Political activist Halo Samî has been in police custody in Hewlêr (Erbil) for three days without explanation. Last Friday Samî had drawn attention to the arrest of his mother Samîra Hamad Amîn with an action of civil disobedience in front of the Kela Hewlêrê citadel in the centre of the metropolis and demanded her release with a poem he recited.

The 65-year-old woman had been arrested on August 6 after a raid by security forces of the ruling KDP in her house in Hewlêr. The activist of the women's organisation RJAK, who is also a member of the radical democratic party Tevgera Azadî, is accused of having participated in a demonstration in July in Sulaymaniyah in favour of Kurdish unity and against the Turkish invasion of Southern Kurdistan. Other activists from the women's movement and civil society organisations were also arrested a week and a half ago.

Halo Samî during his action in Hewlêr

RJAK: Undignified act

The RJAK coordination had sharply condemned the wave of arrests and called it an "undignified act against women". Especially with regard to Samîra Hamad Amîn, who had participated in the "September Revolution" of 1975 in Southern Kurdistan and later in the uprising (Raperîn) against the Saddam regime in 1991. One consequence of this rebellion was the de facto autonomy of the Kurdish population in Northern Iraq and the creation of the Autonomous Region of Kurdistan. Since the 1990s, Amîn has also been working for women's rights in Southern Kurdistan.

Repression against political opposition

Similar to the Turkish state, the KDP has recently directed its repression especially against active women. The KDP stands on the side of the Turkish state against a political unity project of the Kurds, which it considers a threat to its power base, and de facto supports Turkey's occupation ambitions.