Women in Kurdish Society

Today I attended a conference on promoting the role of women in decision making in government and society.

The conference, arranged by the democratic organizations bureau of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), in the city of Sulaimani, was attended by key Kurdish and Iraqi politicians, including KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani and Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister, and Deputy Secretary General of the PUK Barham Salih. Also in attendance was a lady who is very near and dear to me, the First Lady of Iraq, my very own mother: Hero Ibrahim Ahmed.

Speakers at the conference stressed the need to promote equality between men and women in the workforce and to eradicate violence against women in our society.

Prime Minister Barzani made an important statement when he stressed that we cannot address the issue of equality of women, and violence against women, by passing legislation alone. He affirmed that “the mentality must change.”

Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih commented that that so-called honor killing (I call them so-called because there is nothing honorable about killing women) is “an ugly remnant of Kurdish society that requires the people, the government and the judiciary of Kurdistan to work together to eradicate this crime.”

It took a long time for an actual woman to speak at the conference (typical for such events in our part of the world), but it was nice to see more women than men in attendance (in particular sitting in the front rows of the conference hall!!).

It is worth noting that while atrocious crimes are being committed against women in our Region, the reason instances appear higher in Kurdistan than they do elsewhere in Iraq is because they are actually getting reported in Kurdistan. In other parts of iraq, and the middle East for that matter, many of these crimes remain unreported, and covered up. This is not just my view; it is the view of Steffan Di Mistura, the former Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Iraq and of many NGO’s and women’s rights organizations operating in the region.

This is no excuse for tolerating this despicable crime; rather it is an opportunity to call on our society to stamp out this crime. It is time to call on our government to continue fulfilling its promises to pursue perpetrators of these heinous crimes. It is a call for our village elders to defend the very women who during Kurdistan’s hardest times defended their villages with valor and honor. It is also a call for women’s groups to put their brightest and best forward and break the barriers that block their way.

Just looking at the many brave and competent Kurdish women I know, it is clear to me that there is no shortage of quality, rather a shortage of opportunity. That must change if we wish to call ourselves a democracy.