Fear of Freedom is Fear of Truth
Dwin Ali – Activist
In Kurdistan today, the greatest fear is not of foreign powers or external enemies; it is the fear of freedom itself. Freedom exposes truth, and truth is what the Kurdish ruling parties, the KDP and the PUK, fear the most.
For decades, both parties have spoken in the language of liberation, democracy, and national dignity. Yet they have built systems that depend on silence, loyalty, and obedience rather than justice and accountability. Their governments control the media, dominate the economy, and suppress dissent. The result is a society where freedom is celebrated in slogans but punished in practice.
Those who speak the truth, such as journalists, writers, and activists, are treated as threats. They are detained, threatened, or forced into exile. The same parties that once fought against tyranny now reproduce its patterns in new forms. Instead of Saddam’s prisons, there are party-controlled detention centers. Instead of censorship from Baghdad, there is censorship from Erbil and Sulaimani.
This fear of truth is not only political; it is cultural and psychological. Generations have grown up learning that speaking openly can destroy their careers or endanger their lives. People whisper in cafés, not because they lack words, but because they have learned fear. This is how control works: not through constant violence but through the quiet training of fear.
The KDP and PUK both claim to represent the Kurdish people’s hopes, yet they have become barriers to those hopes. Their monopoly on truth through party media, patronage systems, and control over education keeps citizens dependent and uninformed. They fear an awakened public that demands transparency, reform, and equality. If people truly become free, they will no longer need the parties that have long treated Kurdistan as a private inheritance.
True freedom will only come when the Kurdish people overcome this fear, when they choose truth over comfort, justice over silence, and courage over obedience. Every journalist who writes, every activist who speaks, and every citizen who refuses to accept lies is breaking the chain of fear.
The path to a free Kurdistan is not through guns or flags; it is through truth. Until the KDP and PUK learn that silencing voices does not bring stability but stagnation, they will remain the biggest obstacle to the very freedom they once promised to achieve.