Kurdistan making progress in protecting women, says outgoing advocate

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdo Omer, outgoing head of the Combating Violence Against Women Directorate at the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Ministry of the Interior, and recently elected Patriotic Union of Kurdistan(PUK) politician in the Iraqi parliament, has told Rudaw that violence against women has reduced in the region over the past decade, but increasing numbers of women contacting their hotline suggests that there is much more to be done.

In an interview with Rudaw’s Dlnia Rahman on Tuesday, the first female to lead a directorate in the KRG discussed her experience of developing her role and the work of the department over the years, the impact of legislation and her directorate’s 119 hotline on reducing rates of violence against women, and the impact of new technology on the threats that women face.

Omer was born in Koya in 1969, and has worked for women’s organisations since the 1990s. She became Mayor of Koya in 2004, and was appointed head of the Combating Violence Against Women Directorate in 2010. In last month’s elections, Omer was elected to the Iraqi parliament after receiving 13,846 votes, and is consequently standing down from her current role.

Dlnia Rahman: Eleven years is a long time, and I want to know how you have been able to help women over those years. What have you done to reduce violence against women?

Kurdo Omer: Eleven years is a long time! The establishment of the Combating Violence Against Women Directorate [at the KRG Ministry of the Interior] on April 1, 2010 was an important step in itself. The step was putting a woman - a female civilian - in charge of a group of soldiers in military ranks; it wasn’t an easy task to begin with.

I was the first female general director to be appointed at the Ministry of Interior, so it was a role that initially required a lot of deliberation to know what could be achieved together.

During those eleven years, especially when the post was new, there were many obstacles. Having trust was really crucial for the job, and I spent a lot of time introducing ourselves, and encouraging people to trust our department.

At the beginning, many people considered us to be “just another organisation for women”. I have huge respect for all of the brilliant women’s organisations doing great work, but it illustrated how difficult many people found it to accept a woman in the Ministry of Interior. We really tried to create trust with people, and to introduce ourselves and spread awareness.

[In 2011] the Combating Domestic Violence Law was passed, criminalising domestic violence and equipping the directorate to combat violence by investigating it. That’s why the start of investigations - because the law was implemented later - began in 2012.

At first, we needed to train officers on how to treat women, how to help women, and how to protect themselves. Often, people would tell the officers something like, “You’re working in a women’s establishment,” as if it was an insult. I have much respect for all of these gentlemen; they did great work and accepted all the criticism that was thrown at them.

When the law was passed, we started investigating. At first, the UN agencies who dealt with us thought we were a military establishment, and weren’t sure how to work with us. At the beginning of 2011, however, organisations gradually started to approach us. We can now say, fortunately, that UN agencies are competing over working with this directorate.

There are many officers and capable people, and there are other officers who like to work at the directorate because they know about its reputation for helping women and families.

Great. If we compare when you started to now, what do the statistics tell us? Has violence against women increased or decreased? You’ve mentioned that other organisations are on board and are working with you more. Has this had an impact on the levels of violence?

It wasn’t until 2007 and 2008 that data was collected, so we can’t make a detailed comparison before then.

Violence has a lot to do with culture and traditions, and it exists in every country. In some places, of course, its form changes and so the way of combating it is different; it’s dealt with according to the laws of that country.

In the early days when the directorate was established, we were seeing more women murdered and female self-immolation was also more common. If we make a comparison between 2008-2010 until now, cases of violence against women have decreased by around 10-20 percent.
Changing the mindset of any violent individual is not easy. It’s not like constructing a building; you can’t say, “I will build it today and live in it next year.” It requires changing an individual’s mindset, and for someone who has been violent for 30 years, it is not easy to change that just with some seminars.

Fortunately, passing laws has been a deterrent to at least prevent violence in some cases.

If we look at the statistics, they have seen a big shift. At the beginning, female victims of violence would seek support far less often, and they would instead more frequently resort to the worst scenario which is killing themselves.

Now, if we look at the numbers of women seeking support, this has increased dramatically. At the beginning of the directorate, the number of women contacting us about cases of violence was 2,000, 3,000, 4,000.

Last year, we received over 10,000 cases, meaning that 10,000 people have been taken to the courts and dealt with by the directorate. In 2020, more than 11,000 people contacted our 24/7 hour hotline, which we established back in the day through the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

Violence committed against women with new technology is now dramatically different. The cybercrimes - I consider them a crime - has been a significant change. So many women (and men and girls) in the region call us because inappropriate footage has been shared or used as a threat.

In your experience, and you have noted that technology has had a significant impact, is there a main reason we can point to for the continued existence of violence against women? We are never too far away from news of a woman’s murder.

Seventy-five percent of the violence committed is now through social media and new technology. I would say, this new technology media has had a really negative impact. Unfortunately we have awful media.

More generally, our media is moving society downhill in an unhealthy direction. TV news will often make numbers up to be a big deal when they are actually nothing, for example. Other times, people will be made an example of on TV channels when they are not representative at all.

Thankfully the Ministry of Transportation is making efforts to scrap unregistered SIM cards, which is a good thing. We have had many meetings with the minister of transportation, requesting that these SIM cards be scrapped, or at least registered, which will make it easier to track abusers.

Another point is that we don’t really know how to use social media. Back in the days, there were some private matters in your family that you wouldn’t talk about. I urge my dear sisters, especially those who might face violence through social media, to use this new technology and social media very carefully.

You can’t put your private family business on a silver platter and tell people, “here you go, commit violence against me.” Sometimes, inappropriate photos are sent that might have a very bad impact on someone’s future. We need to spread more awareness through the media and social media.

How many shelters do we have in the Kurdistan Region? What are the statistics on the number of women who have taken refuge?

The government has four shelters run by the Ministry of Labour; one of them is a temporary shelter in Garmiyan, and there is also a SEED Foundation shelter for victims of human trafficking.

In the past, if a woman needed to go to a government shelter, the families wouldn’t take them back easily. Now, far more frequently, these families say that if they are in these shelters, they are with the woman and are reassured that they are not on the streets.

That’s why around 900 people come and go into these shelters annually, after we try to reconcile them with the family consultancy centers and Ministry of Labour staff at the shelters and investigate so they can return to their families.

Shelters are not a long-term solution to protect women. Ultimately, the women who use them need support to help them return to their family situation, wherever possible.

And my last question is, during your working years, what story is there that has had an impact on you and you haven’t been able to forget?

One of the stories that really upset me, and which I have told a lot over the years, is about a young woman who had been seen with someone in her village. There wasn’t a lot of evidence that this woman was involved with the person she had been seen with, so we tried to console her and promised to solve her problem later.

Tragically, the woman returned to her family and, despite communicating with them to solve her problem, the woman was killed, along with nine to ten other men, a few months later.

I will never forget this story. It is a stark reminder that in any case we solve for women, we also save the lives of many men as well.

My experience at the directorate has taught me how to work together, the importance of helping each other and the value of the governmental institutions. The current staff of the minister of interior, the previous minister and their deputies have broken a routine, showing how we can compete to get the most work done together, with civil society organisations as well.

With male officers, females, military and civil employees working as one big family to combat violence, without discrimination, we got some really great work done. We have changed laws, introduced hotlines, opened new offices, and developed real expertise. Our team work was successful.

Hotline details: call 119 to seek support.