MARIWAN, Iran - As he pours his customers another cup of tea, Khalid Haqmuradi takes a look at his late son’s picture, and ponders upon the heavy debt placed on his shoulders following the kolbar’s passing. A debt that he cannot repay even if he were to sell his most valuable property, his house.
Kolbar Kaiwan Haqmuradi, 30, was shot dead by Iranian border guards on June 30, 2021 in the mountainous areas of Hawraman in Iran’s western Kurdish region (Rojhelat).
A year after the incident, Kaiwan’s death continues to take a heavy toll on his family, this time in the form of a 500 million toman (approximately $17,000) debt, which was enforced upon them by the owner of the cargo following the confiscation of the kolbar’s package.
Kolbars are semi-legal porters who transport untaxed goods across the Kurdistan Region-Iran border and sometimes the Iran-Turkey border. They are constantly targeted by border guards in the Kurdish areas in western Iran, and are pushed into the profession by poverty and a lack of alternative employment, as well as being victims of natural disasters, freezing, and falling from heights.
Khalid believes that his son’s soul cannot rest unless his debts are repaid, based on his religious beliefs.
“I have nothing but my house, which I have put up for sale but it would not even cover for half of the debts… I do not want Kaiwan to be in debt to anyone. For my son’s soul to rest, I will do everything I can to save him from the torment of the grave,” Khalid told Rudaw English in May.
“I knew he was in debt, but I did not know it was to this extent,” he added.
Khalid, who has been working in his humble teahouse in Mariwan’s Kani Dinar for the last thirty years, says the teahouse can barely provide for his own family, which is now also burdened with raising Kaiwan’s child, who was abandoned by the mother following his death.
Mohammed Shkari, Khalid’s neighbor and whose 18-year-old son is also a kolbar, blames the lack of job opportunities in the area for the youth working the hazardous occupation.
“Uncle Khalid’s sad story is only a drop in the suffering the people of this area go through because of unemployment. I believe if working as a kolbar was not an option, the people would have no other asylum and there would be more problems. That’s why the officials need to think of a way to help the people out of this hardship,” Shkari told Rudaw English.
In their monthly report on human rights violations in Iran’s Kurdish areas, the Paris-based Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) said that Iranian border guards in June killed at least one tradesman from the Kurdistan Region and injured another, while also wounding at least 13 kolbars.
