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April 4, 2007
News
KRG ministry to strengthen Kurdish culture
The Kurdish Globe - By Qassim Khidhir
Ministry of Culture plans to cultivate long-term cultural policies to benefit Kurdistan's intellectuals.
The Ministry of Culture taps Sulaimania to become the cultural capital of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, while cultural institutes are to be built in other cities of the region.
The Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Ministry of Culture plans to carry out a plethora of projects in order to reduce social problems and promote a more open Kurdish society.
Despite the Ministry's mission to protect Kurdish language, folklore, Kurdish arts, music, theater, and cinema, its mission to solve social issues and further open Kurdish society will be very difficult.
Falakadin Kakaye, KRG Minister of Culture, said the Ministry faces many difficulties, particularly the hard work it will take to rebuild original Kurdish society, because invaders and dictators throughout history have destroyed Kurdistan's indigenous cultural society.
"Kurdish culture is based on happiness, dance, and equality between female and male, not violence and extremism," said Minister Kakaye, who studied and researched the last 4,000 years of Kurdish society.
Minister Kakaye said cultural projects in 2007-08 will flourish.
"We have planned to build 35 libraries in towns in Kurdistan. Fifteen of them have already been built. We also have planned to build big libraries in the cities," said the Minister. "Also, we are going to make some mobile libraries and cinemas to serve the areas where are far away from cities," Kakaye added.
Minister Kakaye mentioned their intentions for the Kurdistan Ministerial Council to build cultural institutes, also known as cultural cities, in each city of Kurdistan, including Kirkuk. Just last week, the Ministry of Culture began construction of a cultural institute in the Zakho area near Kurdistan's border with Turkey.
"In the cultural institute, also known as the cultural city, there will be a cinema, theater, gallery, library for adults and children, and a café. Women and men will not be separated in these cultural cities," said Minister Kakaye.
The Ministry of Culture is demanding that Sulaimania city become the cultural capital of Kurdistan.
"Sulaimania is very well developed in culture and literature, and it has many famous poets, playwrights, and journalists," said the Minister.
The Ministry of Culture devoted itself to assist women's issues and end violence against women. The Minister said they will sponsor conferences related to women's violence, and he urged women to participate in cultural activities.
"We finance and support any woman who wants to be a singer or an artist," said Minister Kakaye. "We are now in a cold war with Islamic extremists; they are trying to ban Kurdish women from joining any cultural activity by telling their families to stop them. On the other hand, we encourage Kurdish women to join cultural activities and gain their rights," he added.
Before 1991, Iraqi Kurdish women experienced fear, displacement, and violence along with the restrictions and occasional brutality of this male-dominated society. After 1991, male dominance persisted, but women in the autonomous region gained more freedom of movement and speech and basic human rights than many women in other regions of Iraq. Putting aside for the moment the relative well-being of Iraqi Kurdish women, their lives were somewhat determined by the policies of the KRG.
The Ministry of Culture was established in 1992, after the 1991 uprising against the former Iraqi government. It publishes 14 magazines in the fields of arts, cinema, women, children, and folklore, and they are in Kurdish, Turkmen, and Syirianni (Christian) languages. The Ministry plans to publish two more magazines in the Turkish and Kurdish Latin languages.
"We don't have any political or ideological magazines," said Minister Kakaye.
The Ministry funds many youth centers and organizations in the region, as well as artists, singers, and cultural activities. It will open a gallery, put on seminars for them, and send singers to other countries to record their songs. It will soon air the first government satellite TV channel, to be named Nawroz (Kurdish New Year celebration). It will gear its programs toward KRG activities, youths, and the education of children.
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Falakadin Kakaye, KRG Minister of Culture
