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Tag Archives: Kurdistan
Kurdish FGM-Free Village invited to Talkshow
3.12.14. By Haje Keli. Kurdistan’s first FGM-free village as talk show guests on ‘Binewshe” (KurdSat TV) to discuss the village’s commitment to ending FGM.
As a part of WADI’s Stop FGM campaign, the village of Tutaqal vowed to end FGM among their inhabitants. This week WADI was invited to appear on the very popular TV-show ‘Binewshe’ as part of the awareness around the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women (November 25). Instead of inviting “experts” and doctors Ms Suad Abdolrahman, head of Women’s Projects at WADI thought it was more rewarding to invite the villagers of Tutaqal as guests on the show as they can better relay their message of why it was important to end FGM in their village. (more…)
A Kurdish girl’s story of Female genital mutilation FGM in Iraqi Kurdistan
October 18, 2014. SLÊMANÎ, Kurdistan region ‘Iraq’,— As we all know from news reports from the region, the people of Iraqi Kurdistan have been facing great threats and hardships for many years and are currently on the frontline of the fight against ISIS (also known as the Islamic State). However there is another, covert threat facing Kurdish women, many of whom undergo female genital mutilation (FGM).
This summer 28 Too Many volunteer, Nigeen Akram, returned to Iraqi Kurdistan determined to learn more about this secretive practice and how it affects the lives of Kurdish women. In this blog she tells the powerful story of one of these women and we share it on Blog Action Day 2014 to highlight this secretive practice and support those fighting to end FGM in Kurdistan. (more…)
Iraq Business-News: First-Ever Survey of FGM in Northern Iraq
9.9.2014. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) High Council of Women’s Affairs (HCWA) together with UNICEF, Heartland Alliance International, and Wadi, and in collaboration with UN Women and UNFPA, released this week results of a first-ever ‘knowledge, attitudes and practices’ (KAP) survey on the root causes of female genital mutilation (FGM) in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KR-I) and convened a conference to share vital information and recommendations to fully eliminate the practice from the region. (more…)
Stop FGM in Kurdistan: An Interview with the Activists
Communicating from Suleymaniah in Iraqi Kurdistan, STOP FGM Kurdistan Co-founders Thomas von der Osten-Sacken and Falah Murad Khan unpack the multi-layered efforts contributing to the ongoing campaign to win political, social, and civil rights for women. (more…)
Open Democracy: Embracing shame: turning honour on its head
14 February 2014. The challenge that embracing shame poses to the longstanding perversion of honour, is the struggle for women’s human rights – the realisation of which will result in the entire community’s advancement and healing.
The social construct and custom of honour maintains order for many societies in the middle east and Africa, south and central Asia, and the worldwide diaspora of these diverse communities. A woman, the physical manifestation of honour, embodies this involuntary burden through her every day actions and decisions – or lack thereof – from the moment she takes her first breath until the day she dies. (more…)
Cleric supports Battle against Female Genital Mutilation in Iraqi Kurdistan
February 10, 2014
SULÊMANÎ, Kurdistan region ‘Iraq’,— For many years, people have believed that practicing of female genital mutilation (FGM) is required by Islamic religion, and that is why the majority of people, especially in towns and villages in KRG provinces, adhere to the practice.
However, a well-known Kurdish Islamic scholar recently issued a Fatwa “a ruling on a point of Islamic law given by a recognized authority” against the practice. Mustafa Zalmi says that not only does FGM have nothing to do with Islam, but, “Practicing FGM is taboo.” According to a report by the Gatestone Institute, Zalmi, “ He argued that as FGM is absent from Mecca and Medina, where the Islamic revelation was received and the early Muslim community was organized, there is no justification for its existence either there or in remote places such as Iraqi Kurdistan.”
