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The plan is to create
a new channel for young Kurds to express their
concerns, but will it be hijacked by the political
parties?
Youth groups in Iraqi Kurdistan are forming their
own “parliament” to address the concerns of
increasingly disgruntled young people.
The youth parliament plans to tackle problems
including unemployment, housing shortages,
emigration to Europe, marginalisation of young
people by the traditional Kurdish parties, and a
general apathy toward politics. The assembly is
being organised by the Kurdistan Youth Empowerment
Organisation, an Erbil-based non-government
organisation, NGO.
"We want this parliament to bring together different
voices… so that their rights and demands can be
defended in a democratic way," said Shad Muhammed,
26, who is leading the project.
The parliament, which yet to be convened, was
conceived earlier this year as young Kurds became
progressively more vocal about issues affecting
their region, and about their dissatisfaction with
the two main Kurdish parties, the Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan, PUK, and the Kurdistan Democratic Party,
KDP.
These two parties have run Iraq's Kurdish region
since it gained a form of autonomy in 1991. As many
young people have abstained from voting over the
past year, the parties are making campaign promises
intended to win the support of young voters in next
week's Iraqi parliamentary election.
Organisers have not yet decided whether their
assembly will function like a traditional parliament
with elected members, or whether it will be more of
a formal gathering of leaders and representatives
from youth groups.
The Kurdistan Youth Empowerment Organisation held a
preliminary conference in October that brought
together about 150 young people, including party
members, independents and representatives from
approximately 50 youth-focused NGOs from across
Iraqi Kurdistan.
Before the parliament sits, informal discussion
meetings will be held after the election to allow
young people to air their grievances.
"We want to have an accurate reading of the problems
that the political factions have created for the
young," said 32-year-old Aso Abdul-Latif,
coordinator of the project in Sulaimanyah.
Rashad Hussein, deputy head of the PUK’s office in
Sulaimaniyah, said he hoped the assembly would
encourage young people to go to the polls. "Young
people are fed up with politics, and they don't
participate in the elections as they should," he
said.
While they may have opted out of past votes, young
people in Kurdistan are becoming more active.
Students at Sulaimaniyah University last month
protested over their lack of electricity, fuel,
water and housing, and accused political parties of
interfering in academic affairs.
"If we have our own parliament to express our
interests, we will be able to intensify our pressure
on the government," said Azad Marf, a 19-year-old
student who took part in the mid-November
demonstration.
Both the PUK’s Hussein and KDP politburo member
Falakadeen Kakayee were less optimistic that the new
body would have much impact on the Kurdish regional
assembly’s policymaking.
Hussein said youth organisations have been
ineffective and scattered to date, but promised that
"if the parliament works to achieve the demands made
by young people with no discrimination or political
or ideological aims, then we will fully support it".
Some young people were sceptical that the youth
assembly would be truly independent. "The youth
parliament is another political game played by the
parties," said Salar Ismael, a 25 year old teacher
in Sulaimaniyah. "They want to suppress the
resentful voices of youth."
Muhammed insisted that if young people believe in
the project, the government will not be able to
interfere.
"We don't want this to become a youth parliament for
the parties," he said. "We want it to have the space
and the opportunity to serve an independent and
neutral young population."
Farman Abdulrahman is an IWPR trainee journalist
in Sulaimaniyah.
www.iwpr.net
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