SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region — Women rights activists in Kurdistan region have strongly condemned the apparent public harassment of a woman in Sulaimani which was caught on tape and last week went viral on the Internet.
The video shows a young woman in blue jeans and brown blouse surrounded by a group of people, mostly men, who apparently harass her for not wearing a hijab, the Muslim headscarf, during closing days of Ramadan.
Angry protesters took to Facebook to denounce the incident and express solidarity with the woman who later was identified as an Arab visitor to the Kurdistan Region.
“It is utterly shameful to see a woman being publically harassed in a Kurdish city while no legal actions are taken to punish violators,” Kurdish activist and author Chilura Hardi wrote in an article posted on her Facebook page Tuesday.
Women activists have announced a campaign in unity with the harassed woman who so far has not reported the violation to the police.
Following the incident, a number of Kurdish women have posted personal photos on social media networks without wearing the traditional headscarves in defiance of the purported persecution.
“We need to work for society with shared human values and not surrender to the dark forces in our own country,” said activist Bahar Munzir Osman. Osman has prepared a petition in support of a secular constitution in the country.
According to Islamic custom, during the month of Ramadan women wear clothes that cover most of their body, including headscarves wrapped around their head and neck in daylight hours.
Although no laws or official regulations require the practice in the Kurdistan region, the tradition has been widely followed during Ramadan, a time when most bars and nightclub restaurants close to mark the Islamic fasting month.
A parliamentary committee in Kurdistan region is currently reviewing the draft constitution. Islamic parties have warned they will only endorse the revised charter if it reflects “Muslim values” and defines Islam as “one of the main sources of legislation.”
Activists have in the past slammed Kurdish authorities for failing to adopt secular practices and for condoning religious forces in the region.
“It is no surprise that incidents like that take place in Kurdistan when you have a government that is partly supported by the Islamists,” Farouq Rafiq, a social scientist, told Rudaw.
The three main Islamic parties in Kurdistan region received over 15 percent of the votes in 2013 national elections, giving them 17 seats in the regional parliament.
According to Rafiq, the number of seats is misleading and the real power of Islamic parties reaches beyond parliament.
“The real power of the radical political Islam is elsewhere in the streets and the mosques and TV channels where it can reshape our common standards every day,” Rafiq told Rudaw during an interview.
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