Many of the citizens of Kurdistan call the parliament an "useless" institution. Representatives of the people are silent at a time when they must have a voice. When they start talking, they occupy themselves with secondary issues. Their latest work is to discuss blocking pornographic websites .
And re-submitted a draft resolution by a number of members of the Parliament of Kurdistan to block the pornographic sites between the two fronts secular and Islamic, although some of the supporters of the project were the forces calculated on the secular .
Supporters of the project believe that their step is to protect society from deviation from what opponents see as a tightening of personal freedoms, although the implementation of the resolution, if ratified, can not prevent the opening of pornographic sites .
Given the fact that the majority of the Kurdish community of Muslims, some of the suggestions to make the draft resolution an attempt to satisfy the public, especially as the Kurdistan region ahead of the crucial elections to choose the Iraqi parliament and the provincial elections and the parliament of Kurdistan .
Porn sites to the forefront
At the end of last January, 13 deputies submitted a memorandum to the parliament's presidency demanding the banning of pornographic sites in Kurdistan, while the subject has been discussed in the last few days .
"The idea goes back to 2015, but the disintegration of the parliament has disrupted the idea as well," said Najeeba Latif, a member of the Jamaat-e-Islami bloc, one of the signatories to the memorandum .
"According to the resolution we want to work on blocking pornographic sites, which is possible through the government so that no one can open those sites, because we felt the risks of that step on the youth of the region ."
There is still no census or scientific report to support the decision and explain the damage of those sites to young people, which is the main justification for the project .
"There have been follow-ups on the subject in the past, but now we are working on it more accurately through a poll until the first reading of the project in parliament ."
Islamic Forces Project
The project was prepared by the Islamic forces in the parliament of Kurdistan, and the 13 deputies who signed for the discussion of the project, six of them affiliated to the forces that do not belong to the Islamic political front, but counted on the secular front, including the Democratic Party and the Movement for Change .
"I am a secular person, but I supported the project with a social objective that relates to the reality of the Kurdistan Regional Society and not an ideological trend, " said MP Awaz Hamid of the Democratic Party bloc, which signed the bill .
"These sites have raised many social problems that are incompatible with our society and alienated young people from scientific issues, " she said.
In addition to the mockery of a large number of citizens in such a step and making videos on them on social networking sites, the draft resolution was again exposed to the conflict between secularists and Islamists, although the equation is not equal, supporters of the blocking of porn sites in parliament are more than opponents .
The bloc of freedom is the only bloc in parliament that declared its opposition to the draft explicitly. "The project has shown the true face of secularists and Islamists in parliament," MP Abu Karwan of the Freedom Bloc, a member of the Political Bureau of the Kurdistan Communist Party, said at the same time .
Abu Karwan said that the blocking of pornographic sites violates personal freedoms and should not be dealt with in this way. He added that "the current parliament will not dare to reject the draft if it is put to a vote because they fear the Muslim community of the region, and some of the support received by the project is approaching the date Elections ".
Differences over the religious source
The draft resolution is not in isolation from the remarks of the non-Muslim components in parliament, which entered into disputes with the Islamic parties when drafting the constitution of the Kurdistan region on the religious source of the Constitution .
"The decision restricts personal freedoms, and it is not in the parliament's interest to make such decisions," said MP Saroud Selim of the Christian Bloc of Christians. "We can not block or prevent pornographic sites, but we need to raise awareness among young people about the phenomenon ."
At a time when these moves provoke the anger of many of the citizens of Kurdistan, but the parliament took another step that increased the anger of people, as he approved on February 27, the draft law on pension reform, which faced considerable objections, the parliament instead of issuing decisions to pour In the interest of citizens, the pension of the ordinary citizen was set at (300) thousand dinars, while the retirement pension for members of parliament and the higher grades of four million dinars .
The current session of parliament, which has been stalled for two years, has been unable to decide on bills to ease the burden on citizens caused by the economic crisis since 2014 .
