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November 22, 2008
News
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Rectified Personal Status Law in Kurdistan
Kurdishaspect.com - By Falah Muradkin
A new Personal Status Law is now
being legislated by the Regional
Parliament of Iraqi-Kurdistan. The old
law, of 1959, has been changed several
times under Saddam’s dictatorship,
legalizing “honour killings”, polygamy
and other forms of violence against
women.
The bill for the new law, currently under
discussion in the Parliament, includes
various important improvements;
among them banning of female genital mutilation, defining “honour killings” as severe crime and forbidding forced marriages.
But one big hope has already been disappointed: after long discussions, the parliament decided only to tighten regulations on polygamy but not to fully ban it. To express their dismay with the parliament’s failure to ban polygamy, various local NGOs, human rights organizations and other representative of independent civil society have decided to take action.
The 25th of November – the international day for combating violence against women – is approaching. As protest, the group of organizations has decided to boycott all activities sponsored by and related to the government on this particular day. This doesn’t mean they are boycotting the day itself. The boycott committee chose to call itself “The Group of 25th November”, because we think our activities truly represent the spirit of this day.
We welcome the government’s decision to support various activities and conferences on November 25th, demonstrating its sensitivity to these issues. This is a big step forward and shows that Iraqi-Kurdistan does differ substantially from other countries and regions in our area, where the debate about women’s rights do not even exist, and the oppression of women is often far worse than in Kurdistan.
Therefore, the boycott committee has decided to put more pressure for change on the parliament. With the slogan “Silence about Polygamy is Violence against Women” it started its campaign, stating that until polygamy is not banned, as in Turkey or Tunisia, this group will not take part in events related to women, on days like 25th of November or 8th of March, if the events are sponsored or organized by governmental agencies or parties that do not clearly oppose polygamy.
Yesterday various women organizations and NGOs participated in a spontaneous demonstration against Polygamy in Suleymaniah. About 700 people came to rally in support of a revised and modernized Personal Status Law.
Wadi is proud to be part of this campaign and we send attached some links to pictures from yesterday’s demonstration.
We ask you as organizations and individuals to circulate the information about this struggle and show your support for all the people here, who fight courageously against polygamy and other forms of violence against women.
Falah Muradkin
Wadi Iraq Project Co-ordinator
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