The death of Kurdish journalist who wrote on critical articles in Kurdistan has passed with a lot of reactions in the world ,mostly from people who felt that freedom of expression is still a far away dream in Iraq in spite of the colorful picture we see through different media material on Iraqi freedom after 2003.

A taboo is a taboo. You cannot attack religious or political figure, this a red line, and our Kurdish friend passed a big line when he thought it was funny to criticize corruption though dark hummer.

Sardasht Osman wrote over two years under the pseudonym Sardo Zardasht the Kurdish website Kurdistanpost.com, is well known for its satirical articles about the two ruling parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK ). Sardasht also wrote for Hawlati, a popular newspaper with its headquarters in Sulaimaniya, in the south of Kurdistan.

He drew the attention of the situation of the poor people and Kurdish youth who cannot find jobs other in security forces through the rolling parties. He translated the anger of young Kurdish citizen in a sarcasm of his dream to marry Barazani’s daughter.

He was abducted in front of the university he attended a few days after his poem’s publication, and his body was found handcuffed and shot dead on a roadside four days later.

I will not talk about human rights or freedom of speech, because many people like this young man died in Iraq and received death threats for saying words against holy men or political leaders. Both groups would not be in such power if not for America to come and get ride of Saddam so they can “enjoy” freedom of choice and expression. Both groups, the religious and politicians, were refugees and in exile and fighting Saddam for his tyranny and for preventing any man to speak against him or his policies and beliefs.

Today it is funny to know they will kill you if you speak or make fun or express disapproval of them. Why the victim became a punisher? I do not know.

I will share with you Sardasht Osman writing that cause his death ,read it and if you are inside Iraq and like to express your freedom on expression please do not repeat his mistakes.

As for Sardasht Osman I never meet him but heard from his friends that he was a brave journalist who dreamed of freedom, equality and the right to express yourself. Farewell to him. He is one of many who died for freedom of expression, not the first… not the last.

The article translation was copied from John Lundberg’s article Writer Killed Over a Poem in Iraq on the Huffington Post:

I am in love with the daughter of [Iraqi Kurdistan president] Masud Barzani, the man who appears here and there and claims he is my president. I would like him to be my father-in-law and also I would like to be a brother-in-law with [former Prime Minister] Nechirvan Barzani.

If I become Masud Barzani’s son-in-law, we would spend our honeymoon in Paris and also we would visit our uncle’s mansion in America. I would move my house from one of the poorest areas in Erbil to Sari Rash [Barzani's palace complex] where it would be protected by American guard dogs and Israeli bodyguards.

I would make my father become the Minister of Peshmerga [the Kurdish militia]. He had been Peshmarga in September revolution, but he now has no pension because he is no longer a member of Kurdistan Democratic Party.
I would make my unlucky baby brother, who recently finished university but is now unemployed and looking to leave Kurdistan, chief of my special forces.

My sister who has been too embarrassed to go to the bazaar to shop, could drive all the expensive cars just as Barzani’s daughters do.