Kurdistan-based NGO warns of rising online violence, urges swift legislative action

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The head of a leading non-profit that is based in the Kurdistan Region has warned of increasing online violence targeting women and children, urging regional authorities to advance long-delayed legislation and implement coordinated protection mechanisms.

In an interview aired Monday, Sherri Kraham Talabany, president and co-founder of the SEED Foundation, told Rudaw that while violence against women remains pervasive at home and in public life, digital abuse has escalated rapidly, driven by fake accounts, low digital literacy, and the ease of exploiting victims online.

“Unfortunately, we don't have great data,” Talabany said, noting that most cases go unreported due to cultural restraints and fear of stigma. “Many women who suffer from violence do so at home, alone, and they aren't free to come forward.”

According to its website, SEED is a women-led organization “committed to protecting, empowering, and supporting the recovery and reintegration of survivors of violence and those at risk.”

Talabany said SEED receives “many, many cases” of women and girls seeking help to remove harmful content or stop exploitation, stressing that violence is reflected both in the digital and real worlds. “If violence is normalized, it's going to happen online and offline.”

She said image-based sexual abuse is now the most common issue SEED encounters, often affecting teenage girls, university students, and women active in public life. The online exploitation of boys is also a growing concern, she added, citing recruitment tactics by extremist groups - such as the Islamic State (ISIS) using video games - and sexual exploitation targeting young males.

Talabany underlined that legal reform is essential to address such forms of abuse.

“We don't have a law that prevents or responds to online violence. We have nothing regulating tech companies… and no clear punishments,” she said.

SEED recently released a legislative analysis and plans to present it once a new regional parliament and government assume duties.

The Kurdistan Region held its long-delayed parliamentary elections in October 2024, and a consensus cabinet is yet to be formed with stalled negotiations between the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).

Beyond legislation, she said the Kurdistan Region needs a unified government response with clear reporting channels. “Most people… just want the content taken down,” Talabany said, noting that victims often prefer to work with social workers or tech specialists rather than security forces.

SEED recently completed a three-week training program for 45 law enforcement officers on online child exploitation, identifying fake content, and survivor-centered approaches, she added.

Talabany also revealed that her own children have faced risks when their photos were recently published by media outlets, calling it “a very low blow,” driven by political motives.

Sherri is the wife of the Kurdistan Region’s Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabany - a senior member of the PUK.

“Kids should be off limits,” she urged.

Following is the full transcript of the interview with Sherri Kraham Talabany, president and co-founder of the SEED Foundation.

Rudaw: Can you give me data on digital bullying cases in Kurdistan? Who are the victims? And where?

Sherri Kraham Talabany: Unfortunately, we don't have great data. First of all, thank you for having me back. [In Kurdish]

You have made progress, Ms. Sherri, you are speaking Kurdish! Welcome.

Progress! [In Kurdish] Thank you. I am trying.

So, unfortunately, we don't have great data. We know that the prevalence of violence against women is high. It's in the home. But we don't have government statistics. And I can tell you about the kind of work that we do, but it's difficult to say the scope of the problem when we don't have reported data. And also, most cases don't report data. Like, most cases don't report. Many women who suffer from violence suffer at home, alone, and they aren't free to come forward.

What is happening now over digital media platforms might be difficult to obtain data about, because they use fake names and people might settle the issue by blocking. Has violence increased against women? And in what form? Or let’s say has it increased against families?

Well, if violence is normalized, it's going to happen online and offline. And so we think the prevalence of online violence against women and girls in Iraq is high. 86 percent of women are on the Internet. Women and girls are on the Internet. So we have very high usage, but we have low digital literacy and low awareness about how to stay safe online. So, globally, about one-third of women face violence or harassment online. So it's a very, very high rate of violence. We don't have good data for Kurdistan, but we have SEED”s cases. We get many, many cases of women and girls that are asking for help to remove harmful content against them, to stop exploitation against them. And they face harassment and abuse online. And you know, in the media, candidates for public office face a lot of violence and harassment online.

The problem is that in the Kurdistan Region and let’s say in Middle Eastern society, such risks are not taken seriously unless it poses risk to the life of the victim. Have you received such cases? For example cases where a woman’s life is in danger? Or a threat to a girl’s safety who seeks help from you?

