Solin Hacador, a Kurdish academician, business investment advisor, human rights activist, and advocate of women’s rights, has long dedicated her life, career, and skills to help the Kurdish cause grow outside the borders of Kurdistan.
In an exclusive interview with BasNews, Hacador explained her endeavors in diaspora not only as a Kurdish refugee but also as a woman who fights for the rights of her nation and rights of women around the world equally.
Although you have grown up in Europe, you use Kurdish actively both in your daily and in your academic life. I know your unbreakable bond with Kurdish; I would like to know about your use of Kurdish language in Diaspora?
First of all, I would like to thank you for providing me with the opportunity to express myself and share my opinion with my beloved Kurdish nation. I was brought up in a patriotic family and, my deseeded mother always advised me the importance of native language. No metter where we are so the language helps out our existence. We can only express ourselves better in the native language. Native language plays an essential role in establishing our identity. Speaking in the native language signifies continuation of the same history and culture of our parents, relatives, and even the generations before and after. The self-awareness that we belong to our native country, gives confidence and stability. I am a Kurd and I feel so happy to use in Kurdish in my daily life.
My great grandfather was brutally killed by Ottomans for struggling on the Kurdish rights. Later on my eldest brother was killed at the Kurdish-Iraqi border by Turkish army while delivering help to deseeded Idris Barzani sent by my grandfather. In another hand my relative Mr. Huseyin Baybasin was imprisoned in Holland and his native language was prohibited. He could not communicate with his family in Kurdish for seven years. I, myself have given unbelievable human rights struggle for obtaining him with his basic human rights such as speaking in native language and having a fair trial. The Dutch authorities prohibited Mr. Baybasin to express himself in his Kurdish language. Obviously, they were violating several articles of European Convention on Human Rights such as Article 3: Freedom from torture and inhuman or degrading treatment, Article 6: Right to a fair trial, Article 7: No punishment without law, Article 8: Respect for your private and family life, home and correspondence, Article 14: Protection from discrimination in respect of these rights and freedoms. In my communication with the Dutch authorities they stated that the Kurdish language was not in the European standards such as Turkish and Arabic. This very offensive and racist response made me to go further and I argued the issue at the Dutch Parliament with the members of parliament, later on with the Queen of Netherlands, Beatriz and at the European Parliament with members of Parliament of the Netherlands and the UK. I succeeded on obtaining the right of speaking in Kurdish at Dutch prisons and preventing Mr. Huseyin Baybasin from torture and ill-treatment (Baybaşin v. the Netherlands (dec.), no. 13600/02, 6 October 2005). While all these; I have experienced the difficulties of statelessness of my Kurdish nation. As a result of all explained above, I attached more to my native lannguage. As I also promised to my deseeded mother to stick on more on my native language, I have been using it in all aspects of my life.
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Despite being brought up in diaspora, you have gained strong abilities within European system to express yourself as a Kurdish woman so how can you manage to organize all these different aspects of your personal and professional life
Many thanks for your comment towards me. Living in Europe has helped me a lot to develop myself in different areas. I love discipline and inner control freaks, I mean little voice that says, “If you want
something done right, you have to be yourself and, do it yourself.” I am trying my best to be successful and serve my abilities to my nation. I think too many women are trying as I do. In another hand, many books would have never written, movies never produced, clothes never made, technology never invented without women. No matter where I am, no matter how much or how high I want to grow in my career, but one thing we all deserve is success, and to harvest it.
However it takes determination, courage, curiosity, persistence and patience. The first step to accomplish all your goals and making your dreams come true starts with this simple realization that you are human: The most interesting people are the ones who take an interest in life and never let go of the “beginner’s mind”. They discover learning opportunities and continue to grow, both personally and professionally.
What are the difficulties and advantages of Kurdish women in the diaspora in order to build themselves? What would you like to say about the quantitative and qualitative development of Kurdish women in diaspora? Again, what kind of development is the image of Kurdish women in the eyes of the Europeans?
Despite the great advances made by Kurdish women in diaspora today, the available evidence depicts that women are still under pressure of cultural and statelessness issues. The gender imbalance is especially true among those who pursue higher education and advance in their careers. This applies to every nationality not only the Kurdish women. It does not matter whether you are professionally well-prepared, being woman requires more efforts and you are not fairly treated.
