TERZE TEHA

Sulaymaniyah- Kurdistan Free Women's Movement (RJAK) members Xewla Mihemed Hesen, Ciwana Abdulbaqî, and Seyran Ehmed Hesen attended the commemoration event held in Shengal for the anniversary of the genocide against Yazidis by ISIS on August 3, 2014. After attending the commemoration, they returned to Hewlêr, the capital of the Southern Kurdistan Region. The KDP forces detained them there. Women journalists and activists have launched a petition demanding the release of detained three politician women, who have been held in custody since August 5.

Nerîman Osman, one of the intellectuals launching the petition, pointed out the dangers in the political situation of Southern Kurdistan. Nerîman Osman indicated that they haven’t received any information about why the three women have been held in custody, “They have been held in custody arbitrarily.”

“What is the crime of three politician women?”

The KDP has no reason for holding three politician women in custody, Nerîman Osman said, “These women committed no crime. Their only crime is to support and show solidarity with all the women having wounds due to genocide committed on their lands. Yazidi women haven’t received any of their rights until now, and their wounds are still fresh. What is done against Shengal and Yazidis is one form of the Anfal campaign carried out against the Kurds.”

Pointing to the times when women were sold in slave markets, Nerîman Osman said, “Those who keep silent should ask international organizations and all parties that: “Did you found your organizations for human rights? In which country around the world a woman is detained for supporting women in another place? These practices in Kurdistan are against humanity.”

“They need solidarity”

Three politician women went to Shengal because the women of Shengal need solidarity, Nerîman Osman said, “All women of Shengal should raise their voices for the release of these women.”