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Kurdish women struggle to advance in
Kurdistan region-Iraq
9.3.2007 |
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March 9, 2007
SULAIMANIYAH, Kurdistan region (Iraq), March
9, -- Women in Iraq's Kurdistan are using the
relative calm in their region to make slow progress
towards equal status with men – but there is still a
long way to go, according to activists. Abuse by men
pushed 538 women to commit suicide last year,
according to Sara Qader, a journalist with the
weekly Awena newspaper.
"Some of these women are still facing violence from
their husbands or families and honour killings still
exist in some rural areas of Kurdistan.
These forced 538 women to commit suicide in 2006
alone," Qader said. She added that non-governmental
agencies advocating women's rights have had no
impact.
"Some of these women's organisations are affiliated
to political parties and that makes it more
difficult for women to advance and have rights equal
to those of men," Qader said. Kurdish women have 29
seats in the Kurdistan parliament and three
portfolios.
"But as a tribal society, social pressures are still
being applied by men on the women which keep them
from getting their rights," said Parwa Ali, a social
researcher and activist. However, there is hope – 24
years ago, poverty forced Afrah Abdullah to abandon
her education to help her family.
Now the 34-year-old mother-of-four is returning to
school to continue her studies. "My father died when
I was 10 and as I was the eldest of my three
sisters, I had to abandon school to help my mother
to sew to earn our living," Abdullah said. "It is
really embarrassing when someone doesn't know how to
read or write. I couldn't even follow up on my
children's education," she added. Social
restrictions, war and population displacement
deprived Abdullah and many other Kurds in Kurdistan
(northern Iraq) of an education as children.
Omed Kaka Rash, director of the Illiteracy
Eradication Programme in the Kurdistan Regional
Government, said 27 percent of people over the age
of 10 are classed as illiterate in Kurdistan –
281,992 women and 446,668 men.
"A broader literacy campaign is under way in
Kurdistan now and everyone who is illiterate will be
able to read and write within the next three years,"
Rash said. "Kurdistan's education ministry is
providing textbooks, desks and other materials, and
will recognise the school's leaving certificate,
meaning graduates will be able to go on to higher
education," she added.
The schools accept women regardless of age and put
them on an accelerated learning programme where, for
example, the standard primary school course of six
years is cut to three. Most of the adult education
facilities are in the city of Sulaimaniyah, about
350km north of Baghdad. Now, tens of illiterate
women are joining the Accelerated Learning School in
Chamchamal, a poor town 60km south of Sulaimaniyah.
"I feel as if I'm coming back to life again; being
illiterate is something like being blind, dumb or
paralysed," said Maryam Salih, a 34-year-old mother
of three. "We were a poor family and my father
couldn't afford send me to school. I will continue
studying until I finish school and get a job so I
can earn my own income and help my husband," she
added.
irinnews org
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