A friend of mine is an only one female professor of neurological-science who specialized in her area in Spain. She teaches at the University of Barcelona and the University of Bilbao so these two cities are more than 600 km away from each other. However, her master piece work is not valued in a deserved manner.
We got to realize that woman can play a pivotal role in the progress and sustainability of the world if they are empowered through education and employment opportunities in science, technology, innovation and through to changing the social stereotypes that restrain them in certain workplaces. In the literature, few recently published studies show the challenges faced by female scientists in their workplaces. Obviously, double standard towards woman is an issue.
Scholars have argued that disadvantaged groups face an impossible choice in their efforts to win policies capable of diminishing inequality: whether to emphasize their sameness.
The image of Kurdish woman in Europe is mainly considered as; strong fighters so this image has been spread around with Kobani’s struggle. I should also mention the image of Kurdish woman in Spain. When I speak about my origin, people are smiling. At one point I got disturbed and I asked the reason of it. The reason given was funny, so I was told that in Spain and Latin America people think Kurdish women are so pretty and they are like an alcohol in the bottle, once you drink it, you get drunk for a long while.
There are several Kurdish women made high progress in the Kurdish diaspora of Europe. Especially in Sweden there is Amineh Kakabaveh, who is from Eastern Kurdistan (ex-peshmerga) and a member of the Swedish Parliament since 2008. There is also Evin Incir from Northern Kurdistan so she is a member of the Social Democratic Party and was elected to the European Parliament in 2019. In Germany Bjeen Alhassan from Western Kurdistan has done a great work in supporting female refugees and received a Federal Award in 2020. There is Gökay Akbulut, a German politician and social scientist from Northern Kurdistan. Akbulut was elected to the third place of the Landesverband Baden-Württemberg's in 2017. There are several other Kurdish female politicians in Germany. I also would like to proudly mention Dilan
Yeşilgöz-Zegerius, a Kurdish-Dutch politician of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) from Northern Kurdistan, who has
been a member of Netherlands parliament since 2017, she appointed as State Secretary for Economic Affairs and Climate Policy of the new Dutch government. Not only in Europe, in the USA as well there is a Kurdish diplomat, I should proudly mention Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman, the Kurdistan Regional Government's representative to the United States, from Southern Kurdistan who has progressed immensely in the Kurdish issue etc. There are several Kurdish women to be mentioned but my expression is limited here.
The diaspora works alongside numerous civil society organisations throughout Europe to raise awareness of the situation of the Kurds in Turkey. They have succeeded in putting the Kurdish issue on the European agenda and have lobbied European politicians and governments to put pressure on Turkey over a resolution to the Kurdish issue.
Finally, I would like to state that besides perseverance, talent, and grit, there's another force pushing women to develop: Woman should help another woman to approach her targets. I would like to thank every single Kurdish woman who works for Kurdish nation in diaspora.
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You stand out with your human rights, art-culture and academic studies. How do you find the situation of the European Kurdish diaspora in these three areas? How does the Kurdish diaspora affect Kurdistan? How do developments in Kurdistan determine the European diaspora?
Human Rights throughout its years of operation has ruled on the State’s obligation to protect and guarantee and to carry out the pertinent investigations in the event of their violation; as well as the recognition of the status of victims to the victims’ families and their pronouncement of the right to the truth, not as an autonomous human right, but rather as a right of the victims and their next of kin.
Undoubtedly, these are aspects that have gone beyond by laws. I am aware of my nation's sufferings and try to help through to laws guaranteed every single nation. My Kurdish nation has right to enjoy its basic human rights like every nation does.
My academic studies helped me out immensely to express myself in different areas. I like learning and, transfer my knowledge to people. In my law, business and language teachings I have gained solid experience, and acted as a student. I have been awarded three times for being a successful academician. I owe this for my attachment of giving importance to discipline, and having goals. It’s important you set up goals and targets. Otherwise, you’re just focusing on daily life. Looking at it from the perspective of a couple of years spent in academia, having goal has helped me a lot. I say this with high confidence, I started setting daily and weekly goals a couple of years back, and I’ve seen an enormous increase in my productivity.