Yeah, so we, for the past seven or eight years, have had many, many cases. Every month we have new cases of people being exploited online and people facing harassment. So our focus is on prevention. How to stay safe online, how to protect yourself, how to share information safely, how not to become friends with somebody who doesn't have your best interest. And we find that young people, both boys and girls, face a lot of risks online because there are predators and they're professional, and they're going after children because they're easy targets. And when you have a society here with conservative norms, then it makes it very easy to prey upon children and women because it's not safe for them to speak up when something happens to them.

You said that both girls and boys face harassment and violence. That is something that I need to emphasize because it is true. Boys face that kind of violence, but society’s punishment for boys may not be as harsh as it would be for girls. That is why we talk more about girls and children. Can you tell me how we can stop the violence? Because at SEED, you had prepared your agenda and presented it as a project to the government, explaining what can be done, especially since you have done a legal analysis. I want to know what the solution is for this?

Yeah. So women and girls are always more vulnerable because of the cultural norms and the shame. If somebody is attacked, they don't feel like they can come forward. But we also have to recognize that boys are vulnerable, too. They could be vulnerable to online recruitment. ISIS uses games to recruit young men all across Iraq, and they still do that, and it's a very effective way of recruiting boys. So that's an online violence, harm against boys. There's also exploitation. In the same way, sexual exploitation of boys, there's human trafficking of both boys and girls. So we see it as a huge risk, and we see the solutions. The solutions, once you put them in place, they can help everybody be safer.

What would be the solution?

So it's a complex problem, and we have to go at many levels. The first is having legislative protection. So we don't have a law that prevents or responds to online violence. We don't have anything that regulates the tech companies. We don't have something that is child- or women-friendly. We don't have clear reporting lines. We don't have one government agency that's responsible for this, and we don't have clear punishment. So we need legislation. It should balance freedom of speech and freedom of expression with criminalizing online harmful content and online violence. So that's the first thing that we need.

We also need a government-mandated response. So many agencies across the government are getting cases like this, but we need them to be trained, equipped. We have to know which government agency is in the lead. We have to have reporting mechanisms. Who to call when something like this happens? And most people, when something terrible happens, they just want the content taken down. They may not want to file a criminal case, so they may not feel comfortable going to the police or the security forces to get help. They want a social worker or somebody in technology to help them remove the content.

So we need an appropriate response by government, and then we need digital awareness by all of us. So parents need to know how to protect their children online. Children need to know. And adults, women, anybody can be at risk. So we all need to know how to protect ourselves online.

We will touch on the topic of protection later, but who faces violence more? I know we said it is both boys and girls, but what age group? Do they live in urban or suburban areas? Are they literate, are they students, workers, or housekeepers? Who are the victims?

So the number one crime that we see, or the violence that we see, is image-based sexual abuse. So a picture, an image, a video, real or fake. We have all these deep fakes now. And then it's used to exploit women. And usually we're seeing teenage girls, young women in university, and they're the women that are engaging in public life. So it's very easy to manipulate. It's very easy to prey upon them. And they don't feel safe talking to their parents about the harm. So I think they're the most vulnerable. But then we see women in the public life, women in the media, women politicians, women government officials, women in the NGOs. And we see a lot of false accusations, attacks, fake information, fake videos, harassment, and even threats of violence to women across the public space. So these are the two most prevalent things that we see in our work.

Since the use of AI has become common, it is hard to tell which is a real or a fake video. They can make it look like you are sitting with another anchor, or I have another guest here. What can the people or parliament, or government do to help us distinguish what is real and what is fake? Whose job is it to determine that?

Yeah. Well, I definitely, my kids, my teenage kids, make fun of me a lot because I can't tell the difference between a fake and a real, right? It's really hard to see the difference, so you really have to be expert. So we just finished three weeks of training for 45 law enforcement officers from all different agencies across Kurdistan, from all different places across Kurdistan.

The first week was talking about what online child exploitation is. And the second week was how to investigate, how to look at whether something's a fake. So there's a lot of technology available to help you identify whether something is real or not real. And then ways that they can investigate the crimes more deeply and identify where the source is coming from. And then the third week was how they work with victims, how they can be survivor-centered, and how they work with children and women that are vulnerable. So we did very comprehensive training for law enforcement on just this issue.

