Kurdish women run for Hamburg state parliament

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Two Kurdish women are running in Hamburg state elections for the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) after their party won the recent German federal parliament vote.

Zalal Papo is 30 years old and was born in Germany. Her family is originally from the Cizre district of southeast Turkey’s Sirnak province.

“I have been working in politics for nearly seven years. I have taken my place at the CDU. I am from Cizra Botan and I was born in Germany. Politics is very important to us so that we can make our voices louder. The most important is being able to serve your people,” Papo told Rudaw.

“We do not have many Kurdish members of parliament and I would like to become the voice of Kurdish people, the youth, the voice of women, especially the voice of the youth. I want to serve our people in Germany, for Germany and for the Kurdish people,” she added.

Before getting into politics, Papo worked as a Kurdish-German translator.

There is a large Kurdish population in Hamburg, mainly hailing from Turkey.

Hamburg is a city-state in northern Germany. It holds state elections every five years to elect its parliament (Bürgerschaft), which selects the mayor who leads the state government.

The election is on March 2.

Last month, the CDU and its sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), won the federal parliament election, securing 29 percent of the votes. Seven out of the twelve Kurdish candidates won their seats.