ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A number of deaf people on Friday called on the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to allow them to drive vehicles.
Friday was International Day of Sign Languages which is celebrated by the deaf.
Rudaw’s Horvan Rafaat spoke to a number of people who are completely deaf in Sulaimani province. They talked about their transportation issues as they are not allowed by the KRG to drive cars.
Ahmed Omar is completely deaf. He sells tea in the entrance of a mosque in Sulaimani. He is not allowed to drive a car and cannot easily communicate with taxi drivers. Therefore, he uses his motorcycle to commute to work - which is also illegal.
“I have been doing this work for a year… I can make ends meet because I am not married,” he said.
There are 8,000 hearing-impaired people in the Kurdistan Region, most of them live in the capital city of Erbil.
“I need to drive a car but I am not allowed to do so. If I do not drive a car, then I have to come to work via a bicycle or motorcycle. However, we fall sick in winter due to coldness and our condition is not good in summer as well. I hope the government helps us so that we can live normally,” added Omar.
Hawkar Majeed is another person who is completely deaf. He has a motorcycle.
“I want to buy a car but I do not have a driving licence. I only have this motorcycle with which I take my wife to places, go to my father in law’s house and go on a picnic,” he told Rudaw.
He called on the government to grant him a driving licence.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Friday said governments “should act to ensure greater inclusion” of the deaf.
It added that there are around 70 million deaf people in the world.
“People who are deaf or hard of hearing are often excluded from their communities, denied equal access to basic services and face stigma and violence. Students who are deaf are uprooted from families and communities because their school doesn’t offer instruction in sign language,” said the HRW.
Bahar Mahmoud teaches deaf people sign language in Sulaimani. She said that her students have many issues.
“There are many issues. For example, if I want to collect them for an activity or a work, there will be no one who can take them here and they cannot take a taxi due to communication issues,” she said.
Miheddin Sharif, head of Erbil province’s medical examinations directorate, told Rudaw’s Shahyan Tahseen on Friday that as per the instructions sent to them, people who are completely deaf cannot drive a car but those whose who are partially deaf can if they put devices in their ears which boost their hearing ability.
“As far as I know, they [KRG health ministry] do not have any detailed instructions. We only work as per directions issued by Baghdad.”
Sharif said deaf people's inability to hear car horns may cause traffic accidents.