Despite all these, I am trying to enjoy my interests in; art and culture. I am interested in knowing cultures through to art, music, and history. People have been trying to express themselves through to; art, music, dance, theater, cinema, architecture etc. Obviously, centuries and mixed cultures have left their fascinating mark in Europe with some of the most amazing artistic heritage in the world. These enchanted with the stories behind every work of art and remember them forever.
Kurdish diaspora has been growing in several different aspects including academic researches so we have worldwide recognized scientist such as Dr. Anwar Hamasaeed, from Southern Kurdistan who was awarded with European Scientist Prize in mechanical engineering. I am proud of him and his researches. There are several other Kurdish academicians in Europe and around the world to be mentioned.
However, I would like to mention one important point that I am disturbed with. Although we academicians or high skilled professionals are better in some aspects than native Europeans, we do not provide with same opportunities. I am not accusing Europeans with racism or being biased, I say all these as a result of several experiences.
However, low level academicians are respected and provided with all opportunities in Kurdistan, especially at the universities of Southern Kurdistan. I strongly believe that if we do not respect each other and underestimate our Kurdish high skilled people, our value won’t be well considered by Europeans. Our high skilled people can provide Kurdish nation with solid benefits. Let’s let our high skilled people to be wanted by Europeans and by the world.
In respect of Kurdish image in Europe, I am not happy with what I see. Unfortunately, as a result of conflicts between Kurdish political groups our image is weak. The European media also publish unpleasant issues such as; war, terrorism and, crimes towards humanity, especially crimes towards woman, human trafficking, corruptions etc. I can proudly to state that the Kurdish media is growing and, trying its best to leave positive impact on the international societies. The Kurdish media in general can play a crucial role in this aspect and gain more sympathy for Kurdistan.
In another hand, I can sadly state that we are not strong patriots and Kurdish enemies benefit from this point, and we remain stateless nation. The Kurdish territory is a rich area in oil, natural gas and water, but without access to the sea, which means that it has a continuous dependence on all its neighbours, especially Turkey, which gives rise to a threat of a commercial blockade. We should not forget that the only country that has recognized the independence of the Kurdish people is Israel, especially the so-called Kurdish Regional Government in Iraqi territory, when the 2017 referendum held.
Our nation in Rojava has been victimized by civil war over several years and the world is in silent. We should realize that we Kurdish nation can be the strongest weapon towards enemies, if they respect each other, experience from brutal blood shade history and value the importance of unification and, patriotism.
You carried out some social projects in the Kurdistan Region. You have conducted field studies especially on child marriages and genital mutilation (Female genital mutilation). What would you like to say about the results of this study? Do you have relations with women's movements and organizations in Kurdistan?
I am very attached to my beloved Kurdish nation and, I would like to do my best in sociological issues because I strongly believe in social revolutions. In order to have; peaceful and fair national revolution, our nation should have too many social revolutions.
I have campaigned for prevention of the FGM (Female Genital Mutilation). It is medically proved that it has no health benefits, and it harms girls and women in many ways. It involves removing and damaging healthy and normal female genital tissue, and interferes with the natural functions of girls' and women's bodies. Generally speaking, risks of the FGM increase with increasing severity (which here corresponds to the amount of tissue damaged). Although FGM is now legally prohibited in Southern Kurdistan, people in rural areas still continued. We know all the forms of FGM are associated with increased health risk. I had an opportunity to listen several Kurdish victims of the FGM, and I witnessed their pain. They are not happy in their marriage as a result of the FGM, and each woman feel like being raped by her husband. As a result of this too many people get divorced.
Although it is a criminal offence in Kurdistan for a person to marry more than one at the same time and it is irrelevant whether such marriage was contracted abroad, Kurdish man get married to his 2nd wife by producing fake medical report stating that his wife is ill which allows him to get married without divorced from the 1st wife. There are high number men in order to get rid of legal process; they get married in Iraqi cities such as Mosul by Islamic law. Kurdish men also know very well that the law of Regional Kurdish Government does not allow him to commit bigamy, he benefits from an Iraqi law. It is also now becoming very common in Southern Kurdistan that Kurdish men prefer to marry Arabic, Turkish, Turkmen or Persian to keep their sexual life active. This very selfish and dishonourable manner is leaving negative influence on our Kurdish society and the future of Kurdistan. I, myself with Kurdish female groups have given an immense struggle to change this dramatic issue but we could not succeed on as desired. For sure, this issue needs time, patience, and especially fair man’s cooperation. This is a sociological issue so both woman and man should focus on to set up a peaceful society. In another hand, the KRG should control on more and rule the society with stronger laws.
