ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Lawmakers in the Kurdistan Region parliament elected the chamber’s first ever female speaker and second deputy speaker on Monday, allowing women to lead the body for the first time since its foundation in 1992.
“It is a pride for all Kurds to have a woman as the speaker of the Kurdistan parliament,” Vala Farid, the newly elected speaker of parliament, told Rudaw following her election.
Born in Erbil in 1976, Fared went on to study law, achieving her PhD in the field. She was first elected as an MP in the previous session of parliament.
Farid secured the post of speaker for the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) – the biggest party in the parliament. However, she will only hold the position temporarily until the Region’s second biggest party, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), strikes a deal with the KDP on the formal division of powers.
The PUK has two candidates who are also woman, meaning a woman is guaranteed to take the post.
However, Farid said gender politics is less important than efforts to “appease all factions and the people of Kurdistan.”
Muna Kahveci, a female MP from the Turkmen Reform Party, was elected as second deputy speaker – also the first woman to hold this post.
Furthermore, Kahveci is the first minority to hold a senior post in the KRG.
Turkmen MP Muna Kahveci. Photo: Rudaw video
“Posts are not important for us, but the handover of power is. Let’s make it a tradition to prioritize serving people, not gaining positions,” Kahveci told Rudaw.
Her appointment will expire in two years when she will step aside to allow a male MP from another Turkmen party to take over as per their deal.
Hemin Hawrami, a male MP from the KDP, was meanwhile elected as first deputy speaker.