LEADERSHIP COUNCIL FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

Women’s Economic Dependency and Destitution
The Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Minister of State for Women’s Affairs, Dr. Jinan Qassim Ali, believes that women’s economic independence should be a top priority within the relatively newly-formed regional government.  However, the Women’s Ministry, she says, is not getting enough support from the government to support local non-profit organizations to meet this great need.  According to Osman Shwani, the planning minister, approximately three- quarters of the KRG’s budget goes toward employee costs.  The remaining quarter is simply not enough to rebuild the region. 
Even with the appropriate funds, the task would not be an easy one, as factors such as historical impacts need to be incorporated.  Ikrama, the only non-profit worker in the Sarqalla area, explained that the victims of Saddam Hussein’s Anfal campaign are not only those who died, but also those who survived.  The poverty resulting from the destruction of the campaign has forced parents to remove their children from school to support their families.  
Some of the traditional societal views of marriage also hinder a woman’s ability to economically contribute to her family, particularly in rural areas.  Razi, a survivor of Anfal, was promised in marriage to her cousin at the age of 1.  He was killed during Anfal.  So as not to tarnish the memory of this “martyr,” his family beat Razi when she received a marriage offer from a good man a few years ago, telling her that she should be ashamed to even think of marrying anyone else.  As a result she must rely on the kindness of others, since the government-provided Anfal survivors’ monthly compensation of 150,000 Iraqi Dinars is not enough to sustain her, she explained.  “Material assistance helps but still victims feel empty,” Razi said.  “I wish I had just died during Anfal,” she said as she wiped the tears from eyes.
Amina lost all three of her children and though she was given the death certificates issued after 1991, she refuses to believe that her children are really dead.  Since Saddam's fall, Azmina retains hope that she will learn the truth.  She was also arrested during Anfal, along with six of her relatives, and beaten so severely that the guard broke her skull.  Amina now lives in a small room off another family’s house, since she has no remaining family of her own.  These conditions make Amina’s self-sufficiency incredibly straining.
Meriam's fiancé "disappeared" a week before their wedding.  She too has not been allowed to marry anyone else.  Unlike Amina, she believes that she will never learn the truth now that Saddam is dead and his henchmen also dead or convicted.  Meriam took the loss so personally that the stress physically manifested itself.  She is now partially handicapped and cannot even hold a glass of water on her own, which means that she also cannot work and relies on her family’s support. 
Myram, a solemn 65 year old woman, has lived alone in a small village outside of Rania for the last 15 years.  Though she is still married, her husband refuses to see her.  He also prevents their two boys, the oldest of whom is 38, from visiting her after she tried to arrange good marriages for her sons of which her husband disapproved.  Animosity between the two sharpened when her husband forced their two girls to marry his family’s relatives- the girls’ cousins.  Without the presence of her husband or children in her life, Myram is reliant solely on the charity of others, including one woman who takes her to Sulaimaniya for eye doctor appointments since she recently began to lose her vision.
All of these women are economically dependent on others.  They are unable to work, live in very poor conditions, and struggle to press on to the next day. 

Marriage
Along with economic development throughout the region, changes in societal values have led to debate.  Laws regarding different types of marriages and the rights of women in marriage are a focus of a few organizations in Sulaimaniya. 
In Kurdistan there are a few traditional types of marriages, particularly in rural areas, still practiced in addition to a straight arranged marriage.  Few marriages, unless the person comes from an educated family, are freely chosen based on love.  People are often promised in marriage as infants.  Marriage to a cousin is commonplace.  In a family marriage swap, sisters from two families marry each other’s brothers.  In another type of marriage, the father marries off his daughter to a family in exchange for one of that family’s daughters for himself. 
Though Article 61 of the KRG’s constitution bans polygamy, Islamic Sharia law permits a man to legally wed up to four women, so long as he is capable for providing for his family.  For this reason, many in the women’s rights field believe that the ban is hardly enforced.
“Misyar” marriage, as explained by Runak Faraj, of the Rewan Center, and Parwen Aziz, of WAFDI (Women’s Alliance for a Democratic Iraq), is a newly proposed marriage of convenience, where the duration of the marriage is insignificant and the man holds no responsibility for any consequences of the marriage.  The marriage can last for years or even just a few days.  If a woman becomes pregnant during the marriage, the man has no obligations to the woman or the child.  The couple is even permitted to live separately in this type of marriage agreement.
According to the organizations interviewed, the idea of “misyar” marriage is currently being debated by the Ministry of Culture before potentially being brought before Parliament for a vote.  Some women’s organizations in the region view “misyar” marriage as legalized adultery, or even legalized prostitution.  Since women lose most of their rights once they enter into such a marriage agreement, a number of women’s organizations are fighting to prevent this discussion from ever reaching Parliament for a vote.
The occurrence of divorce reflects another aspect of social change over recent years.  “Divorce is socially acceptable, but women have no rights.  Men often divorce women when women don’t want to,” explained Shilan, a staff member of the Women’s Center for Media and Education.
During a visit to the village of Khalabag, near to Kalar, I had the opportunity to meet with five different women, whose stories reflect the various types of marriages found in the region.  Rahma and Aska have an arranged exchange marriage- each woman will marry the other woman's brother.  A much older woman, Rahma, explained how her polygamous husband left her alone and penniless in the village, so that he could move to the nearby town of Kalar and marry a younger woman.  Fatim’s brother married her off to an older man, who is too old to work much and support her.

