Sinem Bedirxan • سینه‌م خان به‌درخان
Daughter of Prince Kamiran Bedirkhan, Sinemkhan is a Kurdish Princess, teacher, humanitarian and political activist. She was the first Kurdish Woman to receive the French Legion of Honor in 2013, ordered by Presdident Francois Hollande. It is the highest French order for merit for military, but also civil merits, established by Napoleon in 1802.
Sinemkhan Bedirkhan was born on March 21st, 1938 in Damascus, Syria. She graduated from a French covenant high school in 1957, to then start her studies in law at the University of Damascus. Two years later, in 1961, she married her husband, a Kurdish Petroleum Engineer, with whom she moved to Kirkuk, where they would stay until 1974.
In 1971, she was elected the President of the Kurdish Women's Union of the Kurdistan Democratic Party in Kirkuk (Yeketiya Aftretan Liqi 3).
In 1974 her family was expelled from Kirkuk, because of their Kurdish activism, and they moved to Baghdad.
In Baghdad, she started working as a French teacher at the Baghdad International School, becoming the Dean of the School in 1993. She retired in 1993.
She was part of many international KDP delegations, such as in 1972, where she was sent to Moscow in light of the 50th anniversary of the Soviet Union.
Today, she is been actively raising awareness and fund raising to support refugees from Rojava living in camps in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
She remembers very vividly, her father Prince Kamiran Bedirxan taking her to the 8th Conference of the KDP in Haji Omran, where she met General Mala Mustafa Barzani for the first time in person. A personal legend and idol to her, she recalls tearing up, having finally met this man who she described as a force of nature.
شازاده‌یه‌کی کورد ، مامۆستا ، چالاکوانی مرۆیی و چالاکوانی سیاسی ، کچی شازاده کامیران به‌درخان ، یه‌که‌م ئافره‌تی کورد بوو سوپاسنامه و پێزانی رێزگرتنی فه‌ره‌نسی پێ بدرێ له ۲۰۱۳ به فه‌رمانی سه‌رۆک فرانکۆس هۆڵاند ، که به‌رزترین فه‌رمانی سوپایی و مه‌ده‌نییه که دامه‌زرێنراوه له لایه‌ن ناپلیۆن لە سالی ١٨٠٢