Kurdish child labour or self-employment in all around Kurdistan is increasing on a daily basis. This very heart-breaking issue denies Kurdish children from their basic human rights, such as the right to education, to play with friends and to live in a healthy environment. Unfortunately, denied from their basic rights, directly or indirectly, effecting their physical, mental or social developments. They need more protection and social security. I condemn both Kurdish and all Kurdish populated areas politicians’ for their reckless manner towards Kurdish children.
Although I collaborate with too many civil organizations, I prefer to work independently so I am not a part of any group.
You have worked on Ezidi women and the genocide committed against Ezidis. It is considered this genocide is also the genocide towards women. Do you believe that the international women's movements have sufficiently shown the sensitivity they should show against this?
Talking about Ezidi Genocides especialmente talking about Sinjar Genocide 2014 saddens me deeply. Before the genocide committed, I was visiting Ezidi areas including Holy Lalesh, Sinjar, Shexane, Baadre and deseaded Bave Sheik and Mayan Xan. During my visit, I met too many Ezidi people. Girls told me about their future plans, culture etc. At the one of the holy night we prayed together till morning. While visited Bave Sheik people were telling about their concerns of possible attack by Arabs. However, they were not aware of barbaric terrorist group of the ISIS. The next day they were attacked, and many people I met were kidnapped. I was shocked, traumatized and I still get flashbacks about it. The silence of the world saddens me more, aside from the tragic circumstances of the Sinjar Genocide and the effects on the lives of so many people.
The ISIS genocide in 2014, targeted Ezidis is now building for the recognition of case as genocide all around the world. The ISIS has managed to commit genocide so the terrorist organization may be capable of such genocidal destruction but got it got hatred of humanity forever. On the other hand, the small Ezidi minority may have been quite an easy target for the ISIS because they have been oppressed for a long time and have faced several genocide attempts before but it does not mean that malicious intention cannot get rid of them.
During the attacks in Sinjar, between 2100 and 4000 Ezidi men were massacred, for about 4200 and 10800 Ezidi girls and women were abducted. In August 2014 up to 50000 Yazidi fled into the Sinjar mountains where they were trapped without food, water or shelter.
They were left in Iraq’s burning summer heat and, threatened with death or captivity from the ISIS. This situation resulted in dehydration, starvation and death. We all know that the Ezidi people mostly live the Kurdish autonomous region of Iraq, some in Syria, and a large community in Diasporas far from their homeland. However, in the Yazidi faith, place is important and connect them to practice their religion, enjoy their identity.
Stated above situation has left a psychological damages on Ezidi communit. The psychophysical model can account for the disregard of incremental loss of life against background of large tragedy but it does not fully explain apathy toward genocide. In 1948 the Genocide Convention designed to prevent such crimes against humanity from ever happening again. Yet this convention has proven ineffective in numerous episodes of genocide that have occurred after World War II.
As a lawyer, how do you explain the reluctance of the international community to prosecute the perpetrators of the Ezidi genocide against humanity? Could it be because of the victims were Kurd Ezidi minorities, and more than half of them were women?
I do not think that because of being Ezidi and females are the issue of silence or ignorance of the world. I am afraid I cannot blame or criticize any nation for its silence towards Ezidi Genocide so we Kurdish nation should be criticized or blamed at the first place for not doing enough. Unfortunately, conflicts between Kurdish political groups, costs our nation highly and we lose too many opportunities. In approaching a solution, we Kurdish nation should set up a fair and independent lobby to defend the rights of Ezidis.
I would like to mention one point that tells a lot about the purpose of conflicts between our political groups. During the WWI and WWII Americans and the British authorities well documented everything about Kurdish nation. They both believe that creations of the conflicts between Kurds are as follow: Different dialects of the Kurdish language, religion, existence of too many different leaders, attachment tribes rather than the nation in general and weakness of patriotism.
They also believe if Kurds in the future focus on unification and set up more diplomatic relations in Europe, they may gain Kurdish rights.
