Jemal Nebez Award

Jemal Nebez Award Commission

Affiliate of Jemal Nebez Foundation, Berlin – Germany

On the Commisson’s decision concerning the 2023 Jemal Nebez Award

The Commission has deliberated their decision and in full consensus agreed that Ms Zara Mohammadi residing in Sine (Sanandaj) is to receive the Jemal Nebez Award of the year 2023.

Our decision was reached independently. It was then confirmed jointly by the Executive Board and the Advisory Board of the Jemal Nebez Foundation.

At this time the following statement from the award commission may suffice regarding the Foundation’s first such award:

The Jemal Nebez Award Commission, affiliated with the Jemal Nebez Foundation in Berlin, has selected Ms Zara Mohammadi as the recipient of the first Jemal Nebez Prize in recognition of her tireless and voluntary efforts for teaching Kurdish language, defending her fellow Kurds’ fundamental right to their mother tongue, and standing courageously against the denial of the Kurdish identity. Zara, along with her colleagues in Nojîn (Nozhin), a Non-Governmental Organization, has persevered in her path for years despite the difficult circumstances in Rojhelat, where her language and identity continue to be criminalised.

Despite facing severe threats, unjust sentences and imprisonment, Zara has bravely spoken out against these language and identity injustices by raising awareness among people inside as well as outside Kurdistan. Her endeavours have had a significant impact and have made her a symbol of inspiration for many youths and women. Therefore, the Jemal Nebez Award Commission is pleased and honoured to present the award to Zara Mohammadi.

Further details regarding the award presentation will be provided on the Foundation's website at a later date.

Haci Akman
Professor
Dept. of Archaeology, History, Cultural Studies and Religion,
University of Bergen
Norway
On Behalf of The Jemal Nebez Award Commission (Berlin, Germany)
March 21, 2023

The Jemal Nebez Awardees will be outstanding in their own way

In the following we provide some details on Jemal's background and personality through which he wa able to create his legacy work.

Jemal Nebez was a very thorough and multidisciplinary thinker. He applied the approach he developed - guided by moral and scientific principles - in all spheres of his life.

His first intellectual love was for the natural sciences. At college, he chose the teaching profession for high schools and the subjects of physics and mathematics.

In the years before, his versatile talents had already become evident. His father had him taught several languages as a child, and as an adolescent, he began to write his own texts.

As years went by, he proved his extraordinary abilities in many fields. He was able to recognize linguistic connections, enrich the science of history, and investigate the causes of the disadvantages of his people in a lifelong and incorruptible way and expose several of them.

As a scientist and knowledge-based character, he was considered a human capital who was well-known for his trustworthiness and wise judgment in social and political arenas.

All this together, not least the fact that Jemal Nebez was a Kurd and consciously identified himself as such in all situations in life, made him a towring thinker and an exceptional personality.

The Jemal Nebez Awardees - and their achievements - will be outstanding in their own way.

Awarding the Jemal Nebez Prize to individuals, groups, or projects

The standardized fields in which the Jemal Nebez Science Prize can be awarded are extensive, namely politics, law, history, linguistics, art, literature, music, mathematics, medicine, and natural science.

The Jemal Nebez Science Prize can be awarded to individuals worthy of distinction as well as to groups or projects.

Biennial Award

Ideally, the prize should be awarded every two years.

Our solution for the search for and selection of candidates

Upon a suggestion from the Advisory Board, in February 2022, the Executive Board submitted an inquiry to the authorities as to whether our outsourcing the identification of suitable candidates for the Jemal Nebez Award and having them shortlisted for us was acceptable. We were informed that there were no objections under foundation law to this procedure. In March 2022, we commissioned Sirwan Renas (from Rojhelat or Eastern Kurdistan, who currently lives in the USA) to form a multi-member commission, which he succeeded in doing, and as its organizer he continues to act, also beyond the 2023 award realization.