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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A group of teachers in Sulaimani have been on a hunger strike since Tuesday over unpaid salaries. One of the teachers said that she will not stop her protest until either her demands are met or she dies.
“Either a life of dignity or honorable martyrdom. It’s enough, we are tired. We have been shouting on these streets for a decade. [We want] our rights, for us to be respected, to be seen as humans, for us not to be sold, for us not to be bitten and torn apart. We want our rights as human beings,” Pakiza Hamaamin told Rudaw on Thursday.
“I am not leaving. Either my requests will be fulfilled or I will die an honorable death and be buried by the hands of my people,” she said.
The teachers have set up a tent in front of a United Nations office in Sulaimani where some of them have been on a hunger strike since Tuesday, their main demand being payment of their salaries for December and January.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has failed to pay the salaries of its civil servants on time and in full for a decade due to a financial crisis that worsened when its oil exports were halted in March 2023 following a court ruling on a dispute between Iraq and Turkey over the Kurdistan Region’s independent oil sales. The KRG now relies on domestic revenue and its controversial share of the federal budget.
To cover its payroll, the KRG is dependent on money from Baghdad, but the transfers of funds have not been regular, with each side blaming the other for delays and missed payments.
Sulaimani Governor Haval Abubakir visited the hunger striking teachers on Wednesday. Speaking to journalists in the tent, he had a message for the federal and regional governments.
“Solve the issues quickly instead of telling us stories in the media and social media. Instead of spending a long time in other countries in the world or Davos, go to Baghdad and do not return until you solve the problem,” he said.
On Friday, a delegation from the Kurdistan Region met with the Iraqi finance ministry to try and solve the problem, discussing amendments to Iraq’s previously approved 2025 budget law.
Teachers and civil servants in Sulaimani province have gone on numerous strikes and staged protests several times over unpaid salaries.
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