Honour-Based Violence: Experiences and Counter-Strategies in Iraqi Kurdistan and the UK Kurdish Diaspora [1 ed.] 9781409421900

Table of contents :
Contents
List of Tables
Acknowledgements
Author Biographies
Foreword
1 Understanding and Challenging ‘Honour’-Based Violence
2 Defining and Responding to Honour-Based Violence and Patriarchal Social Relations
3 The Context: Iraqi Kurdistan Region
4 The Nature of HBV and Women’s Voices from Iraqi Kurdistan
5 Media Representation of Honour-Based Violence
6 Honour Crimes and Kurdish Women in the Diaspora
7 Issues for Law, Policy and Practice in Iraqi Kurdistan
8 Conclusions: Moving Forward
Appendix 1: The Action Plan for Iraqi Kurdistan
Appendix 2: Recommendations for Action in the UK
Appendix 3: Aims and Methods
Bibliography
Index

Citation preview

Honour-Based Violence

This book is dedicated: To the late Rehan Karim – Nazand Begikhani’s mother – who was an inspiration to us all and who sadly died in the final stages of editing And, in humbleness: To all the victims and survivors of ‘honour’-based violence and ‘honour’ killings across the world

Honour-Based Violence Experiences and Counter-Strategies in Iraqi Kurdistan and the UK Kurdish Diaspora

Nazand Begikhani University of Bristol, UK Aisha K. Gill University of Roehampton, UK Gill Hague University of Bristol, UK

First published 2015 by Ashgate Publishing Published 2016 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright © Nazand Begikhani, Aisha K. Gill and Gill Hague 2015 Nazand Begikhani, Aisha K. Gill and Gill Hague have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the authors of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows: Begikhani, Nazand. Honour-based violence : experiences and counter-strategies in Iraqi Kurdistan and the UK Kurdish diaspora / by Nazand Begikhani, Aisha K. Gill and Gill Hague. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4094-2190-0 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Honor killings–Iraq–Kurdistan. 2. Women–Violence against– Iraq–Kurdistan. 3. Women’s rights–Iraq–Kurdistan. 4. Patriarchy–Iraq–Kurdistan. 5. Kurdish diaspora. 6. Kurds–Relocation–Great Britain. I. Gill, Aisha K. II. Hague, Gill. III. Title. HV6250.4.W65B435 2015 362.82’9208991597041–dc23 2014044656 ISBN: 9781409421900 (hbk) ISBN: 9781315587011 (ebk)

Contents List of Tables vi Acknowledgementsvii Author Biographies ix Forewordxi 1

Understanding and Challenging ‘Honour’-Based Violence

1

2

Defining and Responding to Honour-Based Violence and Patriarchal Social Relations

25

3

The Context: Iraqi Kurdistan Region

41

4

The Nature of HBV and Women’s Voices from Iraqi Kurdistan

55

5

Media Representation of Honour-Based Violence

75

6

Honour Crimes and Kurdish Women in the Diaspora

93

7

Issues for Law, Policy and Practice in Iraqi Kurdistan

109

8

Conclusions: Moving Forward

139

Appendix 1: The Action Plan for Iraqi Kurdistan 147 Appendix 2: Recommendations for Action in the UK 155 Appendix 3: Aims and Methods 157 Bibliography167 Index179

List of Tables Table 1: Interviews in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region

163

Table 2: Interviews in the UK

164

Acknowledgements We are deeply grateful to everyone who helped with this book and the study on which it is based. This study was the first-ever international study of ‘honour’based violence and ‘honour’ killing in Iraqi Kurdistan Region and in Kurdish Communities in the Diaspora in the UK, conducted from 2008 till 2010. The research team included the three of us who have now authored this book, also the first of its kind in relation to Kurdish communities. Because of the pioneering nature of these projects, very many people have taken brave positions to be part of them. Our thanks to them all. We would like to extend our sincere gratitude to the Kurdistan Regional Government and Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani for funding the original study. Many thanks also to the University of Bristol and to the University of Roehampton (particularly Professor Yvonne Guerrier and Linda Wilson) for their management support during the research, in terms of ethics and finances, and also for developing security and risk assessment provisions in Iraqi Kurdistan. We are most grateful, too, to our partner organisation, Kurdish Women’s Rights Watch, based in London and Erbil. Most of all we extend our deepest thanks to the survivors of ‘honour’-based violence and their families who agreed, sometimes at some personal risk, to be interviewed for the study and the book. We would like to most sincerely thank renowned Kurdish artist, Rebwar Saeed, for his valuable painting which serves as the cover of this book. Mr Saeed kindly donated the painting out of his commitment to the issue, and he specifically dedicated it to this project as a tribute to Nazand Begikhani’s longstanding combat against honour crimes. We are proud to be able to use his beautiful art. Our special gratitude goes to the late Mrs Runak Rauf and her organisation, for her support and assistance throughout the lifetime of the research project. A most sincere thank you also to Ms Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman, High Representative of the Kurdistan Regional Government to the UK, for her continued support and assistance. Particular thanks to the women’s rights activists, NGOs, shelters, journalists, editors, media groups, ministers, government officials and MPs, as well as the policy officers, practitioners, police officers and managers, lawyers, judges, religious scholars and faith leaders in Kurdistan Region and the UK, who willingly participated in the study and generously gave their time. Our thanks also to the Presidents of Salahaddin and Sulaimaniya Universities, as well as

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colleagues at the Gender and Violence Studies Centre, University of Sulaimaniya, and Kurdistan’s General Directorate of Combating Violence Against Women. We are especially grateful to our colleague, Ms Nazaneen Rashid, from Kurdish Women’s Rights Watch (KWRW) for her precious support and assistance both to the project and to the struggle against violence against women in Kurdistan over the last 30 years. Similarly, our sincere thanks to Ms Drakshan Zulal and Mr Peshraw Namo for their valuable support. We would like, most particularly, to thank Mr Rebin Rasul for his assistance and support way beyond the call of duty. Also, our deep thanks for their support and help to Ms Taman Shakir, Ms Kurda Omar, Ms Pakhshan Zangana and Ms Huda Zangana. We deeply thank Kawther Ibraheem for her dedicated, reliable and efficient research work on the project, as research associate, in Iraqi Kurdistan, and Dr Cassie Hague for considerable and complex bibliographic work on the book manuscript. We extend our sincere thanks to Judge Jan Van-Wijland from the EUJust LEX in Kurdistan Region for his invaluable legal advice. Also, special thanks to Claire Jarvis from Ashgate for her guidance and patience. *** On a personal level, for their love and support during the study and the writing of the book: My deepest thanks go to those women and men who have broken the circle of silence around honour crimes and advocated women’s rights. I am indebted ever to my late ‘mother courage’ Rehan, for being my source of resilience and inspiration, to Nawzad, the wonderful boy for his smile and amazing humour, as well as Rigien and Kevin, for their precious support. (Nazand Begikhani) I wish to extend my gratitude to the victims/survivors of so-called ‘honour’ crimes whose lives have touched mine. You know who you are – thank you! It is in the memory of my mother, Surinder Kaur, that I do this kind of work. This book is for Monique and Renée Gill who bring me endless joy and love. I hope that one day they will not even need to understand why such a subject has to be written about. (Aisha K. Gill) My love and thanks to Keiran Merrick, Cassie Hague, Dave Merrick, Tania Araceli Bell, René-François Bordes, Jac Gruhn and Alison Assiter, for their love, caring and support, to baby Ezra Bordes, and, now in retirement, my deepest gratitude to all the abused and violated women who have generously, patiently, often humorously, and so very bravely, worked with me over my 45-year career. (Gill Hague) viii

Author Biographies Dr Nazand Begikhani is Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Gender and Violence Research, University of Bristol. She has over 20 years’ experience in research, writing, advocacy for human rights and consultancy, publishing widely on gender and ethnicity, violence against women and honour-based violence (HBV) in English, Kurdish and French. She addressed, among many conferences, the 1995 Beijing Fourth World Conference on Women, the UN’s meeting with the World March of Women 2000, and Sweden’s International Conference on Honour Killings (2004). Dr Begikhani was a founder of Kurdish Women’s Action against Honour Killing later Kurdish Women’s Rights Watch. She has provided expert advice and training on gender equality and HBV to government bodies, UN agencies, and international organisations, including the Swedish government, the UN Assistance Mission to Iraq, UN Women in Iraq, the UK Metropolitan Police and Amnesty International. She previously sat on the High Commission to Monitor Violence Against Women in Kurdistan, and is currently a senior international advisor to Kurdistan Region’s Prime Minister on higher education and gender, and a member of the Kurdistan’s Women’s Rights Monitoring Board. Dr Begikhani is a poet of international renown with five poetry collections in Kurdish and one in English, Bells of Speech (Ambit, 2006). She is also the Editor-in-Chief of the monthly journal, Le Monde Diplomatique, Kurdish edition. In 2000, she was awarded the Emma Humphreys Memorial Prize for her work on HBV, and, in 2012, the French Simone Landrey’s Feminine Poetry Prize for her poetry collection, Le lendemain d’hier. Dr Aisha K. Gill is Associate Professor in Criminology at the University of Roehampton. Her main areas of interest and research are health and criminal justice responses to violence against black, minority ethnic and refugee (BMER) women in Britain, Iraqi Kurdistan and India. She has been involved in addressing the problem of violence against women at the grassroots level for the past 16 years. She has extensive experience of providing expert advice to the government, Ministry of Justice, Scotland Yard, Crown Prosecution Service and the voluntary sector on legal policy issues related to so-called ‘honour’ killings, forced marriage and female genital mutilation. Her current research interests include: rights, law and early/child/forced marriage; gendered crimes related to patriarchy; ‘honour’ killings and ‘honour’-based violence in the South Asian/ Kurdish diaspora and femicide in Iraqi Kurdistan and India; missing women;