Parliament is disabled for two years
"There were more important economic and social laws related to the citizen's life that were not dealt with by the parliament, especially in the current session in which the parliament did not work for two years, and this problem existed even during the previous sessions of the parliament, " said Nemat Abdullah .
The head of the parliamentarians' union said that the lack of dealing with important issues in parliament is related to political, religious and social equations. "Some want to avoid getting close to these issues and preoccupying with secondary issues, " he said.
The fear of losing the public during the election has prompted a large part of the non-Islamist forces not to stand against projects that might anger the Muslim majority, even if they deal with personal freedoms .
"There must be a difference in the view of secular parties from conservative parties in the course of such projects on personal freedoms, " said Omid Rafik, head of the Future Research Center, a think tank .
He added: "The Kurdish political party does not have a strong political and intellectual background and the existing confusion is related to the politeness and political bets. The parties are not honest with their voters and they are always afraid of a clash with public beliefs and the loss of their votes ."
Ideological conflict
Apart from the ideological struggle over the draft resolution blocking pornographic sites, it does not seem that the project will see the light as hoped by its supporters, as the experience of blocking pornographic sites in Iraq prevented in spite of the Iraqi parliament's decision in this regard in 2015 .
"The decision was not successful in practice and therefore was not implemented by the government, " said Zana Rustaii, a member of the Iraqi parliament .
It seems that throwing the ball by the Parliament of Kurdistan to the field of government in terms of blocking pornography sites will follow the path taken by Iraq itself three years ago .
"If Parliament passes the resolution, we will commit to implementing it as the government side, but implementing this step is difficult in practice, " said Omid Mohammed, spokesman for the ministry's transport and communications ministry .
The spokesman said that there are three million pornographic sites in the world and can not be blocked as sites and if so, the barrier can be broken later. If blocked by the word SEX, this will prevent the publication of published scientific research on the subject on the Internet as well .
For these reasons, many people who are angry with the performance of members of the Kurdistan parliament believe that such projects are to provoke an uproar in the media that ends the current session of the parliament and through which they gain a range of privileges .
SOURCE
And re-submitted a draft resolution by a number of members of the Parliament of Kurdistan to block the pornographic sites between the two fronts secular and Islamic, although some of the supporters of the project were the forces calculated on the secular .
Supporters of the project believe that their step is to protect society from deviation from what opponents see as a tightening of personal freedoms, although the implementation of the resolution, if ratified, can not prevent the opening of pornographic sites .
Given the fact that the majority of the Kurdish community of Muslims, some of the suggestions to make the draft resolution an attempt to satisfy the public, especially as the Kurdistan region ahead of the crucial elections to choose the Iraqi parliament and the provincial elections and the parliament of Kurdistan .
Porn sites to the forefront
At the end of last January, 13 deputies submitted a memorandum to the parliament's presidency demanding the banning of pornographic sites in Kurdistan, while the subject has been discussed in the last few days .
"The idea goes back to 2015, but the disintegration of the parliament has disrupted the idea as well," said Najeeba Latif, a member of the Jamaat-e-Islami bloc, one of the signatories to the memorandum .
"According to the resolution we want to work on blocking pornographic sites, which is possible through the government so that no one can open those sites, because we felt the risks of that step on the youth of the region ."
There is still no census or scientific report to support the decision and explain the damage of those sites to young people, which is the main justification for the project .
"There have been follow-ups on the subject in the past, but now we are working on it more accurately through a poll until the first reading of the project in parliament ."
Islamic Forces Project
The project was prepared by the Islamic forces in the parliament of Kurdistan, and the 13 deputies who signed for the discussion of the project, six of them affiliated to the forces that do not belong to the Islamic political front, but counted on the secular front, including the Democratic Party and the Movement for Change .
"I am a secular person, but I supported the project with a social objective that relates to the reality of the Kurdistan Regional Society and not an ideological trend, " said MP Awaz Hamid of the Democratic Party bloc, which signed the bill .
