Highlighting the Invisible: An Interview with Avan Sdiq

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.13169/jinte.6.1.0006
• Published date: 11 November 2022
• Date: 11 November 2022
• Pages: 59-67
• Author: Avan Sdiq,Meriwan Abdullah,Allison Appelfeller
• Subject Matter: Kurdish art,Avan Sdiq,Nawi Min Nawi Daikama,Iraqi Kurdistan,intersectionality,conflict

Journal of Intersectionality

59DOI: 10.13169/jinte.6.1.0006

Highlighng the Invisible: An Interview with Avan Sdiq

Avan Sdiq

Artist, S ulaimani, Iraqi Kurdist an

Interviewed by Meriwan A bdullah

Artist, At lanta, Georgia , USA

With Allison Appelfeller

Master of Arts i n Social Sciences Progra m, Georgia Souther n University

Abstract: Sulaimani-based artist Avan Sdiq talks about her involvement with Nawi Min Nawi Daikama,

an activist project working to change the laws regarding the carti nishtinmani Iraqi (Iraqi identication card)

for cases of children who are born after rape, abuse, or abandonment. Sdiq discusses what she thinks are

the biggest challenges facing the art world in Kurdistan and her view of the role of the artist in Kurdish

society.

Keywords: Kurdish art, Avan Sdiq, Nawi Min Nawi Daikama, Iraqi Kurdistan, intersectionality, conict

Meriwan Abdullah (MA): Welcome, Avan. Thank you for taking time to talk with us and for

contributing to “Making Spaces: Art, Culture & Dierence in Iraqi Kurdistan.” First, I would like

to make sure that our readers know that your artwork, a piece titled, “The Passivists,” is featured

prominently on the front cover of this special issue. We are very pleased and excited to have both

your artwork and you featured here with us.

My rst question for you has to do with your involvement with the project Nawi Min Nawi

Daikama. Could you tell us a bit more about this bold project?

Avan Sdiq (AS): Yes, thank you! This project has been organized by the People’s Organization for

Development (PDO), which specializes in cases of women’s rights. This project includes a group of

activists and lawyers, scholars of law, as well as some members of parliament who were previously

part of the Kurdish Regional Government. They are working to change the laws regarding the carti

nishtinmani Iraqi (Iraqi identication card). Specically, they are trying to change two laws regarding

the carti nishtinmanti Iraqi for cases of children who are born where the father is unknown. The

concern is for cases like the children born after rape or abuse, or where the father didn’t accept

the responsibility of fatherhood. These include those children who were born during the war,

[those] who were fathered by ISIS soldiers, as products of rape and for many other cases, where

the mother and father never married but produced a child.

By cultural tradition and in the legal tradition in Iraqi Kurdistan, these children are na shari

(illegitimate). The problem is that from the time they are born, they are facing many problems

and will for the rest of their lives. The rst trouble is that they will be separated from all the other