“My daughter is my life”
Teacher Snur with CPT
Two days after the international day for the elimination of violence against women, CPT met Snur Karim Mohammed who shared that she has received threats against the life of her daughter and herself. Here in Iraqi Kurdistan, every year on November 25th women and girls are joining this international campaign of activism against gender based violence.
Snur told CPT, “Before I was active in politics, I was a candidate for parliament in 2013. But since 2015 I’ve only been active as a civil activist and a writer. I write about women’s’ issues and human rights for magazines and newspapers, on social media, have also been interviewed on TV several times. In 2015 I was one of the organizers of a committee of teachers, during the demonstrations. During the time of the teachers’ protests I was sometimes followed by Asaish. Once, someone put acid liquid on my car to damage it. In 2016 my husband, who was a journalist, died in an accident in Sulaimani. (He was reporting on the war against ISIS.) After he died I received more threats. Someone wrote to me on Instagram, ‘We have put four cameras in your house, in your bedroom, in your bathroom. We are following you in a black car.’” She saw the car several times.
She went on to explain, “They also said: ‘You should work with us. Stop being an activist. If you don’t, we will kill you.’ After six months I deactivated Instagram. After a while a new person contacted me. He called me up and said: ‘The threats you are receiving are serious, they want to harm you.’ He was the same person who tried to stop me being activist. He told me that he left the country and he is living in Turkey now, because he failed to convince me to join his group, and so he escaped from that group. In September of this year someone created a social media account in my name. He communicated with my friends and former students of mine, as if it was me, but in a rude way. The students realized that it was a fake. He told the students to do bad things to me.”
“Four days ago, on the 23d of November, I got a call from an unknown number. I didn’t answer. Then they sent messages through Viber saying, among other things, ‘We can easily harm your daughter.’ My daughter is eight years old. Now they have crossed a red line. I’m not afraid for myself, I believe in what I do, but my daughter is my life. She was in a bad state after her father died, but is now starting to feel good again.”
Snur said, “Since receiving these messages I have reported it to the police, I’ve talked with the Human Rights committee of the Parliament who said they would follow my case, and with the Human Rights Association in Hawler. The police said it is very difficult to find out who has this number and account because of the VPN application. Yesterday one of my colleagues sent me some pictures but I never received them. Maybe they are tampering with my phone.”
“The headmaster of the school and my colleagues are very supportive of me in this situation. They know about the threats. The driver of the bus that takes my daughter to school also knows and is very careful to accompany her in and out of the bus, holding her hands.”
“I want the international community to know about all of this, and to see how vulnerable a single woman and mother is in this society”
Snur emphasized, “I want the international community to know about all of this, and to see how vulnerable a single woman and mother is in this society.”
CPT is calling on the international communities and activists around the world to hear Snur’s story. Her story is particularly important during this time. As the campaign of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence comes to an end, we acknowledge the continued violations against women here, and around the World. Based on our experiences as an International Human Rights Organization, Iraqi-Kurdistan is not a safe place for independent journalists and activists to speak out without fear.