Category Archives: Women’s rights

It’s ‘End Violence Against Women Day’: Heads Up and Smile For The Close-Up

By Hanar Marouf: They say it is the international day  for the elimination of violence against women. They say it is one of the days when positive energy is required from women to prove their existence and defeat violence. They say it is a day when leaders propose new plans and promises to the society….

Iranian Kurdish Women Seek a Voice

By Ava Homa: Oslo, NORWAY—The fourth Kurdish Iranian Women Conference was held this weekend in the capital of Norway. In a two day gathering, Kurdish women from across Europe, North America and Middle East came together to review the history of women’s movement and discuss its continuity. The conference has a central committee, mainly based…

A Letter from Kobane

Translated by Anwar Soltani: Dear Mum, I am alright. We had a small party for my birthday yesterday. I think I am 19 now. My colleague, Azad, dedicated a song to me on the subject of ‘mother’. Azad has a good voice and was in tears while he was singing; he, like myself, was thinking of…

Adib’s Story: An Ezidi Woman Who Escaped the Islamic State

By Amy L. Beam, Ed.D: “I used to have a nice life until Daash attacked us in Shingal,” explains 20-year-old Adib Khudeda Qasem.  The Islamic State (also referred to as IS, ISIS, ISID, ISIL)  is called “Daash” in Iraq. “Now our life is finished,” adds her younger brother. Adib is now living with 32 of…

Viva Kurdistan!

By Rick Trujillo: Companeras y Companeros (Sisters and Brothers), Please accept our greetings, (Hola), from southern California. Our organization, LCLAA, Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, San Diego & Imperial Counties, consider the Kurdish family of peoples – your land (tierra) Kurdistan, your fighters and, most especially, your magnificent culture – a blessing to humanity. Your example, over…

Kurdistan’s Justice for Dunya

Aras Ahmed

By Aras Ahmed Mhamad: The destiny of five of the six rapists of the 16-year-old Syrian Kurdish refugee girl has finally been decided on by the court – they are to remain in jail for 59 years. They are given what they deserve – if not more – though one of them is still on the…

To Jailan

By Yasin Aziz: To Jailan,  (A young Kurdish girl from Syria who took her own life) You the beacon of hope and the flower of struggle. The one who never wanted to be enslaved. I know how you felt, when you took your own life. Not to be amongst the criminals’ concubines. Who are bartered…

Women’s Alliance for Kurdistan, Iraq and Syria

Press Release: We are deeply concerned that a massacre is about to take place in the Kobanê canton of Rojava, the autonomous Kurdish region of Syria. Here, the Kurdish forces, the YPJ and YPG (the women’s and men’s units of the Peoples Defence Force) have been resisting attacks from brutal ISIS gangs and al-Qaeda affiliated groups,…

Mission NOT Accomplished: Rescue the Yazidi Women

Osamah Golpy

By Osamah Golpy: Two major events coincided on June 10, 2014: the Islamic State (IS) overran Mosul, the second-largest city in Iraq; and the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict took place in London, co-chaired by William Hague, the former UK Foreign Secretary, and Angelina Jolie, Special Envoy for the UN High Commissioner…

YPJ Kurdish Women Fighters: A Day in Syria

Film by Rozh Ahmad: Women fighters of the pro-Kurdish Yekineyen Parastina Jin (Women Protection Units: YPJ) tell their stories about why they joined up, the experience of combat and what they are fighting for in this women-only militia amidst the civil war in Syria. KT Comment: This is Rozh Ahmad’s remarkable and moving short documentary about…

Why the tragedy of Yazidi Kurdish women should unite the world

By Arian Mufid: The night of 2nd-3rd August was one we should have anticipated: when the Kurdish nation suffered at the hands of people who have the same roots as the perpetrators of the Anfal of 1988, which was comparable to the Jewish Holocaust. On that dreadful, recent night when the Islamic State (IS) attacked Sinjar, no…

Ghassemlou the Feminist?

By Zakarya Khezeryan: Heralded as the ‘prophet of peace and freedom,’ Adbul Rahman Ghassemlou (A.R.G) was a man of words, action and wisdom far beyond his years. His message, persona and name resonate with every peace and freedom-loving individual that has come to know him. Many know of Ghassemlou the man, the leader, but very…

Role of Kurdish Media & Women’s Organizations in Depiction of Kurdish Females: Dunya’s Murder Case as an Example

Aras Ahmed

By Aras Ahmed Mhamad: The brutal murder of Dunya, the 15-year-old bride child, by her 45-year-old husband in the city of Duhok created uproar in the streets of the Kurdistan region. The photos uploaded onto social media websites show the mutilation of Dunya’s body. Her mother says that she took photos that show her genitals…

Protest against murder of child bride Dunya: London KRG office, Thurs 5th June

By Ziryan Kamal: On Saturday 23rd May 2014, a 15 year old child bride, Dunya, was brutally murdered by her 45 year old husband in the Kurdistan district of Kalakji.The mother of the child, who sold her daughter to the man, reported the murder to the police just after she went to the scene. Shamefully…

Dunya, the child in the white dress

By Shwan Dizayee: Dunya, age 15, was a girl, a daughter, a child of Kurdistan; but unfortunately, at this young, vulnerable age she was also a wife. As I stare at her child photo and marriage day collage, I see no difference, just a natural pose opposed by an unnatural one which is accompanied by…