"These sites have raised many social problems that are incompatible with our society and alienated young people from scientific issues, " she said.
In addition to the mockery of a large number of citizens in such a step and making videos on them on social networking sites, the draft resolution was again exposed to the conflict between secularists and Islamists, although the equation is not equal, supporters of the blocking of porn sites in parliament are more than opponents .
The bloc of freedom is the only bloc in parliament that declared its opposition to the draft explicitly. "The project has shown the true face of secularists and Islamists in parliament," MP Abu Karwan of the Freedom Bloc, a member of the Political Bureau of the Kurdistan Communist Party, said at the same time .
Abu Karwan said that the blocking of pornographic sites violates personal freedoms and should not be dealt with in this way. He added that "the current parliament will not dare to reject the draft if it is put to a vote because they fear the Muslim community of the region, and some of the support received by the project is approaching the date Elections ".
Differences over the religious source
The draft resolution is not in isolation from the remarks of the non-Muslim components in parliament, which entered into disputes with the Islamic parties when drafting the constitution of the Kurdistan region on the religious source of the Constitution .
"The decision restricts personal freedoms, and it is not in the parliament's interest to make such decisions," said MP Saroud Selim of the Christian Bloc of Christians. "We can not block or prevent pornographic sites, but we need to raise awareness among young people about the phenomenon ."
At a time when these moves provoke the anger of many of the citizens of Kurdistan, but the parliament took another step that increased the anger of people, as he approved on February 27, the draft law on pension reform, which faced considerable objections, the parliament instead of issuing decisions to pour In the interest of citizens, the pension of the ordinary citizen was set at (300) thousand dinars, while the retirement pension for members of parliament and the higher grades of four million dinars .
The current session of parliament, which has been stalled for two years, has been unable to decide on bills to ease the burden on citizens caused by the economic crisis since 2014 .
Parliament is disabled for two years
"There were more important economic and social laws related to the citizen's life that were not dealt with by the parliament, especially in the current session in which the parliament did not work for two years, and this problem existed even during the previous sessions of the parliament, " said Nemat Abdullah .
The head of the parliamentarians' union said that the lack of dealing with important issues in parliament is related to political, religious and social equations. "Some want to avoid getting close to these issues and preoccupying with secondary issues, " he said.
The fear of losing the public during the election has prompted a large part of the non-Islamist forces not to stand against projects that might anger the Muslim majority, even if they deal with personal freedoms .
"There must be a difference in the view of secular parties from conservative parties in the course of such projects on personal freedoms, " said Omid Rafik, head of the Future Research Center, a think tank .
He added: "The Kurdish political party does not have a strong political and intellectual background and the existing confusion is related to the politeness and political bets. The parties are not honest with their voters and they are always afraid of a clash with public beliefs and the loss of their votes ."
Ideological conflict
Apart from the ideological struggle over the draft resolution blocking pornographic sites, it does not seem that the project will see the light as hoped by its supporters, as the experience of blocking pornographic sites in Iraq prevented in spite of the Iraqi parliament's decision in this regard in 2015 .
"The decision was not successful in practice and therefore was not implemented by the government, " said Zana Rustaii, a member of the Iraqi parliament .
It seems that throwing the ball by the Parliament of Kurdistan to the field of government in terms of blocking pornography sites will follow the path taken by Iraq itself three years ago .
"If Parliament passes the resolution, we will commit to implementing it as the government side, but implementing this step is difficult in practice, " said Omid Mohammed, spokesman for the ministry's transport and communications ministry .
The spokesman said that there are three million pornographic sites in the world and can not be blocked as sites and if so, the barrier can be broken later. If blocked by the word SEX, this will prevent the publication of published scientific research on the subject on the Internet as well .
For these reasons, many people who are angry with the performance of members of the Kurdistan parliament believe that such projects are to provoke an uproar in the media that ends the current session of the parliament and through which they gain a range of privileges .
SOURCE