Honour-Based Violence

acid violence; post-separation violence and child contact; and sexual violence and exploitation. She has also published widely in peer-reviewed journals and is currently co-editing the first special issue on ‘Violence’ for Feminist Review that will be published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2015. Dr Gill Hague is Emeritus Professor of Violence Against Women (VAW) Studies in the Centre for Gender and Violence Research, University of Bristol, UK. In 1990, she was one of two founders of this Centre, now one of the largest in the world. Professor Hague has worked on VAW for more than 40 years as an activist, researcher and Professor, producing more than 120 publications, including seven books, one in three editions, and a variety of practice guides and short books. She has conducted extensive international work, always from a transnational feminist perspective, attempting to avoid Western dominance, in e.g. India, South Africa, Mexico, Canada, Uganda, the US and Iraqi Kurdistan, where she was the overall leader of the ‘honour’-based violence research reported in this book. The topics of her many studies include: inter-agency approaches; impacts of VAW on children and on adults; survivors’ voices; housing; refuges; domestic violence 1945–1970; criminal justice approaches; bride-price; cross-national gender violence studies; and immigration, marriage and abuse. She led, with disabled and non-disabled researchers, the only national UK study on disabled women and domestic violence, and has acted widely as a consultant, nationally and internationally, on VAW issues (recently, for example, as an Invited Expert at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe). In 2013, she was awarded an Emma Humphreys Memorial Special Life-time Award for work on violence against women.

x

Foreword In spite of debates held throughout the world for millennia with the intent to eradicate violence, it continues to persist as a component of the human condition. And for the same duration, violence has unfortunately intersected with another component of the human condition, that of patriarchy. Subsequently, violence against women exists and persists throughout the world, varying only in terms of severity rather than total absence. Within the context of everyday practice, such gender violence does not only prevail physically, but is also sustained legally, socially and culturally. In addition, when states and societies face social, economic and cultural crises, it is women who end up paying the price through experiencing further violence due to their relatively weak position within the family, community and society. Finally, many recent attempts to acknowledge, address and alleviate this great injustice embedded in the human condition have yet to produce persistently positive results throughout the world. This gloomy assessment of gender violence shared by many gender scholars and activists can only be transformed, I would argue, through many studies that follow the one you are holding in your hand today. In this study, three prominent experts of gender violence present not only the empirical findings, but also policies and practices to eventually alleviate gender violence. By conducting interviews with a large number of activist organisations working on gender violence, they have successfully managed to document one of the most ancient practices of gender violence, namely that of honour killings, in the context of the United Kingdom and Iraqi Kurdistan. Their empirical focus is extremely significant in that it analyses not only honour killings in Iraqi Kurdistan, but also among the Kurdish Diaspora in the United Kingdom. This transnational approach highlights how such violence travels across time and space, and does so by drawing upon existing practices in host societies. Given our increasingly mobile world population, such a transnational take is most welcome. Their theoretical focus is also innovative in that rather than focusing on instances of the physical violence of honour killings alone, they bring in and discuss the role of state and government institutions, policies and practices on the one side and the media on the other in generating and sustaining such instances. Such embedding and contextualisation of honour killings reveals unique insights. Their findings reveal that in both the United Kingdom and Iraqi Kurdistan, patriarchy serves to sustain honour killings. While British officials and officers are aware of the problem and are currently trying to work hard

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on prevention, with some world-leading developments, they have not yet been successful. In UK media coverage, prevalent patriarchy adversely intersects with the ‘other’ing of the non-white and non-Christian Kurdish Diaspora. In Iraqi Kurdistan Region, after years of silence, the authority has started to address the issue. They have to be recommended for their willingness to not only recognise, but also finance such a study to be conducted; their approach is indeed much more enlightened than most countries throughout the world. Yet the researchers find that such a refreshingly novel official approach requires further political will and firm commitment so that it penetrates the rest of the state and government apparatus, society and the local media – most are still unaware or wilfully blind to the local conditions that enable honour killings. I hope this very important and impressive research is quickly replicated throughout the world, bringing into the process increasing local participation of men and women, youth and elderly, religious and secular alike. For as the researchers aptly demonstrate here, honour killings throughout the world are generated and sustained by legal, social and cultural conditions within which local actors operate; it is only with the full acknowledgment of and challenge against honour killings that honour killings can finally become a bad memory of the past. Fatma Müge Göçek Professor of Sociology and Women’s Studies University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

xii

Chapter 1

Understanding and Challenging ‘Honour’-Based Violence This book begins the process of breaking new ground. In the book, we discuss a painful and difficult subject, and one which has been, until recently, largely hidden from public view across the world. This subject is violence committed in the name of ‘honour’. In the vast majority of cases, ‘honour’-based violence (HBV) is committed against women by male family members. Although views are changing, this type of violence continues to be regarded as more or less acceptable and to be expected across a wide range of societies, and ethnic and social groups. ‘Honour’-based violence takes many forms but, at its most extreme, it results in the death of girls and women (and occasionally young men), killed by members of their own family. Over the last two decades, this form of inter-personal and community violence has drawn growing international attention. Slowly, and in the face of various types of resistance, change has begun to take place in terms of both social attitudes and policy responses. This shift is reflected in a number of publications in the 2000s exploring HBV, including the seminal essay collection ‘Honour’: Crimes, Paradigms and Violence Against Women (Welchman and Hossain, 2005), to which Nazand Begikhani contributed a chapter on Iraqi Kurdistan. This book, however, is the first on HBV that deals specifically with Kurdish communities. Arriving at this point has been fraught with difficulties in obtaining funding for research (finally awarded in 2008), and in confronting lack of interest and, sometimes, hostile opposition to such research, the general lack of awareness of the issue, and the often wavering, or non-existent, commitment of relevant agencies and authorities to tackling HBV. The book has been a long time in the making. Background

Achieving change in how societies deal with ‘honour’-based violence is not an easy task. Since the 1990s, campaigners and governments have tentatively begun to address the issue through domestic and international instruments, research, and reports, though with varying degrees of commitment and success. Although little by way of substantial change has yet been achieved,

Honour-Based Violence

there have been many positive developments. HBV is now often characterised across contexts and countries, not as honourable (as has mainly been the case throughout history), but as dis-honourable, calling into question the very term ‘honour’-based violence. Critically, it is now seen as degrading to perpetrators rather than victims, which was not the case in the past. ‘Honour’-based violence policies and initiatives have been developed by the United Nations (UN) and other national and international bodies, from governments to local communities, and from media groups to faith leaders; in this, women’s rights groups have played an especially critical role the world over. This book is part of this positive trajectory, illuminating many general aspects of so-called HBV as well as the specific ways it manifests in the context of Kurdish communities. Honour or Dishonour?

It is difficult to know how to refer to ‘honour’-based violence (Welchman and Hossain, 2005; Idriss and Abbas, 2011). Some commentators suggest that the very word ‘honour’ is problematic, since it traditionally connotes good deeds, worthy actions, and earned respect. Other activists and researchers suggest the term should be expanded to ‘so-called honour-based violence’ (Begikhani, Gill and Hague, 2010; Gill, 2011, pp. 218–23), while others (including the authors of this book) prefer to mark out the word ‘honour’ with quotation marks to indicate that its meaning can and should be contested (Sen, 2005). Thus, the word ‘honour’ is placed in quotation marks in this introductory chapter to stress the problematic nature of any concept of ‘honour’ that leads deliberately and directly to violence and abuse (Sen, 2005; Welchman and Hossain, 2005). The quotation marks are omitted in subsequent chapters for ease of reading. This is a painful and difficult subject. Readers who have experienced ‘honour’based and other forms of gendered violence, or who are grieving someone killed or abused in the name of ‘honour’, may well find it upsetting, as, indeed, may those with no direct experience of these disturbing issues. The subject, and the sometimes shocking stories of victims and survivors, are distressing and stay in the mind long after reading. However, emotional pain is part of the terrain and cannot be avoided if we are to confront and, ultimately, tackle this form of violence against women (VAW) and the values and beliefs that underlie it. On a personal level, it is important for readers not to underestimate the possible psychological and emotional impacts, and to try to get support if needed from friends, families, colleagues, professional therapists or counsellors.

