Kurdistan
Social media and smartphones contribute to violence against women in the Kurdistan Region, according to a Ministry of the Interior official. Photo: AFP/Josh Edelson
Kurdo Omer, head of the Combating Violence Against Women Directorate at the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Ministry of the Interior says their seminars and programs designed to raise social awareness have helped reduce “honor killings” and other types of violence against women in the Kurdistan Region. Most of the violence stems from improper use of modern communication technology like social media, according to her. Omer thinks more women should participate in the ministry, whose ultimate goal is to have women make up 50 percent of the directorate's workforce.
Omer sat down with Rudaw to discuss the state of violence against women in the Kurdistan Region.
Rudaw: What is the scale of violence against women in the Kurdistan Region compared to last year?
Kurdo Omer: The elements and mechanisms of violence vary. For example we receive complaints lodged by women, and there are cases like sexual assault, murder, suicide, and self-immolation. We can say happily that honor killings and self-immolation have recently reduced as [women resort to] filing complaints.
Per your data, more than 5,000 complaints were lodged by women suffering social violence in the first six months of 2019, up from 2018's 4,000. What is the reason?
There is a set of reasons, one of which is growing social awareness due to our seminars. The second is the 1-1-9 hotline designed by Korek Telecom, AsiaCell and Zain for the Combating Violence Against Women Directorate. Women can call us free of charge via the hotline number. The last reason is the growing number of our offices across the Kurdistan Region.
Why do you hide the identity of the murderer, his/her relation with the murdered and the reason behind the murdering?
Because police are investigating the cases. We just do follow-ups. For example, when a woman is murdered, we go to follow up to see what are the latest updates are with respect to the killing, asking why the murderer is not yet arrested, or why it has been delayed. The thing is, we also have problems with judges who sometimes refuse to hand us the cases. For that reason, we have reached out to the Judicial Council of the Kurdistan Region to complain that some of the judges are moody.
Additionally, we often receive data with shortcomings from the police. Information forms that they [police] fill for us are not what we want as they lack much information. Sometimes, it happens that even the murderer is arrested, but they do not detail in the form what his connection was with the victim, nor why he killed her. When we tell them why, they say it is not our business, we just give you the data.
How optimistic are you that violence against women will reduce?
Do not expect the reduction of social violence if we do not use communication tools carefully. According to our data, 80 percent of violence committed against women comes from the misuse of communication tools. By communication tools, I mean the current advanced technology, especially social media, which has become a deadly weapon against women. This all comes from our unfamiliarity with social media. We do not know how to deal with social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram or WhatsApp or any others in the right way. If guns were once the tool used for killing women, now it is social media.
There are a set of reasons which pave the way for the growing violence coming from social media platforms. Firstly, the abundant free time of our women and men who spend most of their time on social media. Communications companies are stoking the fuel of social issues, too. You can find a myriad of unregistered SIM cards in the markets. The companies have some detrimental offers for the youth, becoming free of charge from 12 am and paving the way for youth to manipulate it for wrong use. For example, a girl or a boy exchange naked photos on social media without thinking of the detrimental consequences if [those photos are] revealed.
To what extent have you been successful in keeping a gender balance in your department?
The Interior Ministry is not like the Ministry of Health or Education, which has hundreds of female graduates every year. Our department [within the Interior Ministry] is more like a military place. It depends on the extent to which women are interested in working in this sector. The Interior Ministry requests every year that a large number of women should be employed there, but not many take part in the courses, or they do not get employed due to requirements set by the ministry for employment. Fortunately, there are a considerable number of women who were admitted into the police academic courses of the Interior Ministry. For example, last year 80 female officers were enrolled in the Police College. We asked for training courses to be designed for the officers. Though we have junior officers launching investigations, this is not our ultimate goal. We want 50 percent of our employees and officers to be women.
Translated by Zhelwan Z. Wali
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