Violence against Women
In response to a recent increase in the number of honor killings in the region, a number of different organizations decided to come together to form what is now known as “Dua’s Network.”  Dua was a young Yazidi woman who fell in love with a Sunni Muslim man.  When her family discovered this, her brother and cousin took it upon themselves to kill her, so as to prevent Dua’s actions from bringing dishonor to their family.  This case received a lot of attention in the region and, fortunately, action was taken.  Once taken to Parliament, five arrests were made in the case.
Dua’s Network, in addition to working to prevent future incidents of honor killing, focuses more generally on stopping violence against women.  The Network consists of more than 25 different organizations, each with one representative in the Network.  They include local non-governmental organizations, radio and television stations, newspapers, and mobile communication companies.  The goal of the Network focuses on combating violence against women as a whole, and not just on honor killings.  Members are divided into three groups: protection of women (shelters), media, and legal advocacy.  Each group has a supervisor and a board presides over all three groups.  The groups meet individually and all advocate women's rights. 
Cases of violence against women appear to be more prevalent in villages, according to Khanm, a staff member at a women’s shelter in Sulaimaniya.  The shelter, Asuda, takes in a larger number of cases of women from villages than cities.  In the city, Khanm speculated, the sense of “shame” is greater, which prevents women from seeking outside help.
Prevalence of violence in villages over cities is due to cultures and traditions, according to Shler, a representative member of Dua’s Network, and a staff member of LCHR’s mobile library project.  After the Kurdish uprising against Saddam in 1991 and the rise of extreme Islamist groups, cultural, traditional, and religious roots grew deeper.  Frequently in villages men and women do not socially mix.  Most women are not allowed to be educated and most wear headscarves.  Some women do not even see their husbands until their wedding night. 
If a male relative rapes a female, the incident is usually considered the woman’s fault.  The reason, explained Shler, can be explained by a local proverb: “Our mind is in our eyes.”  People believe what they see because it has a perceived reality.  Therefore, society imposes that the female must be punished even if the family knows that she is innocent, so that the family is not dishonored by society.  People feel shame if they behave differently than others in their community.  Additionally, gossip is a problem.  Stories, then, easily become exaggerated and sometimes end in violent acts against women. 
“If people are free to talk to each other, many truths will be realized,” said Shler.  Additionally, she said, the now lenient sentences for such crimes as honor killings need to be made stricter.  However, she is concerned that “the conservative central government,” from which the KRG must obtain approval for such constitutional changes, may not approve of the changes.
The recent increase in violence against women could be attributed to the violence engulfing the rest of the country.  With the KRG’s concentration on the Central Government in Baghdad, speculated Khanm, social issues have been placed on the backburner.  Additional attention and investigation are needed.

Self-Immolation
The following travel blog was distributed on Leadership Council for Human Rights’ Weekly News Digest on July 13, 2007.

Societal Evaluations Needed in Light of Increased Self-Immolation Cases
 
Beyond a guarded gate, in a building separated from the others in the compound by a small grassy garden lay 7 women in bright, white linens, writhing in pain.  This was my second day in Suleimaniyah, Kurdistan, Iraq, and I found myself slipping on special shoes, a hair net, and hospital gown in the specialized Burn Unit of the Emergency Hospital. 
 
Never before had I seen such a sight.  Not one of the women was less than 30% covered in burns, first, second and third degree.  As we walked into the first room, female visitors were crying, male family members stood at the window, trying to see how their daughter/sister/wife was doing, before being rushed off to surgery.  Her burns had become infected.
 
In the second room, a female family member standing next to the bed of a women 52% covered in burns explained that the woman burned herself making tea.
 
By the time we stepped into the last room- the room where the most critical patients are cared for- I noticed I was ever-so-slightly shaking.  A 20 year old woman lay in the bed 61% covered in second and third degree burns.  She was 8 months pregnant when she burned herself- the baby had to be aborted upon arrival to the hospital.  The young woman let out a barely audible, horrific scream as the nurse injected some antibiotics into her ankle.
 
Lying in the bed next to her another 20 year female, Nawal, suffers from the second and third degree burns that cover 96% of her almost lifeless body.  Othman Ahmed, from the X-Ray Department, translates Nawal's mother-in-law's explanation of the cause: suicide attempt by petrol.  As we leave the room, Othman explains to me that the young woman was married less than a week before- the marriage was forced.
 
Very few of the women who are admitted into the burn unit provide the real causes of the burns.  The women and their families fear that an investigation would be launched if the true causes were revealed.  Regardless of the specific causes, these Kurdish women feel they have no other out from their societal pressures.  With the number of cases on the rise, according to the research of the Rewan Center in the same city, the time has come for officials in the area to seriously evaluate the societal pressures on women in their country.
Emergency Life Support for Civilian War Victims,the hospital referred to above, changed management in July and is now administered by the French organization, Doctors Without Borders.  The hospital, the only of its kind in the area which focuses on burns and also has a plastic surgery unit, sees on average 52-80 outpatient patients per day and admits up to 20 additional patients per day.  The new administration intends to take on burn cases from around the whole of Iraq. 
Though records of the reason for admittance are kept at the hospital, very few of the women actually verbalize the causes of their burns.  Revealing causes such as suicide attempts, according to the society, brings “dishonor” to the family.  For this reason, as the hospital staff explained, family members often do not reveal the true cause of the burns to keep from being investigated by local authorities.  As all of the medical evidence is literally burned, investigators have to have a witness or self-confession in order to take legal action.  Some recent news articles have even discussed a few cases of honor killings disguised as self-immolation.  This would account for silence about the causes as well.
The choice of self-immolation as opposed to other means needs additional research.  Contributing social factors need to be evaluated as well though.

Lack of Organizational Funding
Throughout all of the interviews conducted over the course of the six weeks, one common theme prevailed: lack of funding.  Few sources of domestic funding exist for local organizations.  Grants from the Iraqi central government are typically awarded to organizations based in the central and southern regions of the country, explained Talar with Hataw Organization, since the northern region is relatively stable comparatively.  Local non-profit organizations are left to apply for competitive international sources of funding.