ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Two Kurds from Afrin in northern Syria are running in local elections in Germany's North Rhine-Westphalia, hoping to tackle discrimination against refugees and migrants.
Roudy Ali and Fauzi Dilber are hoping to be elected onto the state's integration council, which makes recommendations to the provincial government.
Ali moved to Germany five years ago. A university student, she is running as an independent candidate and hopes to increase representation for Kurds.
“Unfortunately, there have not been many Kurds in the council to be our voices so far,” she told Rudaw.
“They cannot understand me well unless I am with them,” she said, referring to local officials.
Ali claims she was barred from running for student elections at university because her surname “is not German.”
“I do not want them to say ‘Your surname and appearance is not German. Therefore, we will not allow you to work here.’ This racism is everywhere. I want to remove it through the council.”
Dilber is also from Afrin. He moved to Germany 18 years ago, and has already been a member of the integration council for six years. He is running on the ticket of the Social Democratic Party (SPD).
“I have always wanted to talk about Kurds in Bonn city because statistics say how many Turks, Arabs and Italians live here but they never say how many Kurds are in Bonn. I brought up the subject in one of the meetings one day,” he told Rudaw.
He said that there are many issues in the city “which need to be resolved.”
“You cannot sit at home and complain. You have to be involved in politics to discuss them and let your surroundings know that there is such an issue that needs to be resolved.”
Reporting from Alla Shally and Hemen Abdulla
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