Shafaq An interview with the Faily Kurdish writer and journalist Shehab Ahmed Shifi…

Interviewed by Kifah Hadi Translated by Abdul Aziz Lazim

Q: What is behind your preference of publication in the 'Albayina Aljadida " newspaper?
I have found the large heartedness in Journal of  "Albayina Aljadida which was  not found in its Iraqi counterparts. Its editor in chief the late Sattar Jabbar did not impose any restrictions on the writer or the editor to treat him as a pen caught by the newspaper's administration. But most Iraqi journalists contribute in making the narrow space of freedom for fear of the consequences and reactions that can be caused by their bold opinions.
* How do you read the draft law of journalists protection submitted by the Journalists Syndicate for approval by the parliament?
I think that the draft submitted by the Government to the parliament has got many differences from the draft prepared by the Journalists Syndicate, and I believe that the draft of the union meets the need of the media process in Iraq. We need a wide space not restricted by the taboos and prohibitions imposed by many parties on the writers and journalists.
* You are a Kurdish writer, why do not you write in your Faily Kurdish dialect instead of Arabic you chose?

There is a big problematic status  experienced by  the Kurdish issue, it is the lack  of understanding of the other Arabs for the issue of the Kurds, and I think that the Kurdish writers  contribute to widening the gap between the most important two Iraqi components, because they write about their cause in Kurdish language and publish it in the Kurdish mass media .So I chose to write in Arabic hoping that I may extend a bridge of communication between Arabs and Kurds.
* How did  Shehab Ahmed  Shifi deal with the issue of the Faily Kurds?
The privacy of the Faily Kurds derives from the fact that they ,faced the repressive policy of chauvinism by the former regime  which was rare in the world. The  regime tried to uproot their presence through displacing them and dispossession of all elements of human existence from them .