ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – It’s time to shatter the silence around violence against women in the Kurdistan Region. That’s the message of an exhibit that opens Monday in Erbil and is both a memorial to the women killed in 2019 and a tribute to the people working on the front line helping Kurdistan’s women.
“We don’t talk about rape. We don’t talk about honour killing. We don’t talk about violence, because it’s taboo,” explained artist and activist Dashni Morad, the driving force behind the HERStory exhibition.
That taboo comes from the culture, Morad believes. “For decades, especially in an Islamic-dominated region… the honour of the woman is the honour of the family, the brother, the father.” If a woman does something deemed damaging to the family’s honour, “there’s an unspoken code of ‘take care of it’” and the community will turn a blind eye to the crime, she said.
Last year, under this unspoken code, 120 women lost their lives because of gender-based violence, 41 were killed and 79 committed suicide, according to statistics from the Directorate of Combatting Violence Against Women (DCVAW). The stories of who these women are and how and why they died are largely untold.
Case 1 was a woman killed by her brother after he saw her at home late at night with an unknown man. Case 4 was a woman killed by her husband who suspected she was cheating on him. These bare bones are the only information DCVAW can release about the women who are otherwise erased from their communities and families.
It’s this silence that Morad and the team of artists working with her are hoping to break. “The shame dies when you share the story,” she said.
Strong family and community bonds are central to Kurdish society, but “culture is not something that is kept in a museum. Culture must adapt to the growth of society,” said Morad.
The exhibit is sponsored by development organization SEED Foundation and the Canadian government. Ashley Durec is the head of the Canadian embassy’s office in Erbil. Advocating for women’s rights is a keystone in her government’s foreign policy.
“My hope is that the exhibit will lift the stigma on discussing femicide. It cannot be ended without first shining a light on it,” Durec explained by email. It’s important to know more than just the statistics, she pointed out. “Cold numbers have a way of distancing us emotionally from the crime; hearing their stories re-humanizes the victims and helps us to remember that behind each number was a life.”
Another way to tackle the stigma is through education and Morad hopes that students especially will visit the exhibit, taking responsibility to start a dialogue. “The younger generation needs to break this taboo… break the unspoken code,” she said.
“It’s enough with the violence. It’s enough with the discrimination. It’s time to play an equal role in society. But how can we be a part of this if there is honour killing on a daily basis?” said Morad. It’s time for more training, education, awareness, and new approaches to work together to end violence against women.
The photography and artwork on display includes the work of multiple female artists, including Kurdish photographer Hanna Noori and Dutch artist Nina Lanke. The exhibition opening on Monday will include a panel discussion featuring activists and experts. The exhibit will run for a month at the Framing Photojournalism school in central Erbil.