You were my guest last year, and we talked about the existing laws to protect women and girls and how they need to be improved. But the Iraqi parliament has not proposed any changes to those laws. Now that those cases are more complicated with the emergence of AI and digital abuse, don’t you feel that our government is very slow in adapting to all those changes?

Well, I think it's a very hard issue to get our hands around. And governments all over the world are grappling with what kind of law we need? What's the government response? So what we're trying to do right now is we have a lot of advocacy with the government. We have a new report that we've just released about our legislative recommendations. So when we have a new parliament, we will go to parliament. When we have a new ministry, a new minister, a new council of ministers, we will also make our recommendation about the law. And we are available to help draft a law. So that's the first thing.

The second thing is deciding what the government response is going to be. Is it one agency? Is it a bunch of agencies? Is it [Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs] MOLSA and [Ministry of Interior] MOI? Who's taking the call and who's responding? And we have a number of models around the world for different ways that governments are dealing with this. So we have all this information, and we're ready to work with a new government once they're formed, and ready to work with a new parliament once they're in place. The one thing that I think is very positive is that I think everybody agrees this is a huge problem and that we need to do something about it. So I think there's a lot of momentum.

I think everybody here in Kurdistan sees it as a big problem. So it's our job to put it on the agenda of the next parliament and ensure that they will be supportive. And I think there are people in government that are very, very focused on this. We have a law, but it's not quite what we need to address the issues that you just mentioned. AI, different types of technology. It doesn't name where to go if you need help. It doesn't talk about protective services. So we need to do a lot of work on the law.

We are waiting for the government to form and start their duties. With your permission, I will get off topic here. Mr. Qubad is in Baghdad now. When will he return? He is in the middle of negotiations with the Iraqi government to form the new cabinet. He is in Baghdad now. When will he return?

You know, I don't know. Sometimes we're two ships passing in the night. He's got his job and I've got mine. But, well, we come together when he's back. And I know I have his ear on this issue because I think he's very, very interested in fighting online violence and he sees the impact that it has on society. First of all, we're both parents and we're both parents of teenage kids. And I know that every parent in Kurdistan is struggling with what we're struggling with.

The amount of information, the online addiction, right? The addiction to the dopamine rush. The access to information that's not appropriate for kids, right? They have access to so much information. So we grapple with this as parents. And we know that many other parents are struggling with the same issue. And we know about the huge risks to young women and all women, really, of being online. So we don't want to get rid of the Internet. It has huge benefits. But we need to focus on how we can make people safer here.

I think Australia has decided to ban social media on people younger than 16 years old. Do you think something like that would be possible here or even good for us? Is it even practical?

First of all, we've been talking to the Australian government over several years because they have a very unique person. Julie Inman Grant is the e-commissioner. So she's a regulator. She has an agency that has law enforcement, investigators, psychologists, tech people that take things down. So they have a really interesting model in Australia. And she's very, very aggressively gone after social media. And the reason why is because she says the tech companies don't have safe procedures in place.

So I think they see that the Internet is not safe for kids under 16, the social media. And I agree with that. If I could cut my kids off of social media tomorrow, I would do it in a heartbeat. They won't be happy with me today. But, yeah, I think that many people here think that cutting off is the way to go. I think the starting point is to help kids be safer online and to have parents more open to listening to their kids and talking to their kids about risks online and listening and being supportive to them.

It seems like the case is a personal one for you since you have young children. Have they ever faced bullying because of who you are and what you do? Have they faced any violence or threats? Online or in real life?

Yeah, I mean, we have cases where media companies and outlets are publishing their names and their photos. And I think it's political. And I think kids should be - kids, spouses, like, I'm a public person. So I think I'm fair game, right? But our kids should be not highlighted in the media. I think that's really unfair. I think it's a very low blow. And I think that that makes my kids have real security risks and real online risks if their photos are published. So, yeah, I think kids should be off limits.

Thank you so, so much. I am delighted every time you are our guest. Sometimes, I extend the program because talking with you is pleasant, and you give us information, and you truly speak about current realities.

[in Kurdish] Thank you so much. I am very delighted. And I really appreciate that you cover this issue every 16 days, every year. I'm happy to come back. And I think the work that you're doing is great.

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