|
In his address to a
recent round table seminar: The Prospects of
Democracy, Peace and Freedom in Iraq, Kameran Faily
rejected labels and asked to be seen as a human
person who can share Iraq.
Let me introduce myself: My name is Kameran Faily.
My name on its own immediately identifies me as a
Kurd who belongs to the Failie branch of the Kurdish
nation and who are the main occupants of Kurdistan
region covering middle and southern Iraq and western
Iran. Failies also belong to the Shiat part of the
Islamic religion.
I invite those who are present to look into
themselves and see if they have already made up
their minds as to what I am going to say and close
off their minds to what actually I will be saying.
All this just from hearing and interpreting my name.
Why is it I ask the audience has judgement of me
taken place before I even utter another word? The
answer is LABLES and LABEL-TAGGING. The labels
identifying me are: KURD, SHIA, IRAQI, IRANIAN,
NON-ARAB, etc. Now I invite the audience to see if
they can find it in themselves to consider me
without labels. Or if not, at least only label me
with being a HUMAN and a person who can SHARE-IRAQ
with the rest of them.
Why is it we use labels? The answer is: “It is the
easiest way for our brains to process information”.
Once we identify a distinctive pattern or feature of
an object we immediately assign a label to it and
start coming up with rules to govern our behaviour
towards it. So in the case of Iraq – and the same is
true of most conflicts around the world – we use
these labels to make up rules and laws governing
what rights have each of the persons having this
label or that. Instead of it becoming a scientific
interest or just for curiosity that we assign
labels, instead, it has become a point of division
and an instrument of institution and law making.
Lets delve into the history of the Kurds. Kurds have
lived and dominated the Kurdistan region for a long
time approaching 7-8 thousand years, spawning
several of the early human civilisations in history.
We count in the region of 25-27 million people.
Kurdistan was divided between Iran, Iraq, Turkey,
Syria and other countries of the region. This
carving was done after the fall of the Ottoman
empire soon after the 1st World War. This in effect
makes the Kurds the largest ethnic grouping in the
world without a homeland.
In every country the Kurds have been LABLED as
inferior and hence made into 2nd or 3rd class
citizens. Some of the countries prevent the creation
of Kurdish political parties. Others prevent the
Kurds from speaking their own language in public or
acknowledge their Kurdish routes. Others will not
even allow their own children to be given Kurdish
names and substituted instead with any other name
other than Kurdish.
To top it all, the Kurds in Iraq were – and for a
period spanning half a century – have been brutally
suppressed in one form or another culminating in the
genocide taking place close to the end of the
1980’s.
The Kurds in Iraq are split into different political
parties with the KDP (Kurdistan Democratic Party)
and PUK (Patriotic Union of Kurdistan) having the
largest followings. During the imposition of the
safe haven region by the US in the north of Iraq at
the beginning of the 1990’s, the Kurds have been
able to overcome the LABLING problem and worked
together to make a stable regional government
covering that region. This has lead to the creation
of the Kurdish Parliament and the spread of piece
and relative prosperity for over a decade. The Kurds
have been able to show that they can govern
themselves and will be now reluctant to have a lower
status in any new constitutional undertaking.
If I now take on the label of KURD and ask “what
will satisfy me?”. I have to say that I have the
right to aim for all of Kurdistan to become one
country. But we live under a political reality that
of the United Nations and the different governments
that currently govern the region. So then the only
thing left for me to ask is that I be labeled as a
HUMAN BEING who has the right to be living and
sharing in the resources of this country called
Iraq. I should have the right to request that I
exercise my right to join in the political process
and have the right to access every department of
state regardless who has been appointed as the head
of this ministry or that.
In conclusion, what is the way forward? There is a
worrying trend now that labels (religion, language,
tribal, regional etc.) are becoming an important
factor in the making up of the political process and
that of finalising the constitution and the drafting
of the new laws. If the labels make their way into
the writing of the laws and if boundaries within the
different government institutions - on a practical
level - have been placed accordingly; then this is
where democracy and peace will have a dim chance in
taking hold.
On the other hand if parties corporate between
themselves and bring on consensus government (as is
currently happening as far as elections), then the
way for democracy and peace is rosy. What we need is
time and the men/women who will accept that all
Iraqis have equal rights, and given enough time,
wounds will heal the peace will prevail no matter
what the final overall political solution is.
Thank you Mr. Chairman for inviting me to this
gathering and giving me the chance for putting
forward my view and what I think are the views of
the majority of Kurds in relation to way forward.
www.anotheriraq.com
Top |
® 