2

Understanding and Challenging ‘Honour’-Based Violence

Kurdistan and the Kurdish Diaspora

Kurdistan (the ‘land of Kurds’) is not currently recognised as an independent state. It crosses the borders of Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and the former Soviet republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan (Dahlman, 2002). However, the Iraqi Kurdistan Region is a constitutional entity comprising a Kurdish homeland within the State of Iraq. It borders Syria to the West, Iran to the East, and Turkey to the North, with a rapidly increasing population of around 4 million people (Kurdistan Regional Government [KRG], 2012). (A more detailed history of Kurdistan is given in Chapter 3.) In this book, a Kurdish person is defined as having Kurdish ancestry, speaking Kurdish, including its various dialects (or having direct family who do so), or living (or sharing ancestral roots) in the various regions of Kurdistan. Despite considerable exodus to metropolitan cities and to the West, many Kurdish people continue to live in small villages in the various Kurdish areas of the Middle East. Most pursue rural occupations. For many, particularly, but not solely, those in such rural areas, being Kurdish can additionally imply continued, if weakening, adherence to tribal patterns of living and relationships based on patriarchal values in which men dominate almost all areas of life (Begikhani, 2005). (See Chapter 2 for a more detailed discussion of the term ‘patriarchy’.) However, large numbers of Kurdish people have recently moved to rapidly expanding urban areas. In the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, the major cities, after a turbulent recent history (and despite unpredictable changes in process at the time of writing), are moderately stable and are starting to prosper. Many Kurds have also moved to, or in the past been exiled to, the industrialised West, seeking both freedom from state repression and a higher material standard of living. It is hard to assess how many Kurdish people there are in Europe as census information on Kurdish immigrants, refugees and citizens is unavailable: most relevant data-sets categorise people on the basis of their country of origin, rather than their ethnicity. Thus, Kurds are usually grouped with Iraqi, Iranian, Syrian or Turkish nationals (Mojab and Gorman, 2007, p. 63). However, it is clear that (in the last few decades in particular) many Kurdish people have fled from repression, war and instability in their homelands to Europe and North America. Migration to Europe began in the 1960s when a significant number of young Kurdish intellectuals moved abroad for educational reasons. From the late 1970s, larger numbers migrated as a result of the increasing repression of Kurds in eastern Turkey; small groups also began to arrive from Iraqi Kurdistan following the regional conflicts of the late 1960s and 1970s. In the 1980s and 1990s, migration from the Iraqi Kurdistan Region increased dramatically as a result of the First Gulf War, the violent repression of Kurdish uprisings, and the oppressive, indeed genocidal, actions of the Ba’ath regime. Thus, in the last two decades the overwhelming majority 3

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of Iraqi Kurds coming to the United Kingdom (UK) have been asylum-seekers and exiles, though some have been students, professionals and business people. As early as 1991, Safran claimed that the Kurdish community in the UK could be considered a true diasporic group as it comprised individuals and families dispersed from their original homes, as well as doubly- or triply-displaced migrants: this is still true today. The community as a whole remains culturally and politically connected, not least because many are strongly committed to the preservation of the Kurdish homelands (Safan, 1991, pp. 83–4; Begikhani, 2005). In short, a large Kurdish diaspora has been created in the UK (especially London) and other Western countries as a result of the history of difficulties and discrimination experienced by Kurdish peoples (see Chapters 2, 3 and 6 for a more detailed discussion). What do We Mean by ‘Honour’-Based Violence?

‘Honour’-based violence (HBV) is generally understood as consisting of a variety of forms of intimate violence committed most commonly against (young) women (and some men) by uncles, fathers, brothers, husbands and other male (and sometimes female) relatives. It generally involves a premeditated act aimed at restoring lost or threatened ‘honour’, as constructed by the family and wider community (Begikhani, 2005; Gill, 2010). HBV is usually differentiated from other forms of domestic and gendered violence on the basis that it occurs within a framework of collective family and community structures. Thus, ‘honour’ crimes are perpetuated within patriarchal norms and traditions and a strict code of silence about such issues. HBV has existed throughout remembered history in a broad variety of societies, from white European to African cultures, and from South/East Asia to Latin America (Abu Odeh, 1996; Begikhani, 2005). Codes of honour governing most aspects of inter-personal behaviour operated widely across the world in the past, and still do to a considerable extent in some cultures. Where such codes concern family and personal life, they tend to revolve around women, with the broad aim of regulating women’s sexual behaviour and availability. Families and communities frequently strive to ensure that ‘honour’ codes are strictly observed because real or perceived transgressions are often seen to ‘stain’ the ‘honour’ of the transgressor’s entire family, kin-group or community. Such transgressions may be punished by HBV, including ‘honour’ killings, in order to ‘cleanse’ the collective ‘honour’ of the family and community (Gill, 2010; Gill, Begikhani and Hague, 2012, p. 80). HBV covers a wide range of actions including physical violence, assaults, maiming and killings. It also includes coerced suicide (including by enforced self-immolation), starvation, poisoning, forced marriage of women (frequently 4

Understanding and Challenging ‘Honour’-Based Violence

to a man who has already raped the woman concerned), and the curtailment of liberty, basic rights and/or education. ‘Honour’ revenge is often discussed as a subcategory of ‘honour’ crime, along with other forms of coercion and abuse including abandonment, removal of children, genital mutilation, forced virginity, forced hymen repair, forced abortion, and imprisonment (Welchman and Hossain, 2005; UNAMI, UNHR and ASUDA, 2009). The most extreme form of HBV – killing in the name of ‘honour’ – is tragically widespread. Reports submitted to the 2002 UN Commission on Human Rights document the continuing occurrence of this practice in Bangladesh, Brazil, Britain, Canada, Ecuador, Egypt, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Pakistan, Morocco, Sweden, Turkey, Uganda and America (see also Begikhani, 2005; Welchman and Hossain, 2005; Gill, 2009). The UN Population Fund estimates that 5,000 women are killed in the name of ‘honour’ each year (UNFPA, 2000; Welchman and Hossain, 2005). What Types of Community are Affected by ‘Honour’-Based Violence?

The literature shows that HBV has occurred in many countries around the world throughout history. Patterns of family ‘honour’ violence are evident, for example, in South and Central America, Mediterranean societies, various Eastern European cultures, and in communities in many countries of the Middle East, Africa, South Asia, Europe and North America (Meeto and Mirza, 2007). The practice is not confined to any particular type of society, community, religion, culture or social class/stratum (Anitha and Gill, 2011). Thus, it is important not to associate HBV with one specific culture or religion and to challenge popular stereotypes that suggest, for instance, that HBV derives from Islamic beliefs. In the UK, HBV commonly comes to the British public’s attention when particularly shocking cases are broadcast by the media in a sensationalised or voyeuristic way. The community involved (or the relevant country of origin) is often stigmatised as a likely site of such violence, with all other communities cast as blameless and free of these behaviours (Anitha and Gill, 2011). In this way, the crimes involved are usually identified strongly, either implicitly or explicitly, with certain ethnic groups or communities, which may then, be collectively condemned. Misleading perceptions of this sort have often led to polarised and ill-informed debates about immigration and gender equality, especially in the UK and other European countries (Meeto and Mirza, 2007; Gill, 2010). It is not accurate to stigmatise particular communities en masse in this way (Welchman and Hossain, 2005; Gill, 2010). Nevertheless, this has been the case for Kurdish populations. In the UK, for example, general negative views about Kurdish communities have been engendered by a small number of HBV cases involving Kurds (Begikhani, 2005; Kurdish Human Rights Project, 2009; 5

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Kurdish Women’s Rights Watch, 2009). However, recognising the universality of HBV does not absolve individual societies and communities from addressing their context-specific manifestations of these practices (Mojab and Hassanpour, 2002; Kurdish Human Rights Project, 2009; Gill, 2011, p. 220). ‘Honour’-Based Violence is Best Understood as a Form of Violence Against Women

The weight of international research suggests that HBV is most effectively conceptualised and understood as a form of violence against women (Begikhani, 2005; Welchman and Hossain, 2005; Gill, 2008; Idriss and Abbas, 2011). Violence against women (VAW) encompasses all forms of violence that have a gendered dimension in terms of who commits it, who experiences it, and why. The UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women (1993) states that the abuse of women by men takes many forms, including physical, emotional and sexual violence. VAW is often a manifestation of unequal power relations and the enduring notion, across the world, that women should, in a variety of ways, be under the control of men. HBV fits precisely into this definition. Moreover, when HBV occurs against men, it is usually still a gendered act in that it is almost always motivated by real or perceived transgressions regarding the relationships of male victims with women. As a result of these transgressions, male victims may be subjected to violence, ostracisation, sexual mutilation, persecution or murder in the name of ‘honour’. Although women have been known to perpetrate HBV, they rarely take a direct role, instead sometimes being complicit in agreeing with, supporting or sanctioning violence that is then carried out by male relatives. In some cases, women are involved in HBV because they subscribe powerfully to the socio-cultural norms and traditions that discriminate against them, though in others it is because they are not in a powerful enough position to prevent the violence and might even be at risk if they were seen not to support their relatives’ actions. Thus, while this book is ostensibly about ‘honour’-based violence, the core of argument that this phenomenon should actually be defined as a form of violence against women. As discussed above, the use of the term ‘honour crime’ is by no means straightforward (Welchman and Hossain, 2005, p. 4). First, the application of the word ‘honour’ to forms of violence that overwhelmingly afflict women lends support to the idea that ‘honour’ is intricately tied to female behaviour. Second, the use of the word ‘honour’ is inherently problematic, not least because it is susceptible to ‘eroticisation’ (Welchman and Hossain, 2005, p. 4) whereby whole cultures and communities are blamed for acts of VAW. Narayan (1997) 6

