Sara Omar

Sara Omar (Kurdish: سارا عومه‌ر‎; born 21 August 1986 in Sulaymaniah, Kurdistan) is a Danish-Kurdish author, human rights activist and poet. She is the first internationally recognized female novelist from Kurdistan. She started out as a poet and has published several critical articles in the Middle Eastern media.

Sara Omar
Native name
سارا عومه‌ر
BornSara Omar
(1986-08-21) 21 August 1986
Sulaymaniyah, Kurdistan
OccupationNovelist, columnist
NationalityKurdish and Danish
CitizenshipDenmark
Period2004 – present
GenreFiction, social realism, poetry, social criticism
Notable worksDead Washer
Notable awards
  • Freedom of Speech Award 2018[1]
  • Reader's Book Award 2018[2]
  • Victor Award 2018[3]
  • Artbeat Award 2018, Danmarks kulturformidlingspris [4]

Omar is originally from Iraqi Kurdistan, but she and her family fled from war in the late 1990s. She has lived in Denmark since 2001. She is a columnist for the Danish magazine Alt for Damerne. Omar's debut novel Dead Washer was published in Denmark on 30 November 2017.[5] Both Omar and her book have been recognised and rewarded with awards and honours in Denmark. The Danish News Paper Jyllands-Posten compared her to Elena Ferrante[6] and the French newspaper Le Monde compared her to Simone de Beauvoir and Voltaire because of her fight for freedom, equality and justice.[7]

Because of the dangers involved with criticising Islam, Omar lives with police protection since 2017.[8]

Early life and education

Sara Omar was born in 1986 in Sulaymaniah in Kurdistan. She grew up during the Iran–Iraq War (1980–1988), which was followed by the first Gulf War. She lived in the town next to Halabja and experienced the biggest gas attack on a civilian population in recent times at close range 16 March 1988.[9][10]

Omar also lived in Kurdistan during the Al-Anfal campaign (the Anfal genocide against the Kurds in the late 1980s). She used this period as the backdrop for her novel Dead Washer.

Early authorship and human rights policy

Omar participated in WEYA in 2012, an international festival for 1000 of the world's most talented young artists from 100 different countries.[11] She fought to have her literary works published in the Middle East, but since she experienced a bidding war between Danish publishers as she pitched her idea in Denmark, she ended up signing with Poltikens Forlag.

Omar is also a script- and songwriter.[12] In spring 2014, she was asked by literature magazine KRITIKER,[13] if she would publish a poem in their magazine number 33, published in November 2014.[13] She accepted, and contributed with a poem dedicated to her mother (the poem holds the title The River of Pain that Continues Its Walk). In the poem she describes a mother, a female figure, a shadow that reflects most of the women in the patriarchal and paternalistic society, she depicts through her literature. She is the first female Kurdish novelist to publicly break free from cultural norms and expressing the most tabooed subjects; A woman’s genitals, which holds the honour of an entire family. A woman being stoned, whipped and sent to hell because she’s a woman:

"My mother was female

she possessed a different kind of genitals between her legs (...) her's was created for the enjoyment of the men but to the suffering of herself (...) My mother was a guest (..) in her own existence – she had begun to learn the language of the bricks She had become one with the sarcastic sounds of the whip, She had begun to believe that happiness should be derived from fire,

from war – from the outbreak of flames. "

— Sara Omar. The River of Pain that Continues Its Walk. KRITIKER.

In 2016 Danish PEN published the anthology "Ord på flugt" with poems by Omar and other prominent authors and journalists. These authors all share their individual experiences with fleeing from war-ravaged countries.[14] Her poem "The Silence of Childhood" received the following review:

"... the self in flight and the inner torture chamber that the experience brings. The poem is written in a compact imagery and expresses anxiety, insecurity and a fragile sense of the surroundings."

— Louise Rosengreen (2017). Sara Omar. Forfatterweb.dk

Omar has performed poetry readings in the Danish parliament building, Christiansborg Palace, and the National Gallery of Denmark on several occasions. She is also part of the expert committee as expert adviser and co-organizer in Expert Advisory at Arts & Conference.[15]

Bibliography

Magazines, newspapers and debates
  • Den konfliktfyldte unge i et samfund, der er ligeglad. The Voices. 2006.

Literature
  • The poem Floden af smerte, der fortsætter sin vandring, from the Swedish anthology "Ett inskränkt öde och ett besinningslöst". KRITIKER. 2014. No. 33. ISBN 978-91-87605-10-9.
  • The poem Barndommens tavshed from the anthology "Ord på flugt". Dansk PEN. 2016. ISBN 978-87-98981-29-9
  • Dødevaskeren. Politikens Forlag. 2017. ISBN 978-87-400-2697-9

References
  1. Gladsaxe Bladet (24 April 2018). "Omstridt forfatter får ytringsfrihedspris". Gladsaxe Bladet.
  2. Danmarks Biblioteksforening (12 April 2018). "Sara Omar vinder Læsernes Bogpris 2018". Danmarks Biblioteksforening.
  3. Poul Madsen (11 February 2018). "Årets Victor til Sara Omar". Ekstrabladet.
  4. Have Kommunikation (22 March 2018). "Artbeat Prisen 2018 går til Historien om Danmark". Mynewsdesk.dk.
  5. Peter Nielsen (30 November 2017). "Først Yahya Hassan, nu Sara Omar". Information.
  6. "Dansk litteratur har fået en ny og tiltrængt stemme: Sara Omars debutroman er rystende læsning". Retrieved 26 April 2018.
  7. "" La laveuse de morts ", le best-seller qui passionne les Danois". Le Monde.fr (in French). Retrieved 26 April 2018.
  8. "Hædret succesforfatter lever under politibeskyttelse - TV 2". nyheder.tv2.dk (in Danish). 27 November 2019. Retrieved 23 July 2020.
  9. Sara Omar (2017). Death Washer. Chapter 23, page 159.
  10. Sara Omar (2017). Dødevaskeren. Politikens Forlag. Kapitel 20.
  11. Reuters (2012). African musician gives voice to Kurdish poet’s performance. Al Arabiya News
  12. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MI9xQXZvXCA
  13. "Tidskrift.nu: Kritiker". tidskrift.nu. Retrieved 25 March 2020.
  14. Dansk PEN (2016). Ny Dansk PEN antologi ORD PÅ FLUGT. danskpen.dk
  15. Sara Thetmark (2015). ”Samtidskunsten er en fiktion”. Kopenhagen.dk
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