NİMET ÖLMEZ

Wan- Although dengbêj (Kurdish storytellers), known as the common memory and conscience of the Kurdish society is thought to be men’s job, there are important women dengbêj having left their mark in history. In the historical heritage, the Kurdish women have kept the culture of dengbêj in order to share their own pain, sorrow, love, and longing with people by using their voices. Meryem Tuncer is one of these women.

“The culture of Dengbêj should be appreciated”

Dengbej Meryem, who sang her first song in Women's Dengbej House founded by Dengbej Gazin in Van province, says that migration always exists in her life. She has written and sung songs about the politician Hevrin Halef who was killed in Rojava, her never-ending seasons in her village located in the foothills of the mountains, and how the soldiers tortured her father and the traces of the torture on her father’s body and how her mother was put behind bars. Dengbej Meryem attracts attention with her local clothes, colorful scarf and always smiling face whenever she attends an event in the city. Meryem, who considers speaking Kurdish as a part of being dengbej, always speaks Kurdish. She does not want her value to be appreciated later, just like Dengbej Gazin, who died on August 22, 2018. “I want young people to experience our culture, the culture of Dengbej can be appreciated only in this way,” says Meryem.

“I wrote for those who I lost”

Meryem was forcibly displaced from a village of Şırnak province to first Cizre district of Şırnak, then to Adana province and at the end to Van province. Meryem, who lost her father when she was a child, sings songs about her father, sister, and village. “Ez dengbêj nînim ez dert bejim (I am not a storyteller, I am a painteller)” Meryem keeps her never-ending passion for art by thinking of Ayşe Şan, Meryem Xan, and Dengbêj Gazin.

Meryem Tuncer, married to her father's cousin at the age of 14, has written dozens of songs for her sister named Sultan, who lost her life in the struggle for freedom and still has no grave, for her father, who died when she was a child and for her mother was arrested in Adana while in exile. “We had a relative dengbej named Salih in our village when I was a child. He sang songs by gathering everyone around him during long winter nights. So I begged my mom to go and listen to him. My journey began like that,” says Meryem.

She grew up listening to Ayşe Şan

“That time, there was no internet, TV or radio, everything about art was listening to fairy tales, songs, and dengbejs for us. We just had a    cassette player and I listened to Ayşe Şan’s cassettes.”

Talking about her journey of being dengbej, Meryem says, “Meeting with Gazin was an important milestone in my life. I met her in 2008. We visited a peace tent set up in Van, when the woman standing next to me told Gazin about the beauty of my voice, all people in the room immediately looked at me. Gazin asked me to register at Dengêj house. Then, I went to the Dengêj house founded by Gazin with my husband’s brother and registered. Every woman who trusts herself and her voice should embrace this culture. Our voice shouldn’t be disappeared. We are the women who can turn our pain inside into art.”