Understanding and Challenging ‘Honour’-Based Violence

has argued that while policy-makers and academics need to be responsive to the diversity of women’s lives both within and across national contexts, they should also avoid the danger of painting a picture of cultural differences that might constitute cultural ‘essentialism’ and so play into the blanket-stereotyping of whole communities. Conceptualising HBV as a specific type of VAW that operates through ‘honour’ codes legitimised by patriarchal values helps to avoid these pitfalls (Gill, Begikhani and Hague, 2012, p. 76). While there is a tendency in the West to see ‘honour’ killings as related to specific non-Western cultural traditions (Piper, 2004, p. 101), neither this nor other forms of HBV are confined to any particular religion, culture, type of society or social stratum, a point made above but worth reiterating (Ortner, 1978; Mojab and Abdo, 2004). Bourdieu (1977) argues that ‘honour’ is not a specific aspect of cultural practice, rather it emerges from a constellation of interpersonal exchanges. Thus, even though ‘honour’ crimes are found in many different societies, each unique social and cultural context should be individually evaluated to determine how and why specific ‘honour’-based practices have arisen. As Pope (2004) stresses, the forms that ‘honour crimes’ take differ not only from country to country, but also from community to community, and even family to family. This is because different meanings are attributed to the notion of ‘honour’ in different contexts. These meanings also change and evolve over time (Gill, Begikhani and Hague, 2012, pp. 76–7). Nonetheless, despite these complexities, both the mainstream media and individual politicians and professionals in the UK (and internationally) regularly attribute HBV solely to particular geographical regions, socio-ethnic groups or faiths. However, many feminists have argued that all fundamental religious movements (including Christian ones) have a strong tendency to use the control of women’s bodies symbolically to assert a broad agenda of authoritarian politics and control (Werbner, 2007; Yuval-Davis, 2009). Thus, understanding why HBV occurs requires looking beyond simple descriptive labels and cultural stereotypes and, instead, examining the meanings ascribed to the term ‘honour’ in different communities. In overall terms, the literature suggests that ‘honour’ codes and associated views about the subordinate position of women are embedded in broad and pervasive social structures and ways of thinking that revolve around gendered values and norms that legitimise control of women’s sexual and other behaviour. The result is the imposition of restrictions on the lives and activities of women, with any perceived ‘deviation’ from these controls being likely to attract some form of retribution or punishment (Begikhani, 2005; Gill, 2006). While ‘honour’ killings may not be prevalent the world over, some idea of honour has existed in almost all human groupings (Wikan, 2008). In many societies, throughout history and presently, male ‘honour’ has been viewed as dependent on an individual’s public reputation and, thus, as something that 7

Honour-Based Violence

can be actively achieved. Female ‘honour’, on the other hand, has usually been seen as determined not by active achievement but by the avoidance of certain behaviours and especially by sexual discretion. Men acquire ‘honour’ by virtue of their character, family, position and public behaviour, but they can easily lose it because of ‘dis-honourable’ behaviour by ‘their’ womenfolk, which also reflects negatively on the wider family and community (Begikhani, 2003). Thus, HBV is gendered in that is often motivated by a wish to control women, especially young women and girls who have engaged in friendships, relationships, or even minor social contact with men to whom they are not related or who are deemed inappropriate. Innuendo can be enough to incite retribution. In this way, women’s sexual and social choices come to be controlled by male family members and by generally-accepted beliefs that women should obey strict codes of behaviour overseen by male/senior relatives (Sen, 2003; Welchman and Hossain, 2005). The likelihood of falling victim to HBV acts to discipline the behaviour of all women in patriarchal societies that subscribe to ‘honour’ codes (Gill, 2009; Gill, 2011; Begikhani, Gill and Hague, 2010). ‘Honour’, Culture and Religion

Although HBV occurs across a wide-range of cultures and religions, as we have noted, it takes specific forms in individual communities: these forms are determined by many factors, but key among them are cultural and religious issues in a complex intersecting mix (Begikhani, 2003). Thus, some cultural practices and traditions have been recognised as harmful, especially to women and girls within particularly male-dominated or patriarchal societies (Sen, 2005; Thiara and Gill, 2010). In Kurdish communities, these include practices that effectively give men permission to dominate, control and abuse women. While it is vital to preserve beneficial cultural values and traditions, it is also vital to change harmful practices. Reform in relation to HBV has occurred in recent years in various societies, but much remains to be done. Until recently, practices that are harmful to women have rarely been seen as stemming specifically from male-dominated socio-cultural norms and traditions that afford women little power. Rather, such practices have often been judgmentally viewed in the West as an expression of religious backwardness or of the broadly ‘atavistic’ nature of certain minority ethnic cultures. Thus, the causes of HBV tend to be attributed to supposedly immutable and intrinsic traditions, customs and religious beliefs (Gill, 2010) such that little attention is paid to the perpetrators of these crimes, either as culpable individuals or as part of male-dominated social structures. (For a detailed discussion of how these issues play out in the UK, see Chapter 6.) 8

Understanding and Challenging ‘Honour’-Based Violence

Thus, while Purna Sen argues that it is flawed to posit a cultural specificity that fails to see the linkages between particular manifestations of VAW, ‘to deny specificity if it exists is also problematic’ (Sen, 2005, p. 50). Two principal interpretations of HBV have emerged: the first sees HBV as one expression of a broader phenomenon of VAW; the second considers that HBV is rooted in socio-cultural practices deriving from patriarchal norms and values. Understanding HBV requires an appreciation of both its connection to genderbased domestic violence and the specific social contexts in which individual cases occur (Begikhani, 2003; Welchman and Hossain, 2005; Gill, 2006). Moving forward, two questions remain. Why has violence become an accepted tool for ‘undoing’ perceived damage to family and community ‘honour’? Why has an act of collective violence come to been seen to neutralise real and presumed transgressions of behavioural norms and traditions? ‘Honour’, Romance and Family Responsibility

Understanding why HBV occurs requires looking beyond simple descriptive labels and examining the term ‘honour’ as it relates to specific communities. In Kurdish communities, for example, ‘honour’ is a multidimensional concept that encompasses familial respect, patriotism and social prestige (see also Chapter 3). ‘Honour’ is determined by the interaction between a person’s feelings of self-worth and the worth that his/her peer-group (i.e. ‘honour group’) assigns to him/her. As ‘honour’ is bestowed in social contexts, it is ephemeral and can easily be lost (Stewart, 1994; Gill, 2009). Losing ‘honour’ invites ridicule and disgrace, and subjects the individual and his/her family to shame (Begikhani, 2003; Gill, 2010). The possibility of public or community shaming functions as a way to coerce individuals and families to conform to behavioural norms and traditions (Viswanath et al., 1997, p. 324). However, what is considered normal versus abnormal behaviour, and what is considered good versus bad, is different for men and women. Thus, the murder or abuse of women in the name of ‘honour’ is predicated on socio-cultural notions of ‘proper’ gender-specific behaviours and relationships, defined by patriarchal values (Begikhani, 2005; Gill, 2011). A wide range of acts are considered shameful, but none more than those that are seen to compromise female chastity or fidelity in marriage. Adultery, perceived adultery, loss of virginity outside marriage, romantic/sexual liaisons, flirting, sexual interaction before marriage, or just talking with a man on the street may be seen as shameful. Female chastity is often viewed as a key part of a family’s symbolic capital (Bourdieu, 1977) in Kurdish communities. To protect this capital, a woman who is seen to offend against prevailing notions of ‘honour’ must be punished. In such instances, murder or violent chastisement can be seen as a means to an end 9

Honour-Based Violence

in that it restores ‘honour’ and removes shame, resolving the situation. For this reason, the families of many victims of ‘honour’ killings do not publicly express regret or grief over the killing. Instead, they frequently condemn the victim for betraying family loyalty for personal gratification: thus, male aggressors are recast as victims and female victims as culprits (Hussein, 2010). ‘Honour’ killings most commonly result from accusations that women have had sexual or romantic experiences outside marriage, or that they have chosen partners or relationships for themselves. To understand why this may be seen as shameful, it is important to consider the structural opposition between romantic love and marriage in many societies and belief systems (Lindholm, 1998; Anitha and Gill, 2011). For instance, in Kurdish society romance is seen as having no place in marriage, the purpose of which is to uphold social structures, including through child-bearing, and to strengthen alliances between families, communities and clans. As romance can be seen as the structural antithesis of this concept of marriage, it is viewed as a form of personal gratification that contravenes moral norms. In many societies structured around notions of ‘honour’, all forms of romance are considered illicit (Anitha and Gill, 2011). Thus, in patriarchal societies romance and love-relationships tend to be viewed as selfish behaviours associated with Western values. Critically, pursuing romance is seen to deny the responsibility that family members have to each other, weakening the cohesiveness of the family (Gill, Begikhani and Hague, 2012, p. 76); romantic relationships are frequently viewed as leading to fragmentation and divisions within intermeshing, duty-led communities. Thus, the pursuit of relationships on the grounds of romance and personal attraction regularly provokes condemnation, ostracism and violence in Kurdish communities (Stewart, 1994; Anitha and Gill, 2011). (These issues are discussed further in Chapter 2.) International Efforts to Tackle HBV

Awareness of HBV has been increasing across the world in the last two decades. In 2000, a resolution on ‘honour’ crimes was circulated at a Special Session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA): in 2002 the UNGA adopted the resolution on ‘Working towards the elimination of crimes against women committed in the name of ‘honour’ (UNGA, 2001). This resolution urges States to investigate ‘honour’ crimes, to punish perpetrators and to take measures to ‘raise awareness of the need to prevent and eliminate crimes against women committed in the name of “honour”, with the aim of changing the attitudes and behaviour that allow such crimes to be committed’ (Erturk, 2005, p. 171). While this provides an international framework for addressing HBV, the application of international law in individual countries is dependent on the 10

