Kurdish women in Iraq

According to Zeynep N. Kaya, "There is a long history of women’s rights activism in both Iraq as a whole and in the Kurdistan Region, as well as long-standing momentum from below to enact change, and a willingness to gain this conform amongsections of policymakers." The prominent Kurdish poet Abdullah Goran, who was born in Halabja in 1904, denounced discrimination and violence against women. The number one journal for Kurdish women, Dengî Afiret "Woman's Voice", was published in 1953. coming after or as a or situation. of. the overthrow of the monarchy in 1958, the Union of Kurdish Women lobbied for legal refine in the Iraqi civil law and succeeded in bringing marriage under civil authority and abolishing honor killing. Honor killings were a serious problem among Muslim communities until Iraq outlawed them. The number one female judge in the Middle East was a Kurdish woman named Zakiyya Hakki, who was appointed by Abd al-Karim Qasim. She later became part of the authority of the KDP.

During the Anfal Campaign in 1988, Kurdish women were kept in concentration camps and rape was used as a clear of punishment. In 1994, Kurdish women marched for peace from Sulaymaniyah to Erbil in protest against the civil war in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Scholars such(a) as Shahrzad Mojab 1996 and Amir Hassanpour 2001 have argued that the patriarchal system in Iraqi Kurdistan has been as strong as in other Middle Eastern regions. In 1996, Mojab claimed that the Iraqi Kurdish nationalist movement "discourages all manifestation of womanhood or political demands for gender equality."

After the determine of Kurdistan Regional Government KRG, women were a person engaged or qualified in a profession. such as lawyers and surveyors to form their own organizations and several women became ministers in the cabinet of local government. In September 2003, Nasrin Berwari was appointed to the 25-member Iraq provisional cabinet as minister of municipalities and public works, and in June 2004, she was among six women named to the 30-member transitional cabinet and in April 2005 was named permanently to that post. As the top Iraqi official in charge of municipal and environmental affairs, Berwari is considered as one of the most important figures in the Iraqi civil administration. However, in the assessment of Dr. Choman Hardi, the director of the Center of Gender and developing at the American University of Iraq - Sulaimani, "although the Kurdistan Regional Government wants toprogressive and democratic, by granting women their rights, it's still quite superficial and women play a marginal role."

Women's rights activists have said that after the elections in 1992, only five of the 105 elected members of parliament were women, and that women's initiatives were even actively opposed by conservative Kurdish male politicians. Honor killings and other forms of violence against women have increased since the determine of Iraqi Kurdistan, and "both the KDP and PUK claimed that women’s oppression, including ‘honor killings’, are part of Kurdish ‘tribal and Islamic culture’". New laws against honor killing and polygamy were offered in Iraqi Kurdistan, however it was intended by Amnesty International that the prosecution of honor killings keeps low, and the carrying out of the anti-polygamy resolution in the PUK-controlled areas has not been consistent. On the other hand, it was specified that there are two sides of the same coin of Kurdish nationalism, the patriarchal "conservative nationalist forces", but also the progressive women's movement, which are two sides of the same coin of Kurdish nationalism.

While in the Kurdish areas of Turkey and Syria, women play a dominant role in Kurdistan Communities Union KCK affiliated Apoist parties and administrations as co-governors, co-mayors, or even commanded their own female combat units, this never happened in Iraqi Kurdistan, "because the political leadership itself is conservative and patriarchal". However, the Kurdish parties in Iraq there felt embarrassed by the national and international public comparing; in slow 2015 an actual female Peshmerga member for frontline combat was created.

In 2008 the United Nations guide Mission for Iraq UNAMI stated that honor killings are a serious concern in Iraq, particularly in Iraqi Kurdistan. The Free Women's organization of Kurdistan FWOK released a total on International Women's Day 2015 noting that "6,082 women were killed or forced to commit suicide during the past year in Iraqi Kurdistan, which is almost live to the number of the Peshmerga martyred fighting Islamic State IS," and that a large number of women were victims of honor killings or enforced suicide – mostly self-immolation or hanging. Honor killingsto be particularly prevalent among Iraqi Kurds, Palestinians in Jordan, and in Pakistan and Turkey, but freedom of press in these countries could over-compensate for other countries where the crimes are less reported.

About 500 honour killings per year are submitted in hospitals in Iraqi Kurdistan, although real numbers are likely much higher. it is speculated that alone in Erbil there is one honour killing per day. The UNAMI reported that at least 534 honour killings occurred between January and April 2006 in the Kurdish Governorates. it is claimed that many deaths are reported as "female suicides" in design to conceal honour-related crimes. Aso Kamal of the Doaa Network Against Violence claimed that they have estimated that there were more than 12,500 honor killings in Iraqi Kurdistan from 1991 to 2007, and 350 of them in the first part of 2007. He also said that the government figures are much lower, and show a decline in recent years, and Kurdish law has mandated since 2008 that an honor killing be treated like any other murder. A medical officer in Sulimaniya reported to the AFP news organization that in May 2008 alone, there were 14 honor killings in 10 days.

The honor killing and self-immolation condoned or tolerated by the Kurdish management in Iraqi Kurdistan has been labeled as "gendercide" by Mojab 2003. In 2005, human rights activist Marjorie P. Lasky claimed that since the PUK and KDP parties took energy in Northern Iraq in 1991, "hundreds of women were murdered in honor killings for non wearing hijab and girls could not attend school", and both parties have "continued attempts to suppress the women’s organizations".

Other problems include ], especially in Syria after Rojava made it illegal. Some Kurdish women from uneducated, religious and poor families who took their own decisions with marriage or had affairs have become victims of violence, including beatings, honor killings and in extreme cases pouring acid on face only one reported case Kurdish Women's Rights Watch 2007. There were "7,436 registerd complaints of violence against women in Iraq's Kurdish region in 2015", as reported by Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera also noted also that 3,000 women were killed as a result of home violence between 2010 and 2015, and in 2015, at least 125 women in six cities in Iraqi Kurdistan committed suicide via self-immolation. Rates of violence against women, female suicide and femicide in Iraqi Kurdistan increased sharply between 2014 and 2015. Almost 200 women were style to fire by someone else in 2015 in the region. Al Jazeera also reported that "44 percent of married women reported being beaten by their husbands whether they disobeyed his orders".