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Fréderike Geerdink
At a meeting held in the Flemish parliament in Brussels on Monday about the protests in Iran, Amineh Kakabaveh, former MP in Sweden with roots in Rojhilat (Kurdistan in Iran), said she was not convinced that Iranians protesting outside Kurdistan were fully aware of Kurdish demands for fundamental rights. She put her hope in young people: “It’s not easy to have much awareness about this when you have never lived in a democracy. But maybe the younger generation will see what this is all about.”
The gathering, named, “Jin, Jiyan, Azadi, a revolution in the making in Iran?” organised by the Kurdish Institute in Brussels and supported by the Ministry of the Flemish Community and the Flemish Community Commission, brought together several women’s voices from Rojhilat and Iran. Besides Kakabaveh, the speakers were Darya Safai, a member of the federal Belgian parliament, and Fatemeh Karimi, the director of the Kurdistan Human Rights Network. All three of them applauded the way many segments of Iranian society go out in protest together, but also highlighted the many crimes of the Iranian regime and the need for the international community to act.
Half human beings
Darya Safai spoke of the sexual crimes that are committed against women and girls in Iran, referring to not only the islamic law system which considers women ‘only half human beings’ but also to the sexual harrassment they are subject to, both in and outside prison. “And it’s very difficult to talk about these crimes”, she said, “because the regime can kill you if you do. They blame the victim.”
Darya Safai said it was important for the international community to cut ties with the Iranian regime and stop giving them any legitimacy. It was a stance that Amineh Kakabaveh didn’t agree with. Kakabaveh said: “The ambassadors must be summoned by western countries. The violence of the regime has to have consequences. Sanctions are needed too. Not sanctions that hurt the people but sanctions that hurt the regime: they are the richest segment of society.”
Darya Safai had to leave early due to other commitments, so no discussion about this issue could take place. Also about another important topic, the women couldn’t exchange views. This concerned the fact that the people of Iran are not only subject to religious oppression, but to nationalist oppression as well. Not only Kurds, but also Balochs, Arabs and followers of the Baháʼí faith were mentioned explicitely as victims of both forms of oppression.
Lifetime
Asked whether she believes that protesters outside Rojhilat and outside Balochistan are aware of the demands of ethnic and religious minorities, and if their rights would be in good hands in case the current regime would fall and be replaced by, for example, as secular one, she said: “You know, I am 48 years old and in my lifetime I have never seen democracy in Iran. So what can we expect? For example, one of the things the women are protesting against, is the forced wearing of the hijab, but do they know the fundamental freedoms underlying this demand? That remains to be seen.”
Kakabaveh has been living in Sweden for three decades. She left Rojhilat when she was only 13 years old to join the opposition group Komala and became a peshmerga fighter. Age nineteen, she fled to Europe. She reflected on her discussions with her male comrades at the time and said: “They accepted women as pehmerga fighters, but their mentality was still male-focused and the leading positions were taken by men. I criticised them for it. They said they supported women’s rights but had to learn.”
Ashamed
Kakabaveh drew international attention this year as an independent member of Swedish parliament. She objected to Erdoğan’s demands for Sweden’s NATO membership bid, and Turkey’s president Erdoğan put her on the list of Kurds in Sweden who he demanded be extradited to Turkey for ‘terrorism’, not realizing (or not caring) that her roots were in Kurdistan in Iran, not in Turkey. With anger in her voice she said in Flemish parliament: “I am very ashamed now of the Swedish parliament because it has no voice left against Erdoğan.”
The Swedish government – a new one since the elections in September, in which Kakabaveh did not run again – is bowing to Turkey’s pressures to secure the NATO membership bid. The Swedish stance towards the autonomous administration in Northeast-Syria, for example, has radically changed. The conversation ends up to revolve around the concept of ‘terrorism’. Kakabaveh: “Why do states put freedom fighters on the terrorism list, and not the ones who are actually killing and threatening the people? Nobody is safe in Kurdistan and it’s time to stop talking and take action.”
She herself has received six serious death threats in the last two weeks, both from Iran and Turkey, telling her to be silent or else her family (in Rojhilat) would face the consequences. Kakabaveh: But I don’t want to be silent and I am here to speak today. I am not afraid. And I will not be a tool, Kurds will never be a tool and a subject. We are the subject, especially Kurdish women. We resist against barbarism and will continue to do so.”
Note: Fatemeh Karimi was speaking French and was not fully translated and your reporter unfortunately doesn’t understand French.
- Fréderike Geerdink is an independent journalist. Follow her on Twitter or subscribe to her acclaimed weekly newsletter Expert Kurdistan
