Women blame the "government" for the backslide in providing their rights

Kurdistan 11:50 AM - 2023-02-22

Kurdish Women

The United States is concerned about the deterioration of women's rights in the Kurdistan Region. According to a member of the Kurdistan Parliament, "the government gets the largest share in the violation of women's rights in the Kurdistan Region."
 

The government has infringed on the rights of women

"There is a significant setback in women's rights in the Kurdistan Region," said Rozhan Hama Karim, a PUK faction member of the Kurdistan Parliament, to PUKMEDIA. "Even the parliament has been violating women's rights, as the bill on domestic violence was not permitted to be amended in parliament for various reasons."

Regardless of the legitimacy of the proportion of female parliamentarians, she emphasized that the government's lack of females in senior positions was a violation of women's rights.
 

There have been greater violations of women's rights in this cabinet

 Women's rights have unmistakably deteriorated in the Kurdistan Region, especially in this cabinet, which reflects poorly on the region's approach toward democracy. As a result, concerns about women's rights in the Kurdistan Region have been raised by diplomatic and organizational bodies.

In this cabinet, Hama Karim added, "Women's rights are being violated more frequently, and the government is mostly to blame for the deterioration in women's rights, which reflects negatively on the Kurdistan Region internationally."
 

This cabinet does not reflect women

Government positions should have 30% female representation; however, because there is no implementation, this right has been denied, and therefore there is no representation of women in this cabinet.

According to Niaz Ahmed, a member of the Sulaymaniyah Provincial Council, as told to PUKMEDIA, "The government is involved in violating women's rights. Although we have repeatedly demanded that 30% of government positions be for women, the government has not responded to our demand."

"In the Kurdistan Region, second marriages by men are currently a severe violation of women's rights, but neither women's organizations nor the government are speaking out," Ahmed continued.

"We witness women being murdered every day, and their perpetrators are publicly protected, despite the fact that several charges have been brought against them," she said. "Violations of women's rights are increasingly evident in this cabinet."
 

Society is also to blame

Society is another factor contributing to the violation of women's rights, as traditions are imposed on women and their circumstances deteriorate daily.

Hana Hama Amin, an employee at Sulaymaniyah University, told PUKMEDIA: "As a woman, I feel that parts of women's rights are infringed by the society itself, and society has forced some norms and traditions on women that have curtailed women's rights."

According to Hama Amin, "The law in the Kurdistan Region is not the same for everyone because there are many criminals who have escaped the law while committing crimes against women."

"The government has the lion's share of the responsibility for the increasingly perilous state of women in the Kurdistan Region," she continued.
 
The U.S. Consulate General in the Kurdish Region has previously expressed concern on its Facebook page about the deteriorating state of women's and human rights in the Kurdistan Region.
 


PUKMEDIA