The German Embassy in Baghdad announced on X on December 10, that Hardi was among the 12 individuals, including lawyers, journalists, and activists who were awarded this year, describing her as a “human rights champion” whose work is contributing to “the promotion of equality of men and women in Iraq.”
“This recognition not only supports our work on human rights but also serves as a fitting response to the symbolic violence we face on a daily basis,” Hardi said in a press conference in Erbil during an event for the award reception.
The Franco-German Prize for Human Rights and the Rule of Law is an award given by the German and French governments since 2016, the winners are traditionally announced on December 10, date celebrated across the globe as international human rights day.
Choman Hardi is the daughter of the popular Kurdish poet Ahmed Hardi. She is an academic, author, translator, and a poet herself. She is also an associate professor at the English department of the American University in Iraq-Sulaimani (AUIS).
Hardi’s research and teaching interests include “poetry, feminist literature, feminist literary criticism, gender and genocide, masculinity, symbolic reparation, and women’s activism,” reads her profile page on the AUIS website.
In 2015, she founded the Center for Gender and Development Studies (CGDS) in the AUIS. The center offered the first-ever gender studies minor in Iraq.
Choman Hardi has published three volumes of poetry in Kurdish and two collections of English poems.
