Kurdistan in the path of modernization, traditional society

Variety 04:01 PM - 2021-04-26

Photo Credit: GETTY IMAGES

Kurdistan Region which is one of the most independent among the other three parts of Kurdistan has been known for its diversity in nature, languages, religions, and hospitality. 

 

The population weighs up to around 6 million divided into different cities mainly in Sulaymaniyah and Erbil. Like any other parts of this world, this region has welcomed the world's technological and geographical changes and stepped positively toward the modernization of its societies and communities. 

 

However, sometimes the state of hospitality and coexistence will be touched negatively. This could be seen through different arguments and differences in thoughts from different groups of people inside the society. Where some want to step further toward a more modernized society where the state of freedom, differences, and coexistence is better accepted. 

 

On the other hand, where some groups are still bound to their cultural traditions and impacted by their religious backgrounds. These groups think these movements from other groups shall not be accepted and be stopped. As sometimes, some of them might go further aggressive. 

 

Recently some events have happened in the region that showed the diversity of thoughts, freedom, and took coexistence into another step. It is not clear if the coexistence state has been improving over time or it's the opposite. 

 

Last week, a couple performed a surprising Latin dance in one of the most crowded places of the city Salim Street (Saholaka) which brought different thoughts into the social media platforms. The performance of the couple has been motivated by too many people and seemed cool to them. 

 

Whereas, the same performance made many others angry and linked the event to their religion as they stated to be Haram or forbidden in their so-called rules of Islam. 

 

A day after that, a group of religious people has gone to the same location as the performance in Salim Street. Where they performed their prayers as an act against the dance performance. 

 

As the tension became more and more, the Governor of Sulaymaniyah, Haval Abubakr did not go against the performance as he supported the freedom of everyone and called to coexistence. 

During the same week, a social media platform blogger has tried to do an international love campaign called "Free Hug" in Erbil. Sadly, the same scenario of not accepting the movement has been raised by religious parties. 

 

Yesterday, April 25, the blogger mentioned how devastated and afraid she was regarding the hate messages and threats she has got from people because they took it personally and saw the movements as it was against Islam. 

 

Another campaign called "Heaven for Free" has been raised as an answer for the blogger movement where different religious people attended it and showed the region that those movements are not acceptable. In the social media platforms, different arguments have been raised against the religious leaders and people saying how come they have been hurt and touched by a dance performance whereas they see all this gender discrimination. Yet, they won't say a word. 

 

Regarding that, many international and local organizations have been working side by side in eliminating the negative thoughts that motivate discrimination against differences and hosted hundreds of events to better educate people to accept one another and understand the changes. 

 

Here some people believe that the impact of religious parties is becoming negative and negatively working on freedom, coexistence, and new steps toward a more accepting society where everyone with all the differences remain accepted.

 

 

PUKmedia / Hawsar Saed