Moreover, I do not think that the world authorities have been fair towards Ezidi Genocide of Sinjar. Neither international women groups nor formal authorities of the world have been doing enough to rescue Ezidi girls from terrorist group of the ISIS. Openly, this issue needs more attention of the authorities of the world. In order to bring criminals to justice, Kurdish political groups should get rid of hatred and conflicts between each other, and stand up for those Kurdish sisters still are being used in sex slavery.
There are international laws set up to protect every single nation, and it provides everybody with equal rights. Obviously, R2P formulates the international community’s obligation to safeguard vulnerable groups, and it offers a justification for intervention and a guideline on how to navigate the tension between the sovereignty principles, including the rule about nonintervention enshrined in Article 2 of the UN Charter (United Nations, 1945). Unfortunately, some countries fail to obey the laws. In the Ezidi case, we witnessed that Syria and Libya are two examples of the international community’s failure to protect vulnerable groups subjected to violent attacks and atrocities. After the ethnic cleansing of Ezidi peeople Sinjar area still remains uninhabitable.
Although the international community; UN agencies and NGOs, rebuilding to protect, and the reintegrate to bring them back to society, it has not been sufficiently achieved.
When and how did you come up with the idea of making a 'Commander Arian' movie? What would you like to say about the subject of this movie and the shooting process? You returned with awards at international film festivals. What kind of reactions did the 'Commander Arian Movie' get?
The Commander Arian was a documentary that we wanted to tell the world about the ISIS’s barbaric terrorist attacks and Kurdish womens’ brave struggle towards them. Basically, Commander Arian is a story of women, war and freedom. To be a Kurd has given several responsibilities to help out my nation. Because of the Syrian Civil War, I was very concerned about victims of the war and especially my beloved Kurdish people. They were going through to brutal war conditions. However, Kurdish people are brave and they have been struggling towards terrorism of the ISIS. The elephant skin of Kurdish woman rose up and, got united under the armed group to defend the humanity. The YPJ (Women's Protection Unit), a part of the Syrian Democratic Forces was set up and, Kurdish brave girls and women participated in it. This situation took the cinema director, Alba Sottora's attention so she has decided to prepare a documentary and we worked on together. Before the ISIS siege was broken in early 2015, Alba Sottora took all risks of the war and, bravely travelled to Rojava. She filmed everything about YPJ. Commander Arian is a young and a brave woman from Afrin. She struggled towards ISIS and showed a great success. Her neutrality and braveness took our attention and we decided to name the documentary with Commander Arian. Beloved Arian was severely wounded by the ISIS in Kobani so she received medical treatment in Sulemaniya of Southern Kurdistan. Her braveness continued during the medical treatment as well. She partially recovered but still needs a proper treatment.
Shooting a war is very difficult in all aspects. To produce a film is different than producing a documentary. Documentary and feature film are two different types of films. The difference between documentary and feature film lies in their purpose and subject matter. Documentary aims to educate inform and inspire the viewer whereas feature films aim to entertain the audience. Documentary deals with facts and reality whereas feature films deal with fiction. In this sense, we had to deal with real daily life of YPJ’s struggle. Alba Sotorra has spent a great effort to produce this specific documentary. At one point during her visit to Rojava we could not get any news from her for about two weeks. Her family and friends kept on concerning about her life. Finally, we found her and continued on the documentary.
Moreover, at some points I had difficulties with narrative cultural barriers between Europe and Kurdistan. Despite all difficulties we managed to complete the documentary and it was selected at the important festivals of the world. We travelled all around the world for the festivals such as Cannes, Berlin, London, Hot Docs Canada etc.
Finally, we got awarded by Gaudi Film Prize.
For me the most important thing we were not only introducing the documentary but expression the Kurdish issue all around the world and I believe we have approached our target. I would like to thank to Alba Sotorra and every single person who helped out with this specific documentary.
You made a film about the experiences of Iman Eido, a nine year old Ezidi girl who was kidnapped and sold by ISIS to a 70-year-old ISIS commander for 100 so she exposure to sexual violence. What would you like to say about the plot and the cast of this film, which was shot entirely in the Kurdistan Region?
The story of this movie touched my heart deeply. First of all, we are human beings and the inhuman barbarism perpetrated on our Ezidi brothers has been perpetrated against all of us. Iman Eido was kidnapped and subjected to inhuman violence. I deeply feel her pain like all other Ezidis. I feel like it is my Kurdish duty to help them try to be their voice.
