ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Kurdish singer and activist Dashni Morad has become the target of an online harassment campaign after criticizing comments made by Romi Harki, a Kurdish traditional singer, who described women as “weak” and “inferior” to men on a Rudaw program last week. Harki says a smear campaign has also been launched against him on social media. Speaking to Rudaw English on Thursday, Morad said there has been a “wave of people, especially on Instagram, defaming me, humiliating me, and also women joining them.” The activist posted screenshots on Twitter of some of the disparaging comments about her appearance, artistry, and morals from Harki and his supporters. What the harassers are really saying is “if a woman speaks up, we have the right to use her body as a shame against her,” said Morad, who has had revealing pictures of her leaked on social media in recent days without her consent. Harki claims that he has not encouraged anyone to send harassing or threatening messages to Morad, saying he respects her like he would his sister. “I kindly ask her to respect herself, because this is Kurdistan, our country, not hers,” he told Rudaw English late Thursday night. The singer declared that women were now “insulting” him, encouraged by Morad. “I want to tell her that she has to be careful that I do not get angry, because a lot of women from her side are sending me messages in English, Arabic, Kurdish, insulting me,” stated Harki, referring to the comments he has received. “If this continues, there will be serious consequences,” the singer warned. The altercation began after Harki appeared as a guest on the first episode of Rudaw’s Ramadan program ‘Girls Talk’ on Friday, which is presented by the media network’s Kani Halabjaiy, Dida Faridoon, and Payam Sarbast. Speaking on the program, Harki disparaged women as “weak” compared to men. “In our religion, it is clear that men are superior to women,” he said. “According to our religious doctrine, men are the loco parentis of women. This is a fact and we must accept it.” “Women are weak. Men must not be modest, but women must be,” he added. "Women are great because my mother and sister are women. Women are very sacred." Harki’s comments sparked a flurry of activity on Kurdish social media. While some claim that the singer’s statements reinforce antiquated stereotypes about women, others say that his personality is playful and humorous, and he means well. "Women are great because my mother and sister are women. Women are very sacred," he also said on the show. Several days later, on April 28, Morad appeared as a guest on the same TV program, and used the opportunity to criticise Harki. “You invited someone [Harki], who said ‘women are weak’ and ‘women must be modest’,” Morad told the presenters. “I just want to say something.” “Somebody responded to his comments on Twitter, writing ‘when women like Qadam Xer revolted against the Persians, when a women like Asina Barzani was a president, and Layla Qasim sacrificed her life for the homeland, some men [referring to Harki] had not yet been born’,” said Morad. The Rudaw anchors attempted to downplay Harki’s comments, claiming they were not “serious” and that he was being sarcastic, to which Morad responded: “No one is allowed to call women weak creatures. No one is allowed.” “Such comments might hurt a woman out there,” she claimed Shortly after the broadcast, Harki responded in a video on his official Instagram account, claiming Morad has imported Western values to the Kurdistan Region. “You are wrong. You could never be Layla Qasim. You are a person who has returned from Europe and does not speak Kurdish well. You are trying to apply European traditions among our women and girls,” Harki said. “What you are doing is unacceptable. In Europe, when a girl reaches 18, no one can interfere in her life, be he her father or brother. Such things are not appropriate among us in Kurdistan,” he said. “I have plenty of respect for every woman. I have respect for any respected and modest women. When I said women are weak and beautiful when they are modest, I meant to say what men can do; women are incapable of doing because women are delicate. Women cannot do the work men do. I have not named or described women in a bad way.” The fight between Morad and Harki has since gone viral on social media. Morad, 34, is a popular singer, songwriter, and TV presenter, as well as a human rights and environmental activist. She gained a wide following after she hosted a show titled ‘Be Control or Without Control’ on Kurdish TV in 2005. Discussing her harassment, she says this behavior comes from “a mentality to show that men are always right, women are always wrong,” but does not extend to all of Kurdish society. “Hundreds, maybe thousands of comments came in from men and women that support me,” Morad told Rudaw on Thursday, claiming a “new generation” of Kurds exists – one that is shedding the societal norms of the past. “They are educated. They champion gender equality. They champion justice. And they champion a space for all of us to exist... I am grateful to them,” said Morad of the youth, claiming that the world rarely sees them because the media fails to give them a platform. “Women these days are surrounded by tons of salons. I wish one day there would be a museum in their neighborhood where there would be pictures of revolutionary women, where they could dream to be like them, and maybe come to the show and dream of being the next president of Kurdistan,” she added. Harki is not the first public figure in the Kurdistan Region to come under fire for denigrating women. Mazhar Khorasani, a controversial Kurdish cleric who publicly endorses polygamy, stood trial at Erbil Appellate Court in January accused of “insulting women” while his supporters protested outside the hearing. Women’s rights organizations filed a defamation suit under Iraqi law against Khorasani after he referred to activists who objected to his views on polygamy as “dinosaurs”. Khorasani was acquitted by the court on his second day of trial. Female public figures in the Kurdistan Region and Iraq have long faced blackmail and other threats to abandon political and artistic goals. Oftentimes, women who take part in civil society are considered fair game for threats, smears and shaming – not for their political views, but for their perceived morality, virtue, and appearance. “This is part of a much more sinister and terrifying trend in Iraqi Kurdistan,” tweeted Haje Keli, an expert on gender-based violence in the Kurdistan Region, about the harassment campaign against Morad. “Any woman who wants to enter the music/entertainment industry is vulnerable to abuse. The lack of record companies and traditional management options puts performers in the hands of wealthy sponsors,” said Keli, who is a doctoral student in gender studies at London’s SOAS university. “Sadly there aren’t protective institutions for artists and female performers are already stigmatized and falsely labeled as ‘immoral’,” the academic added. There have been several cases of ‘sexual shaming’ on election campaign trails, particularly on social media, designed to undermine female candidates and put off others intending to stand. For example, female candidates who stood in Iraq’s 2018 parliamentary election faced a barrage of threats, defamation, and public shaming. More recently, in April 2019, New Generation lawmaker Shadi Nawzad claimed she had been threatened with blackmail by party leader Shaswar Abdulwahid and factions within the party with doctored nude videos. She and other party members had accused Abdulwahid of turning the party into a family-run business. With reporting by Lawk Ghafuri and Robert Edwards Updated at 11:58 PM on Thursday with Harki's comments, more context, and quotes by Harki at 10:00 AM on Friday.
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