When Tyranny Wears a Smile and Holds a Mic

Hiwa Jamil Mohammed – Activist

Arin Masrour Barzani and Idris Nechirvan Barzani, sons of the Prime Minister and President of the Kurdistan Region, have become poster boys of a grotesque political theatre. Each commands empires of media and organizations that burn through millions every month not to serve the public, but to attack one another and polish their inherited images.

Meanwhile, Kurdish citizens are drowning in a deepening crisis: salaries frozen, livelihoods destroyed, and dignity crushed. Yet the Barzanis’ institutions never miss a payment. Not one.

Worse still, when they occasionally toss crumbs to the poor in the name of “charity,” it’s paraded across screens like an act of divine generosity turning people’s hunger into photo ops for power.

The bitter truth? Many of those who’ve been robbed of their rights still clap. Still say thank you.

This is the cruelty of our time:
While teachers, doctors, and workers are unpaid for months, the elite live uninterrupted feeding on the very system they’ve broken. Kurdistan’s wealth isn’t shared. it’s hoarded, weaponized, and sold back to us as spectacle.