Song of the day: Dina/Leila Qasim

Dina, a singer from Southern Kurdistan, sings the Leila Qasim song. The song in Sorani language, a dialect of the Kurdish language, is about the life of Leila Qasim. Leila Qasim or Leyla Qasim was born in 1952 in the Xaneqîn located in Iraq, close to the Iranian border. She had a significant impact on Kurdish students at the University of Baghdad. She was arrested and tortured by the Iraqi Ba'ath regime but she never bowed down and she always stood by the Kurdish freedom movement. After a short and show trial, she was sentenced to death. On 12 May 1974, Leila Qasim and her friends were executed by hanging by the Iraqi Ba'ath regime. She sang Kurdish national anthem “Ey Raqib” when she was being executed.