. I love listening to Latin, African, Middle Eastern and Asian music and of course R’n’B, Soul and Reggae. I am a colourful mixture of different cultures because this has interested and fascinated me since childhood. Therefore fashion and art comes in very handy to express myself.
Thank you for leaving a footprint on the world. What will your legacy be?
That I always have and still am engaged in activism related to the issues of human rights. I hope that I can reach the masses to raise awareness on this particular issue as women are suffering from cultural oppressions worldwide and it usually starts by controlling and testing women’s virginity. I want to promote justice, equality and human rights of women in conflict-affected areas around the world.
I am trying my best to make Evolve Your Heritage a movement that people support because with this movement I would like to emphasize the oppression of women, the LGBTQ community and against racism, freedom of speech and religious freedom. I would like my legacy to be of someone who celebrates the differences of human kind. I believe that this makes us more interesting, especially when realising and discovering that we have so much in common.
Please share your upcoming projects for 2020.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic that has affected the entire world; I have decided to postpone some of my projects to next year. With my campaign Evolve Your Heritage and the Red Ribbon I am still focusing to publish more images in different magazines to raise awareness on the issue this year. I am still collaborating with the NGO Mundo Cooperante and will continue the work as much as possible this year. My trip to Spain to do a photo shoot with Mundo Cooperante as well as my plans to travel to Kenya to meet the Maasai Tribe and the women who make the Maasai Bracelets had to be postponed.
I am also a member of the CDU Women’s Union of, who put me up for election as the chairman of the board and spokeswoman for the Women’s Union in my local authority. We have already spoken about projects that focus on the integration of women with migrant background to not only integrate within the society and get the support and help they need, but also to help maintain their heritage and identity. Due to the refugee crisis in 2015 the local authorities are in need of support, especially from people of color. I am also planning to launch my fashion collection as a mix of modern and traditional clothing representing women’s equality for the September’s House of iKons Fashion Show in London in 2021.
