Honoring the Legacy of Journalist Wrya Hamekareem
In a significant cultural milestone, the Dakok Support Center, in collaboration with the Mawlawi Cultural Centre, is proud to host the First Kurdish Book Fair in the United Kingdom, taking place in Manchester. This inaugural event is dedicated to the memory of the esteemed Kurdish journalist Wrya Hamekareem, commemorating his enduring contributions to Kurdish media, identity, and linguistic freedom.
The fair is designed as a vibrant space to nurture a reading culture among the Kurdish community and to celebrate the richness of Kurdish-language literature. Through this initiative, Dakok aims to deepen the community’s connection to their mother tongue and strengthen cultural identity among diaspora populations. The event showcases a wide variety of Kurdish books—including fiction, nonfiction, poetry, children’s literature, and academic texts—offered at symbolic prices to ensure accessibility for all.
The fair is envisioned not only as a standalone event but also as the first step toward establishing an annual Kurdish Book Fair across the UK. Its success in Manchester is intended to serve as a launching point for expanding similar initiatives to other British cities. Moreover, the event brings together writers, readers, and youth in a shared intellectual and cultural experience that encourages lifelong engagement with literature. It also serves as a strategic platform to advocate for the inclusion of Kurdish-language collections in public libraries across the UK, helping to ensure visibility and access to Kurdish literary heritage for future generations. In doing so, the event aspires to turn reading culture into a permanent feature of community life and a marker of educational progress.