Iraqi Kurdistan ignores alcohol ban
Autonomous region says it infringes on personal freedoms
ERBIL // It is business as usual for bottle shops in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region, where officials have vowed that Baghdad’s recent ban on alcohol will not be enforced.
The ban on the sale, import and production of alcohol was put into draft legislation on municipalities in Iraq’s parliament last week, but the president has since called for the law to be revised.
In Iraqi Kurdistan, a three-province region in the north that has its own government, security forces and flag, there seems to be another plan: ignore the measure even if the law is unchanged.
“We do not recognise such laws” that will not be applied in the Kurdistan region, said Farsat Sophie, a member of the regional parliament’s legal committee. Khalid Doski, the region’s culture minister, said that the measure would not be enforced. “This decision is against democracy and against personal freedoms.”
Drinking is widespread in Iraq, including in Baghdad, where there are scores of small alcohol shops.
If the ban is not implemented in Kurdistan but is elsewhere, it is all but guaranteed to result in a thriving black market for alcohol brought from the region into federally controlled areas.
Both the federal and Kurdish parliaments have legislative powers, but it is unclear which would have primacy over alcohol.
In practice, Baghdad does not have the means to enforce the measure in Kurdistan if its regional government decides not to do so on its own.
In Ainkawa, a Christian area of Kurdistan’s capital Erbil, people line up to purchase alcohol. Raed Basil Hanna, owner of an Ainkawa alcohol store, said Baghdad should focus on more important issues.
The government should pay attention to “the situations of the people and improving their circumstances and taking them out of poverty”, instead of “issuing decisions that do not benefit anyone”, he said.
In addition to fighting an ongoing war against militants, Iraq faces myriad other problems, including an economic crisis and poor basic services.
“Most of those who stood behind the decision drink alcohol,” Mr Hanna said. Without mentioning the ban, president Fuad Masum on Wednesday called for parliament to revise the law that included it in a way that respects “the freedoms and rights of citizens of different religions and doctrines”.