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Kurdistan-Iraq: Kurdish women activists
push for change
23.7.2006 |
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Sulaimaniyah,
Kurdistan-Iraq, July 22, --Women in the Kurdistan
region of Kurdistan (northern Iraq) are represented
in the new national assembly and hold some
ministerial positions. But in the tribal,
male-dominated society of rural areas, women are
often treated as second class citizens. The women in
the city of Sulaimaniyah are trying to change the
status quo, and help women caught in difficult and
often violent situations.
Five years ago, the Asouda shelter for abused women
opened in Sulaimaniyah. Since then, this
independently-funded center has helped dozens of
women victims of domestic violence, offering
shelter, legal services and counseling.
Asouda also offers literacy and sewing classes, with
the aim of helping the women to help themselves.
Shireen is 23-years-old. When she was a teenager,
she says, she was kidnapped by a gang of criminals
and forced to marry one of them, who abused her. One
day Shireen decided to risk everything and run away.
She made it back to her family's home in another
village, but she has been unable to divorce her
husband, because her family could not afford to pay
a lawyer. When her father told her she must remain
married, she ran away again, this time to the Asouda
shelter, where she has been living for nearly one
year. Asouda's legal team has been working to secure
her divorce.
Khanim Rahim Latif is Asouda's director.
She says, in many cases, Asouda is successful in
mediating women's domestic problems, and they are
able to return to their husbands and families.
Asouda is not the only women's advocacy group in
Sulaimaniyah. Runak Faraj Rahim is a social worker
and researcher at the Rewan center for women's
issues. She has written extensively on the issue of
honor killings in Kurdish society, women who are
killed by their fathers or brothers, if they suspect
she has had extra-marital relations with a man.
Rahim says, before the 1991 Kurdish uprising against
Saddam Hussein's regime, it was accepted that men
had the right to kill women.
But Rahim says, after the uprising, women began to
question how honor killings could continue when
their society was supposed to be free. Women's
groups began to form to raise awareness of the
issue, and to advocate for new legislation to punish
those who commit honor killings.
However, Rahim says, despite their efforts, honor
killings have not decreased significantly, and few
perpetrators are caught or punished. She says
statistics show between 60 and 70 women were
reported killed last year in the Kurdistan region.
But she cautions that the real number is likely
higher, as many cases are not reported.
Rahim and other women are also working to end the
practice of female genital mutilation, also known as
female circumcision, which is prevalent in the
eastern parts of the Kurdistan region. They say the
practice must end, as it is both physically and
psychologically harmful.
Treefa Ali Saeed is a women's activist and writes
for the Rewan Center's newspaper, which focuses on
women's issues. She says, the tradition of female
circumcision is partly rooted in Islam, and people
do not question their faith, so the practice
continues.
But women's groups are having some success in ending
this practice, performed on girls ages four to
seven.
Runak Rahim says, even as recently as 1991, in some
villages near the Iranian border, 100 percent of
girls were circumcised. But, now, researchers have
found that only a few girls in these villages are
still being circumcised.
Women in the Kurdistan region are committed to
improving their lives and their daughters' futures,
and they hope their work will be the catalyst for
change.
voanews com
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