MICHAEL JANSENin Sulaimaniya meets local women who are fighting for change and liberation
SULI’S CULTURAL elite marked International Women’s Day with speeches, poetry, music and a play depicting family violence at a gathering in Tawar Hall in the city centre. Girls in spectacular sequined kaftans and spiked heels, miniskirts and ruffled wraparounds took their seats alongside well-coiffed matrons in severe suits and traditional black dresses – each wearing a curl of violet ribbon.
Parwa Ali, parliamentary candidate for the “Change” party, was waiting in the VIP seats in the front row. She smiled and held my gaze as she spoke.
“I have tried to raise awareness about the suffering of Kurdish women through my television programme. Women here live in the shadows. Those who get ahead do so through family connections. They are not selected according to specific criteria.”
If she is one of the 82 women elected to the 325-seat Iraqi parliament she intends to work with sister deputies to abrogate the article in the post-war Iraqi constitution that subordinates women to men.
Although Sulaimaniya province is considered to be liberal and progressive, women here suffer circumcision, rising domestic abuse and discrimination.
In 2009 there were 1,079 violent incidents reported, as compared with 715 in 2008. But most incidents go unreported. In 2009, 245 women and girls committed suicide by self-immolation; the figure for 2008 was 119. Some of these incidents were, however, bride burnings by in-laws disappointed over dowry payments. During this period there was a drop in honour killings from 20 to 17.
These figures explain why the ruling alliance and the opposition Change movement put combating violence against women at the top of their agenda.
In an interview on election day, Pakhan Zandana, sole candidate of the Communist Party of Kurdistan in Sulaimaniya, also spoke of the urgent need for change. Her party contested the election in alliance with the ruling Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP).
Zandana, who held a seat in the Kurdish regional parliament until last year, joined the Communist Party in 1963 when she was 15. She became a peshmerga fighter in the mountains during the Kurdish revolt against the ousted Iraqi regime, went underground in the early 1990s, and spent several years in exile in Germany. “I returned only when Saddam was dead,” she said.
“Women’s problems are caused by traditional culture and religion. The situation is getting worse because of the rise of the Islamic parties. In the 1950s women in Halabja [a town on the Iranian border] wore skirts and short sleeves – now they dress traditional.”
Muslim fundamentalists gained influence after the Kurdish rising of 1991. “They got money from Qatar, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iran and gave it to people who adopted conservative customs and attended mosques. Girls were made to put on headscarves. Acid was thrown on women who wore skirts.”
If she wins a seat in the national parliament, Zandana will press for harsh punishments for men who commit violence against women.