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A Kurdish idealist returns to Iraqi
Kurdistan to 'change attitudes'
29.4.2008
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Taha Barwari came back to Kurdistan region in
northern Iraq from Sweden with a mission to inspire
young Kurds disaffected by decades of war.
April 29, 2008
CHOMAN, Kurdistan region 'Iraq',-- Nestled
amid Iraq's Kurdistan highest mountains between the
Iranian and Turkish borders, lies a town of farmers
and traders, smugglers and truckers.
Choman is a place of dramatic beauty with snowcapped
peaks and lush valleys. But even though Baghdad
seems like a world away, the residents here, and in
many other towns in Kurdish Iraq, still struggle to
overcome the impact of war.
In the 1980s, Saddam Hussein destroyed these areas
to attack Kurdish rebels. Today, Iran and Turkey
target separatists hiding in the mountains. |
Community centers: Suham Mirhamed (L)-, an organizer
at Choman's recreation center, participates in a
traditional Kurdish dance session |
This turmoil has given rise to a generation that
knows little more than war and has little hope in
the new Iraq.
"It's not easy to rise from the ashes of war,
sanctions, and isolation," says Taha Barwari, who
returned to Iraqi Kurdistan from Sweden with a
vision: change the mind-sets of young Kurds.
"We need a creative, educated, democratic,
stimulated, employed, equal, and active youth
population," says Mr. Barwari, minister of sports
and youth for the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
Since returning to his native northern Iraq two
years ago, Barwari has been leading a quiet
revolution with the backing of KRG Prime Minister
Nechirvan Barzani, to do nothing less than alter the
outlook of young Kurds.
With the help of his like-minded assistant, Asos
Shafeek, who is also a recent returnee from Sweden,
the minister has established 33 recreational centers
around the region especially in deprived
communities.
Barwari calls the centers "factories for attitude
change."
His ministry is also involved in a project to
publish 60 books in the Kurdish language distilling
the concepts and ideas of world thinkers. He has
pushed for the creation of a special committee made
up of representatives of key ministries just to deal
with the needs of the youth. His ministry sponsored
the first coed summer camp in 2007.
Barwari estimates that about 65 percent of Iraqi
Kurdistan's population of about 4.5 million is made
up of people between the ages of 14 and 30, while 75
percent of his government's budget is spent on
public sector salaries.
His initiatives are primarily aimed at promoting the
virtues of volunteerism, critical thinking,
independence, and entrepreneurship among the young
people in a society overwhelmingly bound by a
near-blind allegiance to the two main ruling
parties,www.ekurd.net
the Kurdistan Democratic
Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).
He says that for Kurds to ever attain their true
potential and fulfill their dream of statehood one
day, they must first begin to change their own
outlook and attitude.
"It's the beginning of something … they are leading
the young to be different for the future. Not only
to be political fanatics," says Handrin Hassan, an
intern at the ministry visiting from Sweden, which
is home to a significant Kurdish community as well
as other Iraqis of all sects and ethnicities who
have found refuge there over the years from their
war-ravaged country.
But in his quest Barwari has faced strong criticism
from some members of the old guard in his own KDP
who view his ideas as being "too Western."
Nowhere is the impact of what Barwari is trying to
accomplish more evident than in some of the remotest
and most impoverished corners of the region, such as
Choman.
In 1983-84, Mr. Hussein leveled the town in his
so-called Anfal campaign against the rebelling
Kurds.
"Even the walnut trees were blown up with TNT," says
Abdul-Wahid Gwany, the town's mayor.
Residents started returning to Choman and rebuilding
their homes in 1991 when the semiautonomous
Kurdistan region was established here.
One year ago, Barwari and his aides opened a
recreational center here complete with a library, a
gym, a movie theater, and a radio station – all
facilities that did not exist in the area. Now,
three local young people are trying to keep it going
on a volunteer basis, despite waning interest from
residents, skepticism by local officials, and huge
logistical challenges including the lack of reliable
electricity supply.
"We have nothing here, so by being involved in this
center, I feel like I am giving something to our
community," says Suham Mirhamed, who is a nurse by
training and dedicates a lot of her time to managing
the center.
One of her assistants, Salar Ismail, a high school
student who runs the radio station, says that if it
were not for the center he and many of his friends
"would just spend most of their time on the
streets."
Mr. Gwany, who is also the local KDP boss, is not
convinced of the value of the center when most of
the area's young people come from families
struggling to make ends meet in a place beset by
inadequate infrastructure and basic services.
"The Kurdish youth are at a boiling point … kids do
not have jobs and some can't even meet their most
basic needs. Volunteerism is not possible under
these circumstances," says the mayor, adding that
the youth must be paid salaries in order to be
involved in the center. "Barwari's idea is bad and
it's coming from Europe."
Mr. Shafeek, Barwari's assistant, says that it's
precisely this attitude that they are trying to
battle.
"We want our youth to be empowered. We want to
create a movement of young people that are strong,
motivated and free," he says. "They want slaves."
Copyright, respective author or news agency,
csmonitor com
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