Profile of courage: Aram Jamal Sabir

This story was sent to us from Sulaimaniyah, Iraq, by Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT), an ecumenical violence-reduction program with roots in the historic peace churches. CPT has been present in Iraq since October 2002.

Aram Jamal Sabir, who is the executive director of the Kurdish Institute for Elections, spoke with us about his passion for nonviolence. He began to participate in nonviolent trainings in 2004. He now teaches others about the topic.

"I can't tell you exactly when I started to believe in nonviolence—sometime during all the wars and violence here," he said. "In the university I felt that violence could be used against the enemy. With time I saw that violence didn't change the situation."
Aram tried working with groups promoting nonviolence, and educated himself. He saw documentary films about the subject, including one called, "A Force More Powerful," [a 1999 film written and directed by Steve York about nonviolent resistance movements around the world] and showed it to others.

"In this part of Kurdistan … ," he said. "people try to fix their political problems through violence. Violence produces death and violence.

"The difference between violence and nonviolence is that with violence, both parties lose," he explained. "With nonviolence both parties win. You can persuade your enemy to believe in it. We aren't against people, but against situations. In any person there is some humanity. Nonviolence tries to develop the 'bad' part of a person along more human lines."

Aram paraphrases a quote by Gandhi: "It doesn't take courage to befriend people who like us. It takes courage to befriend people who don't like us."

Aram believes that it is most important to have nonviolence programs in the education system. That brings it into children's lives, which will bring it into the culture in the future.

At the last elections there emerged an opposition group that doesn't want to use violence. Aram believes that nonviolence is growing in the culture. He feels there's an unwritten agreement between all political parties that violence will not lead to success.

Now only the authorities use violence. Aram's dream is for a different way of using power—that people in authority wouldn't see themselves as better than others.
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