Well, in total we 12 Spanish and Catalan female film crew, from Spain went to Kurdistan. We filmed in Duhok, Sheikxane, Baadre and its surroundings. We witnessed Ezidi plight directly. Most of the shots took a place in peshmerga fields with professional peshmergas. We have received a sincere support of peshmerga so we were allowed to go into places where no one from the outside could enter and shoot a film. Their support has been a great morale booster for us. In another hand, as a female film crew it was not easy shooting the film in Kurdistan, in an environment where women had limited movement.
But the sincere support of the peshmerga and the embracement of all the Ezidi and Muslim Kurdish community, we were greatly facilitated our work. We started shooting in January 2020 so we stayed in Kurdistan for about 3 months. In March 2020 COV-19 period has begun and we are faced with great challenges. Flights were cancelled.
It was impossible to go back from Kurdistan to Spain. However, with the support of the Spanish Consulate, our team returned to Spain by NATO’s helicopter. However, all the shootings not continued in Kurdistan, but also took a place in Spain. While the movie was going on, we got the European Film Award. Unfortunately, many festivals have been canceled due to COV-19. Now we are going to Malaga Film Festival, then we will participate in many other festivals. Our aim is to introduce the Ezidi sisters’ dilemma to the world and try to be helping them as much as we can.
The films about the armed struggle of Kurdish women against ISIS brutality in Rojava Kurdistan and Southern Kurdistan were produced by European directors. Now, Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her daughter Chelsea Clinton's production company have bought the television series rights to the book Daughters of Kobani: A Story of Rebellion, Courage and Justice.
How do you evaluate the huge productions of Westerners that deal with the struggle of Kurdish women against ISIS?
I find it quite positive so foreign film makers’ interests in filming Kurdish female fighters struggle towards the ISIS is in Kurdish favour in sense of gaining sympathy for Kurdish independence. Our Kurdish female fighters have given an extraordinary struggle towards the ISIS. Kurdish woman has rose up Kurdish voice in the world and with its dignified struggle also gained a great sympathy for Kurdish issue. Cinema has a great influence on societies. It is a huge social gathering that I think the power of cinema is a lot more universal. Audiences become addicted the idea of sitting with other people and sharing intimate emotions that relate to them. For sure, analyzing how film works on the human mind and how a connection to movies allows one to understand better human nature.
I would like send my special thanks to the former America's Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton and her daughter Chelsea whom showed interest in filming Kurdish female force's battle against the ISIS in Syria. I also would like to thank all foreign film makers who show interest in filming Kurdish armed struggle towards the ISIS. The extraordinary brave, defiant women fighting is not all about defeating the ISIS, it is also about struggle of feminism, justice and equality that has empowered Kurdish women.
Do you plan to make other films about Kurds? For example in the Kurdistan Region, there is Leyla Qasim, who heroically resisted the Baath regime and was tortured and executed in 1974. Saddam Hussein has Operation Anfal from 1980 to 1990, in which 182,000 Kurds were massacred. In this operation, thousands of women and children were buried alive. Families are still searching for their missing. Do you plan to transfer the experiences of many of our strong struggling women in Northern Kurdistan and Eastern Kurdistan to the cinema?
Cinema is not my professional area but I love it and work on volunteer bases. If I have enough time, I would love to work on Anfal Genocide. It is very important to deliver that historical issue to the cinema and tell the world that perpetrators and dictators later or earlier punished in a harsh way. The next generation must know what has happened in the Anfal crimes. For example holocaust delivered unforgettable messages to the world and to its next generation through to the cinema and scientific studies. We should do more including legal action towards perpetrators because we Kurdish nation suffered from numerous massacres and genocides. I would love to take martyr Leila Qasim’s life to the cinema but there are too many other Kurdish heroes to be filmed, especially crimes occurred towards Kurdish politicians in Europe. But it depends on my time and possibilities. I have sucrifized lots of time on volunteer bases for the documentary of the Commander Arian, and the film of Sinjar. I am not the owner of the companies that produced stated above. The companies may have the right of commercializing it but I am out of it.
Many thanks for your time and consideration of interview. [1]