Understanding and Challenging ‘Honour’-Based Violence

efforts of each State to comply with their obligations by amending domestic legislation, developing institutional arrangements, and implementing appropriate measures. This requires a strong political commitment to establishing gender equality and protecting women’s rights. Governments and non-State actors continue to differ in the degree to which they view HBV as an issue that should be addressed through direct action, including preventative and educational initiatives (Idriss and Abbass, 2011). Thus, while HBV, including honour killings, has been widely recognised as a problem requiring attention since the early 2000s, this has rarely resulted in concerted or consistent national or international effort to tackle it. Most countries have done very little: Sweden is a notable exception. In November 2003, the Swedish Minister of Democracy and Integration Issues convened an expert panel on HBV. Around the same time, Sweden also became the base of a European project on HBV (i.e. the Daphne Project), initiated by non-governmental organisation (NGO) Kvinnoforum and supported by the European Union. Meanwhile, the Netherlands-based NGO TransAct launched a National Platform Against ‘Honour’ Related Violence in 2004 to exchange information and expertise, and to foster collaborative endeavours between European countries aimed at eradicating such crimes. Also in 2004, Stockholm hosted an international conference that culminated in the Stockholm Declaration to Combat ‘Honour’-Related Violence in Europe. The strategies outlined in the Declaration consist of both criminal justice and preventative measures that emphasise the importance of awareness-raising in communities affected by HBV. Various governments and organisations have engaged in strategy, policy and research development to create a knowledgebase about HBV and promote the sharing of good practice. However, positive developments have often been met with inadequate responses at all levels, largely as a result of a lack of political will to tackle the specific issue of HBV and the broader issues of VAW and gender inequality. The Research Behind this Book

In recent years, national and international initiatives concerning HBV have been developed, often as a result of women’s activism and the work of human rights bodies (Welchman and Hossain, 2005; Idriss and Abbas, 2011). These initiatives have begun the long process both of challenging the practice of HBV and of putting in place culturally-specific strategies and services to support victims (IFWF, 2007; Idriss and Abbas, 2011). This book draws on feminist perspectives, women’s activism and action research to advance both current understandings of HBV and attempts to address it, especially in Kurdish communities. The discussions are based on the findings and recommendations of a unique study on HBV conducted in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region and Kurdish communities 11

Honour-Based Violence

in the UK. The study aimed to help break the traditional silence that has surrounded the issue in Iraqi Kurdistan to raise awareness among professionals and the public in both countries about how best to develop effective strategies to address HBV specifically and VAW more generally. One specific trigger for the commissioning of the research was the 2007 murder by stoning of a teenage Yazidi Kurdish girl in the Ba’shiqah administrative sub-district of Iraq (not formally part of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region). Du’a Khalil’s case sparked national and international outrage when onlookers used mobile-phone cameras to film the scene and then broadcast the extremely distressing footage across the world. This amateur footage showed police and other statutory agencies failing to intervene to save Du’a (Begikhani, 2007), though four of the many perpetrators were finally convicted of murder in 2010. In 2007, partly as a response to this atrocity, the then Prime Minister of Iraqi Kurdistan Region, Nechirvan Barzani, established a series of initiatives to address HBV. These included setting up the ‘Honour’-based Violence Monitoring Commission, later to become the High Commission to Monitor Violence Against Women, as well as establishing the three Directorates to Follow up VAW. (Later, in 2010, these all regrouped under the name of General Directorate of Combating Violence Against Women – the GDCVAW – with offices across the Region). In 2008, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) took the previously unprecedented step of commissioning an international research project on ‘honour’-based violence in Kurdistan and the Kurdish Diaspora as part of its wider strategy, which became the study behind this book. Collectively, these initiatives aimed to contribute to the modernisation processes underway in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region via making a beginning on integrating gender issues into social and public policy. The study commissioned was entirely independent, with no aspect dictated or controlled by the KRG. It was a pioneering piece of research, breaking new ground for social researchers in Kurdistan Region. The aims of this project were (i) to expose and explore the practice of HBV (including ‘honour’ killings), and (ii) to contribute directly to policy, activist responses and new initiatives in Iraqi Kurdistan and the UK (Begikhani, Gill and Hague, 2010; see also Gill, Begikhani and Hague, 2012; Hague, Gill and Begikhani, 2013). The study was carried out between 2008 and 2010 by a consortium of senior researchers from the Centre for Gender and Violence Research, School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol, UK, and the Department of Social Sciences, University of Roehampton, UK, working in partnership with the Kurdish women’s organisation, Kurdish Women’s Rights Watch, which is based in London with

12

Understanding and Challenging ‘Honour’-Based Violence

an office in Iraqi Kurdistan.1 Further fieldwork in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region was conducted by Dr Nazand Begikhani after 2010; her findings from this work are also included in this book. The study strived to follow best practice as regards transnational research on gender issues (Naples, 2002) by consciously attempting to avoid ethnocentrism, eurocentrism and the inappropriate imposition of Western ideas. We further aimed to attempt to understand and respect cultural issues and traditional practices, while simultaneously fostering critical debate about the factors underling HBV in order to work towards change. The team’s stated position was that HBV is a widespread phenomenon, and that Kurdish society and communities must not be singled out or stigmatised in any way through being the focus of this study. Nevertheless, it is important that the issue is addressed in Kurdish communities, as well as in others, to lead to social development and to address harmful social practice where they exist. Given that the research involved complex international collaboration between two British universities and Kurdish Women’s Rights Watch, the team sought ethical approval from the Ethics Committees of both Universities which investigated the project in detail. The Universities provided financial and project management and ethical oversight throughout, and also developed ethical and staff management agreements, and comprehensive risk assessment procedures. Importantly, they also developed security and safety arrangements and procedures to protect everyone concerned. These were complied with by all participants across the duration of the study, especially in the militarised context of Iraqi Kurdistan Region. The main research objectives were (i) to assess the nature of HBV, including ‘honour’ killings, in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region and the Kurdish Diaspora in the UK, and (ii) to evaluate the impact of HBV on Kurdish women. The research also explored the development, to date, of strategies and policies to address honourbased violence in both countries. The action-research aspect of the project involved the provision and discussion of data and policy recommendations 1  The major section of this study was led by Dr Nazand Begikhani, Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Gender and Violence Research, School for Policy Studies, at the University of Bristol, who designed, coordinated, oversaw and also conducted extensive fieldwork in Iraqi Kurdistan throughout. The UK section of the research was led by Dr Aisha K. Gill, Associate Professor in Criminology, Department of Social Sciences, at the University of Roehampton, who, additionally, played an important role in fieldwork and data collection activities in Iraqi Kurdistan Region between 2008 and 2010. The team was led overall by Professor Gill Hague, (now Emeritus) Professor of Violence Against Women Studies in the Centre for Gender and Violence Research at Bristol, who both conducted some of the data collection, and oversaw and advised the project throughout. All three researchers collaborated on the research design, data collection in both countries, analysis, dissemination and publication stages. The research was assisted by Ms. Kawther Ibraheem who worked as a research associate in Iraqi Kurdistan Region.. 13

Honour-Based Violence

to support interventions, initiatives and social action to tackle HBV. A key outcome was the development of an Action Plan for addressing HBV in Iraqi Kurdistan and policy recommendations for use in the UK context. The study also engaged with, and assisted, women’s NGOs in both Kurdistan and the UK. In-depth qualitative interviews formed the core of the research methodology. All interviews were conducted in line with culturally appropriate confidentiality and safety measures, and in a culturally sensitive way. Particular attention was paid to emotional support for participants, the hidden nature of many experiences of HBV, and the potentially dangerous situation of survivors, their families and even the interviewers. One hundred and sixty-six semi-structured interviews were carried out overall, including one hundred and twenty interviews in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region (where the larger section of the study was located). Interviewees in Iraqi Kurdistan included with government officials, health professionals, members of the judiciary, police officers, members of women’s NGOs, media outlets and other agencies. Twelve in-depth interviews were also conducted with HBV survivors/victims and/or their family members, together with in-depth case studies of individual cases, while further informal interviews were carried out with victims of burnings. Thirty-four interviews were conducted with professionals in the UK, including members of the police, criminal justice system and government, as well as front-line women’s organisations working on HBV issues in London. A thematic analysis of the interviews was conducted via both NVivo software and manual analysis to draw out and cross-check key themes. Detailed case studies of the prosecution of ‘honour’ killing cases were also carried out, mainly in the UK: some involved multiple interviews with family members and a number of the professionals involved. The team also used participant-observation methods, including observing throughout three highprofile British cases involving the ‘honour’ killing of young Kurdish women (Heshu Yones, Banaz Mahmod and Tulay Goren). For comparative purposes, the research team also examined the cases of Surjit Athwal, a young woman of Punjabi Sikh heritage living in the UK, who was also murdered in the name of ‘honour’. Throughout the project a comprehensive media monitoring exercise was carried out involving content analysis of reporting by a range of media outlets in the UK and in Iraqi Kurdistan. (For a detailed discussion of the methodology, see Appendix 3.) The findings from the different aspects of the study were then synthesised in order to provide evidence for, and to develop, the Recommendations, Action Plan, and various publications, including this volume. While the book is based largely on the study and its findings, it also draws on wider scholarly literature and research, as well as insights from working with women’s activist groups, personal activist expertise and experience, and also practice knowledge of Iraqi Kurdistan and of Kurdish issues more generally. HBV is discussed both in the 14

Understanding and Challenging ‘Honour’-Based Violence

context of Iraqi Kurdistan Region and of the Kurdish Diaspora, particularly in London. What We Found Overall

