Rapists are exposed, survivors receive solidarity, and youth demand radical change

On the 19th of July and the first day of Eid, Kurdish Twitter was shocked with two threads dedicated to exposing a person accused of sexually assaulting and raping seven girls. It was also mentioned that some of the girls are even underage. 

The threads received a lot of attention immediately. They each earned more than 1,000 favorites and 450 retweets together. These numbers are enormous, knowing the Kurdish Twitter community does not exceed a few thousand users. The thread publishers showed AUIS Voice that each of the threads received more than half a million impressions on Twitter respectively as of Sunday.

The news did not stop only on Twitter but soon broke into other social media platforms. Many big Kurdish Instagram pages with tens of thousands of followers started making posts and stories about the person and the allegations. Slowly but surely, these posts sparked many online arguments and discussions. Many people were asking for the posts to be taken down and not ruin the reputation of the person and to solve this issue quietly in a court.

These narratives of protecting “reputation” are familiar on Kurdish social media and in the Kurdish culture in general when the target is a man. The narrative changes when it is about a woman’s reputation and shifts towards giving lessons on honor and the importance of protecting honor. Other times, it turns into a river of victim shaming, and the predator is excused and forgotten mid-way.

This is not the first case about alleged rapists that becomes public. Not long ago, a woman named Solina-Eve was sentenced to six months in prison for speaking up against the man who had sexually assaulted her.

ئەو ڕۆژە که ئەڕۆم بۆ زیندان، چەند پەرتوکێکی مێژوویی کوردی لە گەڵ خوم ئەبەم. بەدەستی خۆم ناو لاپەرەکانی ئەنووسم: «کچێکی کورد لەسەر پاراستنی شەرەفی خۆی زیندانی کراوه»
سولینا ئێڤێ#eveFreedom#SolinaEve pic.twitter.com/kre0sBYlm8

— Solina eve (@SolinaEve) November 21, 2020

The man filed a defamation and physical attack lawsuit against her and won the case. Solina-Eve took to social media and kept on campaigning for women’s rights from prison.

Another incident that became public interest was Seerwany Nwe Sports Club, where several female players of the club spoke up against the club coach who had been sexually assaulting the players over a long period of time. The same person sexually assaulted around 19 girls on different occasions. 

The players revealed that the coach was manipulating them and pressured them into sexual acts. Most of the girls were young, and the coach abused his position to groom and manipulate the victims, according to those girls who spoke up against him publicly on TV. The alleged predator was arrested, but no decision has been released since then.

Both of the mentioned cases and many others fell on deaf ears compared to the current one regarding the public’s reaction. This time, a huge group of social media users came forward defending the victims online. The defenders pointed out the victim shaming and the extreme misogynistic trends of Kurdish culture and demanded that it is time for a change.

Moreover, a lot of people urged the case to be taken to court and not just be a social media matter. “I hope this case won’t be just some Twitter subject to be talked about but to be taken to court,” a user said, adding “none of the victims forgive what he did to them until he gets the punishment he deserves.”

“It takes a different level of bravery to speak up about sexual assault in countries like Kurdistan,” another user said regarding speaking up against Gender-Based Violence (GBV). “So so proud of my Kurdish brothers and sisters for fighting this fight. It was about time someone challenged the rape culture that’s overruling in Middle Eastern society.”

Along with the discussions, there was a growing number of quote-tweets that were confirming the allegations. Some users quoted the threads saying that the news is accurate, and one male user said, “I can confirm this is true.” 

A female user also said, “I have waited so long for this to happen.” While another user said, “this is the moment I’ve been waiting for; finally, people see their true colors.”

These confirmations that came from different people and their high numbers were shocking to the publishers of the threads, wondering why so many people knew about this and decided to stay quiet about it.

One of the publishers of the threads that goes by the Twitter name “Ciiehl” told AUIS Voice that she is so shocked and disappointed that so many people knew about this person and did not take action against him. 

She added that she made the threads the same day she knew about him from some of the victims. She suggested that people like that man should not walk around freely and put other people’s lives in danger. 

“We need to call them out publicly” she said of the rapists.

“People are not supposed to live in fear, the court system must take these people away from the society, but since our court systems do not take that much interest in these cases, the people are expected to help and protect each other by all necessary ways,” she added.

The other Twitter user who made the second thread and went by the Twitter name “Zana” shared similar views. They mentioned that they noticed how many people were quote tweeting and saying that these accusations are true. 

