October 30 – Kurdish fans around the world may not have a national team but they are nevertheless celebrating after Swedish club Dalkurd won promotion to the country’s top division after existing for just 13 years.
Set up by Kurdish immigrants in the town of Borlaenge, the club has 1.5 million followers on Facebook and is fervently followed by Kurds everywhere.
Rawez Lawan scored the only goal in the penultimate game of the season against GAIS to clinch an emotional promotion.
Lawan’s parents fled from Slemani, a town close to the Iranian border in northern Iraq, in 1981 because of the Iran-Iraq war, eventually moving to the southern Swedish city of Malmo, where he was born six years later.
“At the moment we are going through a tough time in Kurdistan, and today there are many with a smile on their faces,” Lawan told Reuters. “They can forget everyday life and convince themselves they are in paradise because of what we have done.”
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