While the findings of the research are discussed throughout the book and are considered in detail in later chapters, some overall pointers to the general issues which emerged are outlined here, by way of introduction. Kurdish peoples share a strong common identity, but the Kurdish population is highly diverse (AbdulMaek, 2002). Despite this, the study found that HBV manifests in similar ways in Kurdish communities in both the Iraqi Kurdistan Region and the UK. In both locations, while there were differences across groups and communities, HBV displayed broadly similar parameters in terms of the profile of victims and perpetrators, and the impact of patriarchal traditions and values. Cases of HBV also exhibited similar causal factors (especially in terms of the role of patriarchal structures) and similar outcomes for victims, perpetrators and their families. Nevertheless, there were significant differences between Kurdistan and the UK; these are explored in the following two sub-sections. Overall, we found that women’s organisations in both the UK and the Iraqi Kurdistan Region have led the way in campaigning and raising awareness about HBV (Begikhani, 2005). Often, women’s NGOs have been the only organisations able or willing to support victims and their relatives. Women’s groups in the Kurdish Diaspora and Iraqi Kurdistan Region argue that tackling HBV requires stronger political will, more effective civil and criminal legislation, on-going training and support for relevant professionals, improved legal processes, a greater number of prosecutions, more effective coordinated support for victims, comprehensive awareness-raising and public education. The study also recommends a holistic multi-stranded response, with better liaison between Kurdish women’s organisations and criminal justice and other relevant authorities. The research concluded that wider action is needed in that States across the world must do more to ensure that victims who have experienced or been threatened with violence in the name of ‘honour’ receive immediate, confidential and comprehensive assistance, including access to legal help and psychological and social support. However, these efforts are complicated by the fact that in policy terms ‘honour’ crimes still tend to be treated as distinct from non-‘honour’-based forms of violence against women.

15

Honour-Based Violence

Combating HBV in Iraqi Kurdistan

The society of Iraqi Kurdistan Region is dominated almost entirely by men. Although progress is being made, change regarding gender equality has been painfully slow (Begikhani, 2005). Attempts have been made to develop new strategies, policies and laws, as well as to amend existing legislation, but implementation has not been comprehensive or consistent enough to lead to fundamental change in women’s lives (see Chapters 3 and 7 for more detailed discussion). Notable improvements in the legal system include the ratification, in 2011, of the Combating Domestic Violence Law. Previously, under the Iraqi Penal Code penalties for murder and other crimes of violence were substantially reduced in cases where the crimes were committed in the name of ‘honour’. However, a positive development is that some of the relevant legislation has now been amended to exclude this as a mitigating factor. But when it comes to implementing new alternative laws, there have been many challenges (see Chapter 7). While accurate figures concerning the incidence of HBV are not available, the study found that the phenomenon remains widespread in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region. Women in the study had undergone mental and physical abuse, torture, confinement, coercion, forced marriage, mutilation and/or disfigurement (including the cutting off of ears and noses), genital mutilation, forced divorce, rape as punishment, forced abortion, and public dis-honouring. Some women further reported that their movements had been controlled (e.g. they had been forbidden to leave the house) and that they had been deprived of schooling and other educational opportunities. Other interviewees discussed cases in which women had been killed, including through burning to death, or forced to commit suicide (sometimes through forced self-immolation). Further cases were identified in which women had died in unexplained kitchen fires in which they were the only victims; no-one else was ever burned or injured in the very crowded households concerned. The study also identified instances of HBV conducted via cyber abuse, where women were publicly shamed and ‘dis-honoured’ through the internet and other means of the information technology, with permanent damage to their life opportunities, including their employment and marriage prospects. Participants offered many illustrations of how the practice of HBV was generally accepted in the past as an inevitable part of normal life. However, some suggested that things are beginning to change, albeit very slowly. HBV policies and initiatives have been developed by statutory agencies, local communities, media groups, faith leaders, and especially women’s rights groups, though these efforts have not yet led to effective change in reducing the level of HBV or significantly improved women’s position and rights in Kurdistan Region. 16

Understanding and Challenging ‘Honour’-Based Violence

As discussed in detail in Chapter 3, Kurdistan Region’s involvement in the Iraq War was complex and differed from that of the rest of Iraq, following, as it did, multiple genocidal acts against the Kurdish people. Since the establishment of the Kurdistan National Assembly in 1992, and particularly after the formation of the unified KRG in 2006, there has been a functional civil society in the Region. Unlike in the rest of Iraq, no explosions or suicide attacks occurred in the Region between 2007 and 2013. However, at the end of September 2013 (and again in 2014) a number of suicide bombers attacked security headquarters and the Ministry of Interior in the Region’s capital, Erbil (BBC, 2013). The civil war in Syria and its consequences in the Middle East have affected Kurdistan Region in a critical way. While we were finalising the manuscript in the Spring and Summer of 2014, after it was reviewed, the attacks by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) (subsequently called the Islamic State, IS) on Mosul and later on Shingal Mount and the Nineveh Plains created new challenges to Kurdistan Region, including risks facing its security, stability and economic status leading to further violence and an extensive humanitarian crisis (UN News Centre, August 2014). Despite this crisis and although the future is uncertain at the time of writing, peace has largely prevailed to date, affording a favourable environment for the creation and development of women’s NGOs. This development was facilitated by several factors, including the departure of the Ba’athist regime, the prevailing security of the Region, growing awareness of human rights (including women’s rights), the work of international organisations, and the return of exiled women (Begikhani, 2005). Today, there are more than 50 women’s organisations, many working on gender violence and providing much-needed outreach and support services to victims. Although some commentators have claimed that there has not been enough cooperation and solidarity between women’s NGOs in the Region, they have continued through difficult (and sometimes openly hostile conditions) to provide services and to form functioning inter-organisational networks, including Nawandi Hawbashi Zhnan (i.e. the Women’s Joint/Cooperative Centre, established in 1997 comprising 18 women’s and civil rights groups), the Women’s Network (established in 2005, now comprising 22 organisations), and the Zhiyan Group (established in August 2012, now comprising 14 organisations). There are also a small number of pioneering refuges and safe houses offering protection to victims and those at risk of HBV and domestic violence. For example, the Asuda Organisation to Combat Violence Against Women2 and Aram shelters have been operating over the last 12 years; however, there remains an extreme shortage of shelter spaces.

2  At the time of editing this book, end of 2013, we were told that the Asuda-ran shelter was no longer functioning. 17

Honour-Based Violence

In 2007, the three Directorates to Follow up Violence Against Women, which later became the General Directorate of Combating Violence Against Women (GDCVAW), were established in the three main cities. In 2012, a National Strategy to Combat VAW was drafted by a consortium of local and international organisations, led by the High Council of Women’s Affairs; the document was endorsed by the Iraqi Kurdistan Region’s Council of Ministers later the same year. However, the Region’s efforts in this regard are plagued by a lack of rigorous investigation and ineffective functioning systems, combined with poor judicial practice and legislative implementation, often arising from a kind of general acceptance of HBV in the collective imagination. These problems are compounded by the fact that many professionals (almost all men) fail to take the issue seriously. As a result, conviction rates in HBV cases remain very low and many alleged murderers escape prosecution altogether. Bringing up the issue remains difficult, with those who take a stand against HBV often facing hostility. However, it must be recognised that the government of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region is working within a transitional context, with continuing violence and instability in Iraq and in the Middle East, especially during the attacks of the ISIS jihadists. The use of violence, and also of informal and tribal justice, remains common, though the KRG has begun to amend legal provisions that subjugate women seeking to ensure that legislation is implemented and obeyed by all, and not over-ridden by tribal law. Nevertheless, the study behind this volume, confirming the findings of a key UN report (UNAMI, UNHR and ASUDA, 2009), revealed that these developments have not been reliably implemented in general and outside the cities in particular. It is true though that, compared to 15 years ago, there is now a political will to address HBV in Iraqi Kurdistan with institutionalisation of the issue, as part of the Region’s modernisation project. The Action Plan developed during the research behind this book contributed to this process, including by putting forward a coordinated, multi-pronged approach that identified four key areas for work: legal and policy developments, services for victims and their families, training for professionals, and awarenessraising for professionals and the public. Combating HBV in the UK

There have been some world-leading developments in British practice and policy on HBV. However, these developments run alongside an often glaring lack of general attention to the issue that is built on ignorance, racist attitudes and institutional failings (Hague, Gill and Begikhani, 2013). These problems derive from inadequate understandings of HBV within relevant statutory agencies, a lack of attention to the voices of women’s organisations, and under-funding 18