Zana told AUIS Voice “after talking with some of the other Twitter users, they realized that a lot of people have been sharing information on this person and warning other people from facing the same fate as the seven victims.” 

This is the first time that this topic goes public, even though many people claim they already knew about it.

AUIS Voice contacted one of the people who confirmed the news, and they said on the condition of anonymity, that she previously cautioned her friends about their proximity with the young man.

“I have been telling all of my close friends to stay away from this guy, but like so many others, I did it privately.” 

“We did it privately because we know that his mother holds high positions, and he might cause us a lot of problems through her connections,” they added.

They added that the alleged rapist used to contact anyone warning others about him. 

He would ask them to prove the allegations, or he’ll file lawsuits against them. Some of the ones contacted and confronted by the alleged rapist told AUIS Voice that they could not prove anything or give any information because he might find out which victim they knew and might target them again and threaten them.

The social media users emphasized the importance of speaking up publicly about the cases and that remaining complicit is part of the problem.

One user told AUIS Voice that keeping quiet while being aware of the cases makes one part of the problem, referring to the group of friends who stayed close to the alleged rapist despite the many victims who came forward. The circle of friends was also mentioned in the threads.

One Twitter user tweeted, “even if you refuse to believe the rape allegations … he’s still grooming underage girls” referring to the cases where many adults interact with underage girls on the app and then meet them in real life. 

For the culture, such discussions are the first of its kind. It has not caught up with sex education nor grooming and underage concepts. Singers and poets still write and sing about girls who are underage, pure, and “inexperienced.” However, this part of the culture is being challenged by the new generation. And they usually protest songs that include such topics.

Soon, more people of all genders came forward and shared their sexual assault stories in solidarity with the victims on social media. The number of the stories was overwhelming, and the Kurdish Twitter timeline was filled with but stories of sexual assault survivors for weeks. This was the first time that survivors spoke up publicly with their names and pictures on their social media and shared the stories of their sexual assault.

This soon brought the talk between some NGOs and feminist icons to start a campaign and a hashtag to organize what is going on. However, the suggestion was opposed by more radical feminists who accused the more liberal feminists who work at NGOs to be “inactive” and even “useless” in combating gender-based violence. 

The criticism was about how slow, bureaucratic, and ineffective the women’s rights organizations are in strategizing a solid feminist wave in Kurdistan. It was mentioned that 11 women were killed in honor cases in the first 15 days of Ramadan this year, and the NGOs took no action but releasing some condemnatory statements.

The group of radical feminists pushed for an anarchist style of organization, a people-to-people movement. They suggested that campaigns and hashtags take away the focus from an individual’s story and give it to the hashtag, which is not humane, and only a hashtag. 

They argued that these stories are each a campaign for themselves. They each deserve a movement for themselves, and squeezing them under a hashtag will do them an injustice and will steal away the human element in them.

Despite some NGOs’ calls for a unified campaign on their social media platforms, the social media users did not get behind them and continued sharing their stories independently and individually. 

Regardless of the mean, the stories received considerable acceptance and solidarity from the other users. Eventually, a Twitter account was made called “shareyourstory” to retweet all the stories tweeted in threads, making it easier to find. 

The account also shared the story of people who sent their sexual assault stories to them and wished to stay anonymous. Through these events, it was apparent that the youth wanted to help themselves and not seek help from NGOs or government officials.

The group of social media users who published the threads informed AUIS Voice that they had contacted many NGOs, but the organizations took days to answer their messages. 

They said they have “asked us to take it to court, while they know well how corrupt the system is and the courts are useless,” a group member told the Voice. They also explained that like Asayish, (internal security forces), the NGOs also asked the victims to “minimize” and “stay quiet.” 

“From there, it was only delays, not answering calls, and not working on the case in general.” a group member said.

“The victims did reach out for help from all the big and famous NGOs, but they all backed out from supporting them because of different excuses,” another member said. After learning about the situation and how few options they had, the group explained that there was only one obvious way to take, and that is social media. 

Although the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the Iraqi Government both have official hotlines for gender-based violence incidents, they have proven ineffective so far according to the first-hand witnesses.

“I had to hang up the call in shock when I contacted them,” SS* told AUIS Voice. 

SS faced a sexual assault one night when she was out with friends. As she escaped and ran away to get a taxi and go home, the taxi driver took a different road, parked, and forced her to touch him sexually. As she escaped her second sexual assault on the same night, she took the number of the taxi and finally got home.

