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Homosexuality Fears Over Gender Equality
in Iraqi Kurdistan
21.12.2010
By Saman Basharati
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December
21, 2010
ERBIL-Hewlêr,
Kurdistan region 'Iraq', — The passing of a new law
in Iraqi Kurdistan guaranteeing “gender equality”
has deeply outraged the local religious community,
including the minister of endowments and religious
affairs and prominent imams, who interpret the
phrase as legitimizing homosexuality in Kurdistan.
The law, which was recently passed by the Parliament
of the semiautonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan to
facilitate the work of the Ministry of Culture and
Youth, says that the ministry “is promoting gender
equality.”
Kamil Haji Ali, the minister of endowments and
religious affairs, said the new law would “spread
immorality” and “distort” Kurdish society.
“The phrase ‘gender equality’ has so many meanings,”
said Ali, a Political Bureau member of the Kurdistan
Islamic Movement. “According to the information we
have gathered about it, the term means that women
can marry women, and men can marry men as well. This
does not suit our Muslim society. That’s why we can
never agree with this phrase.”
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But Sozan Shihab, leader
of the majority Kurdistani Alliance in parliament,
said this was a misinterpretation of the law, as the
law merely aimed at decreasing social injustice
against women Iraqi Kurdistan.
“The phrase ‘gender equality’ means social equality
between men and women in terms of rights and
duties,” she said. “Women and men are equal and have
no differences.”
The Islamic Union of Scholars in Kurdistan (IUSK)
has also published a statement demanding the removal
of the phrase “gender equality” from the law.
“As men are allowed to marry four women, this term
also allows women to marry four men,” argued Mullah
Nyaz Raghib, head of the Erbil office of the IUSK.
“It also means that homosexuals can marry each
other. This must change.”
A number of other prominent imams have been outraged
and have spoken out against the law in recent Friday
prayer services, with some accusing the Kurdistan
Regional Government (KRG) of pursuing the “corrupt
path” of the West.
Some religious men have gone even further, viewing
gender equality as being a cause of the breakdown of
the family and as condoning abortion.
“This phrase is against all religions,” said Mullah
Immad Guani, preacher at Kherkhwazan Mosque in
Erbil’s Malla Omer district. “The phrase ‘gender
equality’ destroys families by equating [normal
marriage] with homosexual marriage. It also allows
abortion.”
But Abdul-Salam Berwari, a Kurdistan lawmaker,
believes there is a misconception of the law among
the clerics resulting from their dependence on
Arabic knowledge to understand concepts created in
the West, such as gender equality, rather than on
Western learning.
“Those who believe gender equality means allowing
homosexuality don’t really understand what the word
‘gender’ means,” said Berwari. “Instead of
introducing the beautiful values of Islam to
society, they bring the backward traditions of the
Arab culture into Kurdish society. They want to
destabilize the Kurdistan region.”
On Sunday the KRG held a press conference, where the
public were ensured that gender equality did not
include giving marriage rights to homosexuals,www.ekurd.netwhose
existence is effectively invisible in Iraq due to
restrictive traditional rules. The government said
no marriages, other than those permitted by official
religions in Kurdistan, were allowed by law.
Copyright, respective author or news agency,
rudaw.net
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