Understanding and Challenging ‘Honour’-Based Violence

of women’s services. Thus, despite some excellent areas of practice and truly pioneering policy work, failures to protect those at risk are still all too common. However, steps are now being taken to ensure those lessons are learnt from cases like that of Shafilea Ahmed and those discussed in this book (Gill, 2014). According to the majority of the UK-based interviewees in the study behind this book, Kurdish residents, whether they are long-term residents, full British citizens, temporary immigrants or refugees, often face discrimination and racism. This complicates both individual and community responses to HBV. HBV in the UK is often not conceptualised as related to male domination and control in families, but, instead, viewed as an expression of the alien nature of ‘othered’ women from ‘othered’ minority communities (Begikhani, 2003; Gill and Anitha, 2010). Interviews with women’s organisations confirmed that in Britain HBV is still frequently attributed to the supposedly intrinsic cultural traditions, customs and religious beliefs of minority communities. Focusing responses on cultural issues tends to exoticise HBV instead of enabling the issue to be viewed as part of the larger struggle against all forms of VAW (Gill, 2009; Gill and Anitha, 2010). According to the study’s respondents, since the September 2001 attacks government agendas focused on promoting multi-culturalism have been rolled back in favour of a new community cohesion agenda. Islamophobia has become more common and minority communities have increasingly been viewed as homogenous in their ‘otherness’. No matter how settled, multi-generational, integrated and long-term they are, Britain’s complex minority communities have often been stigmatised as consisting of ‘immigrants’. Recently, the rubric has focused on ‘immigrants who held ‘backward’ attitudes and perpetrated oppressive practices (like forced marriage) against women’ (Fekete, 2006, p. 7) as an acceptable way to condemn certain minority communities (Gill, 2009). Thus, in recent years HBV has come to be ideologically (re)conceptualised as an expression of such ‘backward’ cultural attitudes; these, in turn, are generally seen as standing in sharp contrast to those of ‘liberal’ (i.e. white) British society (Gill, 2010). In such an environment, it is unsurprising that successive governments, and also statutory agencies, have tended to blame HBV and other ‘harmful traditional practices’ on socialisation into particular religious and cultural systems of belief; from this premise it follows that it is right and proper for the State to exert control over cultural issues to prevent human rights abuses. This logic has allowed successive British governments to sidestep charges of prejudice in relation to repressive immigration procedures and increased immigration controls; instead, these have often been presented as necessary to combat HBV, VAW and other human rights abuses. All the interviewees from British women’s organisations, and from Kurdish and other minority communities in Britain, emphasised that they constantly have to combat these attitudes: a struggle made more difficult by public sector 19

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funding cutbacks following the 2010 economic crisis. Despite this, at a grassroots level a number of community and women’s groups, including the Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Rights Organisation, Southall Black Sisters, and Kurdish Women’s Rights Watch (previously Kurdish Women’s Action Against Honour Killing – KWAHK) have been campaigning for years to bring the true incidence of HBV to light, to raise awareness of the connections between different forms of VAW, and to change attitudes towards it (Gill, 2011). While many British NGOs focusing on women’s causes see the issue of HBV in terms of VAW (Dustin, 2006), until recently government initiatives have focused exclusively on forced marriage (Gill, 2011, p. 224). The UK Project on Strategies to Address Crimes of ‘Honour’, set up in 1999, was a key exception. Promising initiatives were then started by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS, 2007) and the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), key among them the ACPO Strategies on ‘Honour’-Based Violence and Forced Marriage (2008), which was accompanied by an Action Plan covering the training, practice guidance and risk assessment tools necessary to implement the strategies fully (DASH, 2009; Begikhani, Gill and Hague, 2010). However, forward-looking work at the strategic level has yet to be fully embedded and implemented in everyday practice nation-wide. According to the interviewees, a good start has been made, but, despite focused and determined efforts in recent years (particularly by key police managers), those working on the ground agree that much remains to be done to improve the quality of policing and criminal justice responses, not least in terms of ensuring that effective responses are not a ‘post-code lottery’. Interviewees identified the lack of specialist services equipped to deal with the needs of black and minority ethnic women and the shortage of safe shelter/refuges for victims of HBV as issues needing urgent attention. It is vital that victims are consistently referred to appropriate sources of support, including specialist NGOs and women’s support organisations and that these are properly funded. However, at present, the opposite appears to be the case with many specialist women’s services currently under serious threat as a result of the cutbacks in Coalition government funding from 2010/11 (Hague, Gill and Begikhani, 2013; see also Chapter 6). In conclusion, while there has been progress in the UK, not least in terms of the development of good practice, promising policies have been unevenly implemented. Nevertheless, on the whole the situation is substantially better for Kurds in Britain, despite issues of racism and discrimination, than in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, where many key legislative and policy developments have not yet been implemented at all.

20

Understanding and Challenging ‘Honour’-Based Violence

The Structure of the Book

The chapters have been deliberately constructed, in some cases, as stand-alone pieces for ease of use by readers wishing to focus on a particular set of issues. Thus, there is inevitably some repetition; we have attempted to cross-reference this where it occurs. However, read as a whole, the book provides a wide-ranging and thorough coverage of the key debates on ‘honour’-based violence, as well as national and international attempts to combat it in both Iraqi Kurdistan and the UK. The present chapter has described the research behind the volume as a whole, as well as exploring current understandings of: (i) honour-based violence, (ii) its relationship to violence against women, culture, religion and patriarchal values, (iii) the progress that has been made across the world, but particularly in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region and the UK, in tackling HBV, and (iv) the ways in which the Kurdistan Region Government and the British Government are still failing victims and those at risk. Chapter 2 expands and builds on the arguments outlined in Chapter 1, exploring what happens to women within patriarchal societies and how this has contributed to the recent re-conceptualisation of HBV as a form of VAW: the core argument of the book as a whole. The chapter illustrates these issues in relation to both the successes and, often, failures of UK efforts to tackle HBV. In Chapter 3, the context of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region is addressed in more detail, mapping the tragic and fragmented history of the Kurds. The chapter examines the nature of the Ba’athist government under Saddam Hussein and the ethnic cleansing campaigns (1987–1988), known as ‘the Anfal’, in which the Kurds were targeted. In 1988, an Iraqi military attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja used chemical weapons to kill approximately 5,000 civilians and injure twice that number. This was only one of 40 poison-gas attacks against Iraqi Kurds, who have experienced numerous forms of violence and oppression, including forced assimilation, ‘Arabisation’, war, ethnic cleansing and genocide. Despite these almost overwhelming difficulties, the Kurds have maintained a distinct cultural identity. The chapter discusses the way in which peace has afforded a transitional context in which the KRG is attempting to achieve rapid development and modernisation, though limited change has so far been achieved in relation to gender issues. Chapter 4 explores women’s (and men’s) experiences of HBV in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, using case studies to examine individual and collective efforts by women (and some men) to exercise agency in relation to HBV, including through resisting patriarchal norms, traditions and beliefs. The chapter details the impact of debates about national identity, gender equality and social justice on how HBV is currently dealt with. It also discusses the increasing attention the issue is receiving in the Region as a result of the work of statutory agencies, 21

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faith leaders, women’s organisations and other professionals. Thus, the analysis probes the extent to which women’s voices have been heard in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region in relation to law, policy, implementation, and debates on traditional norms and values. Chapter 5 discusses media representations of HBV in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region. To date, these have helped to sustain an ideology that allows such harmful practices to go unchallenged. This chapter fills a gap in the literature by asking how ‘honour’ killing cases are ‘constructed’ by the Kurdish media, and how these constructions define ‘Self ’ and ‘Other’. Specifically, the chapter examines how the media often plays into gender stereotypes using ideas of ‘culture’ to obscure the gendered meanings of the violence acted out on women’s bodies within Kurdish communities in the Region. Chapter 6 examines the situation of women in the Kurdish Diaspora, documenting both the voices of Kurdish women’s organisations and statutory agencies in London in relation to their struggle to end VAW committed in the name of ‘honour’, including through raising public awareness. Building on Chapters 1 and 2, Chapter 6 discusses British criminal justice responses to the issue over the last 10 years through analysing three criminal cases concerning the ‘honour’ killing of young Kurdish women, Heshu Yones, Banaz Mahmod and Tulay Goren. Chapter 7 presents an overview of the challenges laid out in the preceding chapters regarding the situation in Iraqi Kurdistan, assessing them in the context of current attempts to reform criminal justice practices, both formal and informal. In examining the KRG’s efforts to combat HBV, the chapter presents an assessment of the treatment of ‘honour’ crimes in the current legal system and its interpretation by the legal community. It explores the extent to which new laws, as well as amended legislation have been understood and implemented. The chapter also discusses the critical role of extra-judicial actors, including religious and tribal leaders, as well as political intervention, in dealing with HBV. In addressing the specific achievements and shortcomings of the KRG’s policies (including in relation to the new issue of ‘dis-honouring’ committed via cyber abuse), the chapter highlights the role of, and need for, reform in education, public awareness-raising, social work, healthcare, economic opportunities for women, opportunities for women to participate in various aspects of public life, and how faith leaders influence the behaviour of local communities. Moving forwards, Iraqi Kurdistan must undertake the tricky task of renegotiating the relationship between its polity and clerical estates, as well as tribal bodies. Chapter 8 offers an opportunity to reflect on both the policy initiatives explored throughout the volume and the on-going struggles in the UK and around the world, to advance current knowledge of and constructive responses to HBV. The chapter ends with a call for change via new initiatives aimed at 22

Understanding and Challenging ‘Honour’-Based Violence

eradicating all forms of VAW committed in the name of ‘honour’ in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, the UK and globally. Appendices 1 and 2 present a practical agenda for change and provide recommendations for policy and practice. Appendix 1 lays out an Action Plan for Iraqi Kurdistan: building on changes already underway, it outlines what is needed and how further change could be achieved. Appendix 2 puts forward recommendations for action and change in Britain. And finally Appendix 3 provides a detailed discussion of the methodology. In the rest of the book after this initial chapter, as we discussed earlier, the quotation marks around ‘honour’ in terms, for example, of ‘honour’-based violence are omitted so that the text is easier to read.