As with many sexual assault survivors, she was in shock and disbelief.

 “I couldn’t eat, sleep or talk with anyone,” she said. “I kept on blaming myself and questioning my actions and what was I wearing and why was I out.” 

She said that she was in this state of denial for a week until she finally had enough courage to call the 119, GBV hotline in the Kurdistan Region. However, the answer she got was not what she was expecting at all. 

They told her, “Why were you outside late?” “Why were you with boys?” “Why didn’t your parents come to pick you up?” “Why did you not call sooner?!” 

SS had to hang up the phone as she was getting worse and feeling more judged the more she talked with them. She explained, she regretted seeking help and having hope.

According to law, rape incidents are supposed to be reported within 24 hours and to have immediate medical reports proving that penetration has happened. The case can still be reported within 3-6 months from the date of the incident. However, most of the cases are dismissed because of a lack of evidence, especially those reported after 24 hours.

Another sexual assault survivor told AUIS Voice that even taking the case to the police station and reporting it will not do any good. 

Balla* was in a restaurant waiting for a job interview when the restaurant owner took advantage of the moment when no one was there. He grabbed her and tried to rape her. She fought back and escaped him. 

“This happened during the month of Ramadan, I was fasting, I was wearing hijab,” Balla said. “I could not believe what was happening, I did nothing to provoke him, not a word or a gesture, I was just sitting there.”

When Balla took the case to the police station, she was surprised when the staff told her that the same guy had 19 sexual violence cases against him besides hers. 

“None of them were enough to put him in jail because of lack of evidence,” they told her. 

“The staff was normally talking about how there are 19 cases against him,” she explained, “it is devastating how normalized these horrific incidents have become.”

Balla added that it was difficult even to accept her case. They kept on asking her if penetration has happened. She asked them if they only accept the case if penetration occurs, they replied with yes. This made Balla hopeless and eventually gave up on the case, and the predator still roams freely and runs his restaurant in one of Sulaimani’s most famous and busiest streets.

AUIS Voice contacted government officials, they said that the girls need to be present in front of the judge to make their case. And their name will be censored out from the hearings. 

Despite this law, victims are hesitant and distrust the judicial system and the Asayish. What makes it worse for survivors to speak up is the number of stories about how these cases are not decided in favor of the victims and how difficult it is to reach the court and open a case.

The lack of support from government officials, court, police stations, GBV staff members, and social backlash, forces victims not to report the incidents and stay silent. Another reason that victims remain complicit in the sexual assaults they have faced is the social and family backlash that might put their lives in danger.

In many cases, girls are killed in these cases when the family knows they have been in a sexual act. Whether it was with consent or a rape case, the blame is on the girl who supposedly ruined the family’s honor. 

To clear the honor, the family kill the girl. These cases are called ‘honor cases’. The number of these cases is so high that the women graveyard in Sulaimani has a specific and separated section for the women who have been killed in honor cases. Their gravestones are empty, unnamed, and unmarked.

This is a significant factor that led most of the seven victims of the alleged rapist not to report him. They fear their families will find out in a way or another. Especially if the victim is underage, the police will inform the family directly.

One of the girls who spoke to AUIS Voice and who was raped by the alleged rapist said that her biggest fear is her family finding out. 

“My family can’t find out about this,” Lilith* said. “I will face unthinkable consequences.” 

Speaking of how they met, Lilith told AUIS Voice that they spoke on Snapchat and then “he immediately started flirting” even though he knew she was much younger and underage.

Despite trying to take her case to a women’s rights organization, Lilith was shocked by the response she got from them.

“I went to a women’s rights organization and the counselor there literally suggested that I marry him to make things ‘right’,” she said.

Lilith was one of the many girls who spoke up against the alleged rapist in their group friends. The individuals in these groups slowly started warning other people about the alleged rapist and what had happened. That was what made the threads gain quick popularity in a very short time. It was because people were warned, and everyone was waiting on who will blow the whistle first.

As of Sunday, no active case is opened against the alleged rapist. Most of the girls that AUIS Voice talked to had different reasons not to file reports against him. Some of them had no hope in the system to bring justice, some others feared for their lives if their families found out, and some others said that they are afraid he will share their private info and photos.

AUIS Voice reached out to the alleged rapist for comment, but they refused to comment.

*Names have been changed to protect identities