Women in Power
Apologies for the delay in posting. As mentioned previously, the internet is not always reliable over here, and when it goes down, it likes to stay down. Add to that I've been traveling, and I've wound up with an e-mail inbox crammed to bursting and an audience that wonders if I'll ever post again.
Though I have now left Kurdistan, there is one more aspect of the area that I am excited to write about and would feel remiss if I skip it to move on to my adventures of the last week (see the next few posts).
Erbil is the capital city of Kurdistan; the seat of power. This is where one finds the president, the prime minister and all members of parliament. Recently, the membership in parliament has shifted to include women as well as the overwhelming majority of men. And while the majority of ministers are still men, it is quite exciting, as well as promising, that two women have now joined their ranks.
Women in Kurdistan are gaining power and a voice that is being heard. The sitting Prime Minister has worked hard for women's rights over the last year and his advocacy has wrought positive changes in the region. Not only are there now two female ministers, but a women's in-vitro fertilization hospital has also opened. The hospital is run by a woman (one of the ministers, in fact), and all of the doctors are women. Some men are employed in the lab, but the female patients are guaranteed to be seen by a female doctor- a fairly bold statement in a culture that is dominated by men.
A few months back, the Prime Minister attempted to change the marriage laws. In Muslim tradition, a man may take four wives. Throughout the Muslim world, this is observed differently in different countries, and the rules regulating the four-wife law also differ. Previously in Kurdistan, there were no regulations other than the limit of four wives, and each wife must be treated equally (this tenet is also found in Islamic scripture). In an attempt to elevate women to equal status, the PM tried to do away with any future polygamous marriages and limit a man's legal rights to just one wife. He ran into huge opposition from a surprising quarter- women. The population of Kurdistan is roughly 40% men and 60% women. In a culture where (though there have been sweeping changes in the last year) a woman's status and life is defined through her husband, the change in the law would leave 20% of the population in an odd limbo-like existence. The women of the region were concerned that their fellow females would fall into this category and requested the law be changed back. The PM relented and men are again allowed to have up to four wives, though he did add one caveat to the law. It used to be that men could marry willy-nilly, but now they must obtain permission from their current wives before they can take another. This regulation alone has the ability to change the face of marriage and gender status in Kurdistan.
There are two major parties in Kurdish government, and in an effort to communicate and work together an agreement was reached several years ago that the position of prime minister will rotate between the parties on a set-time basis (I think it's every three years, but don't quote me on that). The current Prime Minister that has worked so hard and effectively for women's rights, education and other community-building aspects is leaving office at the end of this month, to be replaced by a new PM from the opposing party. The rumor mill speaks quite well of the incoming PM, which gives us hope that he will continue to grow the policies for which the groundwork has recently been laid, and that women's status and rights in Kurdistan will continue to ascend towards equality.
