Justice and Documentation Statement

Oral History Project of the Mothers of Kurdistan

We, the compilers, researchers, and collaborators of the Oral History Project of the Mothers of Kurdistan, testify that after decades of organized violence, systemic repression, and gross human rights violations in Kurdistan, women have risen who, beyond their personal grief, have transformed their voices into a collective force for truth-seeking, justice, and resistance.

This project is not only an effort to record and preserve their testimonies—it is also a deliberate, documented act of resistance against the erasure and distortion of the history of Kurdistan's justice-seeking mothers.

The Mothers of Kurdistan are women who have lost children, spouses, brothers, or other family members to political repression, extrajudicial executions, or targeted killings by the Islamic Republic of Iran. Through steadfastness and testimony, they have preserved the memory of their loved ones and resisted both forgetfulness and historical distortion.

Our Objectives

• Document, preserve, and safeguard the oral histories of Kurdistan's justice-seeking mothers as part of the collective memory of the Kurdish people;
• Expose hidden and untold dimensions of state crimes, ethnic repression, and gender-based violence in Iran;
• Provide credible resources for researchers, human rights organizations, and future transitional justice courts.

Ethical and Legal Principles

The project is conducted according to strict ethical and legal principles:

• All interviews are conducted with the informed consent of the narrators;
• The privacy and dignity of the narrators are fully respected at all stages;
• No testimony or document is published without coordination with the families and survivors;
• All collected materials—including photographs, letters, audio recordings, and handwritten notes—are preserved with utmost care in a secure, encrypted archive.