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Dwarfs overcome discrimination and ridicule with
support from pragmatic association.
A few years ago, friends of Taha Hussein, who is one
metre tall, thought it was time for him to get
married.
They found the ideal woman for him through the
Dwarfs' Association, which has 3,800 members. Now he
has two sons, who are of normal size, and has been
married for five years.
"They persuaded the lady, talked to her family and
arranged everything,"
said Hussein, a former secretary of the group. "They
then told me, 'get prepared for married life!' The
association helps us very much psychologically and
socially. We visit and console one another."
Finding marriage partners for its members is just
one of the ways the Dwarfs' Association, which has
six branch offices in Iraqi Kurdistan, helps midgets
who face discrimination and ridicule in their daily
lives.
When its members get married, the association
provides 150,000 dinars (102 US dollars) to 450,000
dinars to the couple. The group also lays on courses
for its members in literacy, driving, administration
sewing and accounting.
The association very proactive, most recently
participating in a conference to discuss how to
protect the rights of disabled people in the
permanent constitution, which will be drafted by the
newly elected National Assembly.
Dilshad Wahab, deputy secretary of the association,
said many of its members have had experiences that
have left emotional scars. He has never forgotten
the humiliation he faced while he was studying in
college, where even his friends made fun of him.
When he decided he could no longer take it, he asked
relatives in Britain to bring him overseas.
Omer Jabbar, secretary of the association, relates a
particularly disturbing instance of society's
negative attitude towards dwarfs. After he met a
government minister and shook hands with him, the
latter immediately went to wash his hands. "Please
don't let people view us like that," he said.
But members of the association have still found ways
to make ends meet and lead fulfilling and happy
lives. Several of its members plan to act in a new
film being made by Bahmani Qubadi, a famous Kurdish
director.
They have also set up various sports teams,
including football and swimming.
In 2000, the association played football against
dwarfs from Erbil as a way of helping to relieve the
tension between the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and
the Kurdistan Democratic Party, the two main
political parties in Kurdistan.
Sulaimainyah is the regional capital for the PUK,
which controls the eastern half of Kurdistan, while
the KDP has Erbil as its capital in the west.
Sabir Ismael, deputy minister at the ministry of
Labour and Social Affairs in PUK-controlled
Kurdistan, said the government is paying attention
to dwarfs and other disabled people.
The ministry provides the dwarfs with a stipend of
about 20 dollars per month, as it does for all
disabled people. Twenty members of the association
have also received plots of land from the government
- with provision made according to need.
But Wahab said its members need more.
"This money is not enough," he said. "We urgently
need a car and we have been asking the government
for it for eight years but there has been no
answer."
Many of the dwarfs are better treated now, than in
the past. They were generally neglected under the
Saddam Hussein regime. Those who were not registered
as members of the Ba'ath party were normally
deprived of their rights, while members were given
cars and land.
Because the Dwarfs' Association does not receive
much outside help, the members know it's up to them
to help each other out. Now Aras Abdullah Goran, a
member of the association's football team, is
looking to get married, with the association's help.
"They have found a girl like me in another branch of
the association," he said, smiling. "But I haven't
seen her yet."
Talar Nadir is an IWPR trainee in Sulaimaniyah.
www.iwpr.net
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