A young Kurdish woman is breaking boundaries in Iraq by performing live in a bar at night and majoring in IT. We met with Shaveen Salih, 19, at a modern cafe in Sulaymaniyah, the cosmopolitan heart of the Kurdistan Region, Iraq.
We had been talking over a few glasses of red wine about journalism, politics and the horrors of war, perhaps a typical conversation for most young Iraqis these days. But the conversation stopped as soon as Shaveen and Aros stepped onto the stage and started performing. Aros’s powerful, deep voice in perfect harmony with his guitar met Shaveen’s serene one. It gave us goosebumps and left us cheering out loud. A boy and a girl drinking in a restaurant and listening to live renditions of everyone’s favorite English songs is not a typical night out in Kurdistan.
Despite liberal aspects of Sulaymaniyah, it is still part of a wider patriarchy and falls behind other major Middle Eastern cities such as Beirut or Amman. You’ll find the men out on most nights on the main road called Saholaka at makeshift tea houses discussing politics or playing tawla. Recently, women have started taking over Saholaka in a sort of “tea house revolution.”
We sit down for an interview with Shaveen but the questions don’t even need to be asked because she dives directly into the answers. She pauses only when the time comes to order coffee. Her determination is evident as soon as she starts to talk about her passion: singing. She’s currently studying IT at the American University of Iraq Sulaymaniyah and she competed with a green energy start-up in the Hult Prize last summer, making it to the semi-finals in London. She loves challenging herself and solving puzzles, and finds IT to be an escape. For someone who describes herself as an introvert, she is eloquent and certain about what she wants from her life. She laughs as she answers questions that have not yet been asked and apologizes for doing so.
Unfortunately, the stories that emerge from Iraq are predominantly anecdotes of war and death. Iraq has been in turmoil since the 2003 US-led invasion, and though the government declared that the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) had been defeated a year ago, the country will undergo a long and hard process of reconstruction.
War and regime change have led some parts of the country to become more religious and conservative than others. Though Sulaymaniyah is one of the most open-minded cities for women, differences between males and females are still embedded in culture and mentality. This is being tackled by youth like Shaveen who are breaking stereotypes and working towards a more modern society.
“I’ve always been about breaking the border, wanting to be the odd one out even if it meant being risky or a sacrifice. So far it’s gone well.”
While singing live in a bar may not seem revolutionary, doing so in a country that considers it unusual for a woman to do so is. Though the Kurdistan Region is considered more liberal than the rest of Iraq, it still has a long road ahead with regards to women in society. In Kurdistan and in Iraq, people are not used to seeing a woman singing on stage, particularly at night in a bar serving alcohol. Being a singer is a career that often comes with a bad reputation, and that was Shaveen’s main concern.
She was born in Sulaymaniyah but moved to Turkey when she was one-year-old. Her father was a film director at the time and due to his controversial line of work, the family sought asylum in Australia three years later, where they remained until she was twelve. She then returned to Sulaymaniyah with her mother and was faced with the difference in culture and mentality.
“When you come here you constantly have to limit yourself, be aware of how you act. Initially it was difficult, but after awhile you get used to it and you learn how to improve the situation for yourself. Not just for yourself but for others, for other women to break out of their shell and be who they want to be.”
She remembers that back then you wouldn’t really see girls riding a bike outside. “I was rebellious and I said mum, I want to go ride a bike, I don’t care what people think”. So she rode a bike.
Singing in English in a bar is a step forward to breaking barriers for women. Three months ago, she was approached by a restaurant called ‘The Grill’ and now performs live every Saturday night. Between a few sips of her cappuccino, Shaveen tells us she aspires to challenge the taboos attached to female singers and that her main goal is to give back to her mother, a strong woman who she looks up to.
Shaveen’s mother pushed the boundaries by raising her daughter as a divorced, single mom in Kurdish society. She challenged the norms and the stigma that comes with being divorced, and in turn, inspired Shaveen to challenge the rules. Typically, the man is the head of the household in Kurdish families, but in this household, it’s two inspirational woman and a maltese called Cookie.
Shaveen is writing the lyrics for her own soon to be released EP. The songs target every aspect of her life – love, empowerment, sadness, and her “dark side.” Through music, she expresses who she is and how she feels, and seeks to improve people’s days, to make her audience feel better. When asked about her dark side, she tells us it’s not something she talks about but is the outcome of her life experiences. She loves singing, but hates the attention it brings.
We’re getting hungry and waiting for the pizzas we thought we ordered but never did. She orders a pizza with pineapple and we debate whether that’s acceptable or not. She “likes to be different,” she says.
Shaveen is ambitious, academically driven, loves learning, and finds herself torn between her two dreams–being a singer or an entrepreneur. She believes that many gaps in the market need to be filled in a war-torn country such as Iraq. She has immense talent. Whatever she chooses, it’s clear these are the sort of people Iraq needs in order to rebuild.