(more…)
Feb 6th: Many media reports on our work and FGM in Asia
7.2.2014. by Stop FGM Middle East
On February 6th, the eleventh international Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation, a number of media outlets have picked up on the topic of Female Genital Mutilation in Asia. Many non-governmental und international organizations tackling FGM, including the World Health Organization, still don’t mention the existence of FGM in many Asian countries. Breaking the silence is a first step to saving millions of girls in these countries from being mutilated. WADI and Hivos stressed this in their press declaration on this year’s February 6th. Therefore, we are happy that many journalists have now brought out this message. In several cases Stop FGM Middle East and WADI were able to provide information.
Al Jazeera Turkey filming in Wadi’s office in Iraq with Thomas von der Osten-Sacken and Souaad Abdelrahman explaining the Anti-FGM program
Al Jazeera Turkey came to Wadi’s office in Suleymania in North Iraq and spoke with victims of FGM. The film also describes the situation in Iraqi Kurdistan and the successful campaign against FGM.
De Vokskrant, the largest newspaper of the Netherlands also reported on the work of Wadi in Iraqi Kurdistan on February sixth. On February 7th, they ran a long story on FGM in Indonesia, underlining the importance to stop ignoring the brutal tradition in Asia. (more…)
Iraqi Kurdistan fights female circumcision
Deutsche Welle. 9.12.2013. Female circumcision is slowly declining in Iraqi Kurdistan. Years of campaigning and a law against the practise have borne fruit. Some villages went from 100 percent of all young girls being circumcised to none.
“Circumcision brought us problems. It is much better for husband and wife when it is not happening.” The mokhtar of Twtakal, a small village in Iraqi Kurdistan is very clear about it. The practice of FGM, or female genital mutilation, should be eradicated.
The village chief is proud that his village has stopped circumcising its women, where only two years ago still every mother had it done to her daughters. It was a bad habit, Kak Sarhad told DW. “For men, who have all these layers, it is cleaner. But women don’t have that and don’t need it.”
IRAQI KURDISTAN: WADI shifts attitudes toward Female Genital Mutilation
Christian Peacemakers, 4.11.2013.
by Rosemarie Milazzo
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| Falah Muradkhan addresses the media |
On 30 October 2013, CPT’s partner organization, WADI Iraq office, organized a press conference—which media representatives from six major Kurdish satellite channels and several newspapers attended —about the decline in Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in Kurdistan. The WADI project coordinator, Falah Muradkhan said his organization had called the press conference because of the huge international attention stirred up on the topic caused by the recent BBC World and BBC Arabic’s airing of two documentaries and the reporting of the Guardian newspaper.
WADI used this occasion to present new data about the FGM situation in Kurdistan and WADI’s current activities. Two years ago, the Kurdistan Regional Government banned FGM as part of a wide-ranging law to improve women’s rights, after years of grassroots campaigning run by activist and civil society organizations, including WADI. In a region where honor killings still happen, journalists write about Kurdistan as a “rare success story.” Read full article
How Kurdistan ended female genital mutilation
Gulf News 24.10.13. By Shaimaa Khalil
Toutkhal: Kurdistan is one of Iraq’s rare success stories; autonomous from Baghdad since 1991, the region has recently enjoyed an oil boom that’s fuelled foreign investment unknown elsewhere in the country.
And recently Iraqi Kurdistan has been looking closely at its human rights record. Two years ago Female Genital Mutilation was banned, as part of a wide-ranging law to improve women’s rights, and since then the rate of FGM has fallen dramatically.
But how have they achieved this? Kurdistan is very much the exception.
Many other countries in the Middle East and Africa still suffer from high rates of FGM. According to Unicef the countries where FGM is most prevalent is Somalia and Guinea, while Egypt is in the top five.
However according to Unicef the practice is ‘practically non-existent’ in the rest of Iraq. In a special report that is part of the BBC’s 100 Women Season, I found out more about the grass roots campaign that led to this practice being outlawed. I wanted to know if enough is being done to enforce the law, and end FGM in Kurdistan altogether.
One leg of my journey was to the sleepy village of Toutkhal — in a remote and mountainous area in Iraqi Kurdistan. At first glance, life seems untouched by the modern world. The small mud houses, surrounded by farm animals and people living off the land make it hard to imagine why this village would make the news.