Ayşe Şan

Ayşe Şan (1938-1996), born in Amed, is the legendary female voice of twentieth-century Kurmancî song. She sang publicly at a time when this cost a woman her family and her name; disowned and later exiled, she paid for every song. Her recordings, from radio performances to laments that seem sung directly from her own life, made her the female counterpart of the great male voices of her era, and her story: talent, exile, loneliness and posthumous glory, has become part of Kurdish cultural memory. Streets, awards and festivals now carry the name she was once punished for using.