Swedish Journalist Elin Clason Dies After Decades of Work on Kurdish Literature

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Swedish journalist, writer and translator Elin Clason.

Swedish journalist, writer and translator Elin Clason has died aged 89 in Stockholm, leaving behind decades of work documenting Kurdish history, culture and the experiences of Kurds in the Middle East and Sweden.

Born in 1937, Clason became closely associated with Kurdish literature and the Kurdish community in Sweden from the 1970s onwards. She worked extensively with the late Kurdish writer and journalist Mahmut Baksi, with whom she shared a long-standing personal and literary partnership.

Clason's work helped bring Kurdish issues to Swedish audiences. During the 1970s, she published reports and articles on Kurdish affairs in Swedish newspapers, including Ny Dag and Dagens Nyheter. Her work included a 1978 article titled Forgotten Kurdistan, while later reporting covered the Kurdish struggle and developments in the region. She also worked with Baksi on the documentary Kine Em.

One of Clason and Baksi's most notable joint works was Kurdistan: Om förtryck och befrielsekamp (Kurdistan: On Oppression and the Struggle for Liberation), published in Stockholm in 1979. The 263-page Swedish-language book examined the history and situation of the Kurdish people, including developments in Turkish, Iranian and Iraqi Kurdistan and the experiences of Kurdish and Kurdish-speaking Assyrian communities in Sweden. Library records list Clason and Baksi as its authors.

Clason also left behind a valuable photographic record of Kurdish life. Between 1980 and 1985, she photographed Kurdish communities in different towns and villages in Syria, documenting streets, families, children, workers, buildings and markets. A collection of 34 of her photographs is held in the archives of the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom.

Her research and writing on Kurdish affairs continued into the 1980s. In 1986, she published Kurder i Mellersta Östern och i exilen (Kurds in the Middle East and in Exile), a work focusing on the situation of Kurds in the region and in exile. The publication is listed in Swedish and Kurdish literary catalogues.

Clason also played an important role in bringing Baksi's literary works to Swedish readers. She produced the Swedish adaptation of Hasan Aga, published in 1979, and worked on Zozan – en kurdisk flicka (Zozan – A Kurdish Girl), for which she provided the Swedish adaptation and photography. The latter was subsequently published in Kurdish as Keça kurd Zozan, with Clason's photographs.

Her collaboration with Baksi extended to other works, including Hana: en syriansk flicka i Södertälje, published in 1981. Her work therefore encompassed not only Kurdish political and historical issues but also the experiences of children, families, migration and life in exile.

Clason continued to preserve Baksi's literary legacy after his death in 2000. She selected, edited and prepared his writings for the Swedish publication Minnen i exil (Memories in Exile), which was published in Stockholm in 2006.

Omar Sheikhmous, a founding member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), also paid tribute to Clason following news of her death. In a post on his Facebook account, Sheikhmous described her as an old and sincere friend and highlighted her longstanding commitment to the Kurdish cause. He said Clason deserved to be remembered as “the mother of Kurds in Sweden” and extended his condolences to her family. 

Her decades-long work as a journalist, writer, translator and photographer created a substantial record of Kurdish life and helped introduce Kurdish literature, history and experiences of exile to Swedish readers.


PUKMEDIA