ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said on Monday that the Kurdish language has not received enough attention in Iraq and the Region despite being an official language.
“Even though the Kurdish language is an official language of Iraq and of the Kurdistan Region according to the Iraqi Constitution, this language has unfortunately not been addressed enough in either Iraq or the Kurdistan Region,” Barzani said in a statement to celebrate International Mother Language Day.
“If valuing this day is important for other nations, it must be a priority for the people of Kurdistan, for whom our mother language has been a key factor in our survival alongside our years of struggle and sacrifice,” he noted.
As set out in Article 4 of Iraq’s constitution, Arabic and Kurdish are the country's official languages, stipulating that they should be used in the Official Gazette, official speeches, conversations and expressions as well as official documents, bank notes, passports and stamps. It adds that this also means opening schools that teach the two languages, in accordance with the educational guidelines.
However, Bryar Rasheed, a Kurdish member of the Iraqi parliament, told Rudaw on Monday that the Article has not been implemented when it comes to the Kurdish language.
Sirwan Sirini, Secretary-General of Iraq’s parliament, said that there are several reasons behind the marginalisation of Kurdish language by the federal government, such as the impact of the successive Iraqi regimes on the current establishment, blaming Kurdish officials for their “shortcoming.”
Even in Kurdistan Region, many employers categorise the Kurdish language as “preferred” while considering Arabic and English languages as “required” in their job descriptions. Most private schools treat the Kurdish language as a secondary language and English as the main one.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has been funding Kurdish education in areas disputed between Erbil and Baghdad. However, the KRG’s failure to pay teachers in full and on time has harmed Kurdish education as many teachers have transferred to federally funded schools.