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Chapter 2

Defining and Responding to Honour-Based Violence and Patriarchal Social Relations This chapter builds on the introductory discussions in Chapter 1, developing an analysis of honour-based violence (HBV) centred on the links between patriarchal social relations and gender-based violence. In the initial sections of the chapter, concepts of intersectionality and ‘difference’ are developed to provide a framework for understanding women’s lives and to situate the later discussions. Over the last three decades, violence against women (VAW) has become a matter of major public and academic interest (Hester, Kelly and Radford, 1995; Gangoli, McCarry and Razack, 2000; Hague and Malos, 2005; Thiara and Gill, 2010). Investigative work has started to reveal the extent to which various forms of violence – ranging from physical domestic violence to sexual assault, and from culturally-sanctioned forced marriages to female genital mutilation (FGM) – are inflicted on women around the world (Horvath and Kelly, 2006). However, although considerable progress has been made toward understanding the nature of VAW, much remains to be done, both to address its consequences and to prevent it from occurring. Debates about VAW have a long history in the UK within gender studies, race and ethnic studies, and cultural and diaspora studies. This work has challenged the invisibility of minority groups and the absence of theoretical frameworks that are able to take account of the impact of intersecting social inequalities. The common thread linking these accounts is the idea that understanding gendered violence means taking account of ‘difference’ in terms of both social structures and culture; this is only possible with analytical tools that do not simplistically reproduce stereotypical representations of minority women’s subjectivity or their everyday experiences of their cultures and communities. The essence of intersectionality is that in a society marked by multiple systems of domination based, inter alia, on race, gender, class, individuals’ experiences are not shaped by single identities (e.g. ‘female’, ‘black’, ‘white’), but are often marked by multiple forms of oppression. Moreover, major categories can be broken down further: for example, ‘women’ can be situated in powerful/ less ways to one another. By rejecting meta-narratives and meta-theories,

Honour-Based Violence

intersectionality foregrounds the multiple aspects of women’s social locations and identities, emphasising the intersecting forms of oppression that shape women’s lives (Crenshaw, 1992; Razack, 1998). How to analyse the different social divisions that form the intersectional matrices that determine the location of individuals is a problem that has preoccupied many scholars. Yuval-Davis (2006), in discussing the difficulties associated with the ‘conflation or separation of the different analytic levels in which intersectionality is located’, argues that analytical separation of different social divisions (e.g. race, gender and class) is needed when trying to examine the lived reality of particular groups of women in a particular context at a particular historical moment (Yuval-Davis, 2006, p. 195). At the heart of the argument is the idea that, since different social divisions are ‘differently framed’ by different ontological claims, they cannot be reduced to each other. Therefore, ‘being oppressed … is always constructed and intermeshed in other social divisions’ (Yuval-Davis, 2006, p. 195; Verloo, 2005). Thus, intersectionality encourages an examination of how gender oppression may be complicated by an individual’s location in other social divisions or systems of oppression; this, in turn, affords opportunity to explore the impact of intersecting forms of inequality on the ways women respond to oppression and the responses they receive from support agencies. A woman’s intersectional location and identity also impacts on the construction of her subjectivity (e.g. as victims/survivors). If priority is given to family or community concerns over the individual, then women will be reluctant to disclose their problems. Similarly, where women are constructed as victims of cultural practices, this is likely to shape service responses as well as making it less likely that they will pursue criminal prosecutions. Whether women remain silent or speak out about abuse is shaped by complex factors – personal, social, representational, cultural and institutional – emphasising how important intersectional approaches are for understanding how these elements come together in individual cases and across groups. This is particularly salient in relation to issues like HBV given that Western governments have often essentialised both the problem and those affected, blaming the culture or religion of certain minority ethnic communities instead of examining the range of factors at play. Honour crimes concern a range of forms of violence directed towards individuals (almost always women) in the name of ‘honour’. As we have noted in the last chapter, both research and policy responses in the UK and the Iraqi Kurdistan Region have been sporadic and uneven: persistent criticism has been made about the paucity and ineffectiveness of measures designed to reduce the incidence of such crimes (Baxi and Ali, 2006; Gill, 2011, p. 218). HBV occurs around the world (Gill, 2006; Kirti et al., 2011; Sev’er and Yurdakul, 2011; Tripathi and Yadav, 2004) across ethnic, class and religious boundaries (Gill, 2009; Gill, 2010). However, the association of ‘honour’ with 26

Defining and Responding to Honour-Based Violence

an exotic ‘Other’ means that calling these crimes ‘honour-based violence’ or ‘honour killings’ often serves to perpetuate stereotypes regarding minority ethnic communities, especially Muslim and South Asian ones, that make the issues more intractable (Gill, 2006; Keeping, 2012; Schliesmann, 2012). Progress towards greater understanding has partly been impeded by semantic wrangling over the use of the term ‘honour’ in relation to VAW (see Chapter 1). Some critics suggest that terms that include the word ‘honour’ place undue emphasis on male honour, while others are concerned that it encourages an emphasis on honour killings to the detrimental of a broader perspective that takes in the widespread nature of non-fatal honour-based violence (Gill, 2011, p. 218; Jiwani and Hoodfar, 2012; Meeto and Mirza, 2007; Reddy, 2008). The fact that widely different types of behaviour may trigger HBV further complicates efforts to define and address this form of VAW. However, The Council of Europe (2002) has developed a pioneering definition that recognises some of the complexities of the issue, though it does not consider the full spectrum of behaviours focused on maintaining and restoring honour that are directed at vulnerable and relatively powerless individuals, usually women and children. These behaviours include control, domination, and intimidation, as well as physical violence. Focusing solely on physical force ignores the other types of harm that may be inflicted through other means. The lack of consensus over the definition of honour crimes has led to countless debates about what actually constitutes HBV. As yet, these debates have not produced a generally accepted and widely agreed working definition (Welchman and Hossain, 2005; Gill, 2011, p. 219). Although HBV takes places in a wide variety of contexts, the gender dimension of this form of violence does not vary. Thus, this book adopts a broad-ranging definition (see Chapter 1), recognising that although HBV does affect men, male cases represent a tiny minority, hence the book’s focus on HBV as it affects women. HBV is a gendered form of violence, both in terms of its victims and its perpetrators. Men are generally only targeted through their association with women who have transgressed social norms and values. HBV is usually an expression of male domination over female kin and can, thus, be identified as a type of patriarchal power. Accordingly, the book considers HBV to encompass all forms of violence perpetrated within a framework of patriarchal structures at the family, community and/or societal level where the main justification for the perpetration of the violence is the protection of a social construction of ‘honour’ as a value-system, norm, or tradition. This parallels the Council of Europe definition, but expands its remit to include all harms against women occurring within patriarchal cultures, demonstrating that HBV is most effectively conceptualised as a specific manifestation of VAW.

27

Honour-Based Violence

The Role of Culture and Gender in HBV1

Abandoning the term ‘honour-based violence’ focuses attention on how the harms in question relate to the wider context of VAW (Gill, 2010). It also helps the challenge the idea that there can ever be any ‘honour’ in brutal crimes; indeed, it provides a strong platform for reconfiguring various related terms, including ‘honour killings’, on the basis that they play down the severity of these crimes and belittle victims. Another reason for rejecting terminology involving the word ‘honour’ is socio-political: these are crimes committed predominantly by men against women. HBV, as a form of VAW, is often used in Western countries to establish boundaries between the gendered cultural codes of diasporic families and communities and the gendered norms and values of the dominant society. Indeed, in such cases notions of ‘honour’ may be less important than the desire, on the part of male (and a few female) leaders within patriarchal families and social groups to retain their political and cultural authority through reinforcing traditional gender roles and expectations. This form of social control emerges from norms and traditions regarding how individuals and families attain and/or forfeit honour (Gill, 2011, p. 220). Shame is often associated with transgressions of personal honour (see Chapter 1) and functions as the opposite to honour (Gill, 2011, p. 220): honour is valued highly, whereas shame is to be avoided at all costs. Fears about the loss of personal or family honour shape how individuals act in many societies; thus, shame is an effective tool for curbing the behaviour of individuals, operating as a sanction that can be imposed by a community on those who transgress the community’s norms, traditions and/or values (Begikhani, 2005; Gill and Anitha, 2011; Gill, 2011, p. 220). In an honour-based patriarchal society, the man is almost always defined as the head of the family, irrespective of how much value is attached to female activities. The man is the defender of his family and their collective honour; therefore, it is his duty to protect his and his family’s honour against any behaviour that might be seen as shameful, embarrassing or humiliating by the community. In patriarchal societies women are often regarded as the personal property of their close male relatives before marriage and their husbands after marriage (Gill, 2011, p. 220); thus, protecting women’s honour is a key duty for men as it is primarily through the conduct, actions, and social performances of women that families attain and maintain honour, respect and prestige.

1  This section of the chapter draws on Gill (2011) Reconfiguring ‘honour’ – based violence as a form of gendered violence, in Idriss, M., and Abbas, T. (eds) Honour, Violence, Women and Islam, London and New York: Routledge-Cavendish. 28

Defining and Responding to Honour-Based Violence

As honour relies principally on the behaviour of women, the need to safeguard family honour affords men the ‘right’ to control women’s bodies and behaviour. Thus, in patriarchal societies, women are invested with immense negative power: any misbehaviour on their part can bring shame and dishonour to the male members of an entire community or lineage (Kandiyoti, 1988). Female chastity and modesty are considered essential to a family’s public standing and honour (Derne, 1994), hence the systematic control of women’s social and sexual behaviour in societies that subscribe to these norms and values (Ortner, 1978; Gill, Begikhani and Hague, 2012, p. 76). Such beliefs and traditions are not, of course, restricted to the Kurdish context, but function wherever shame and honour are used to coerce and victimise women. To illustrate this by example, in some honour-based cultures, the woman’s hymen (a symbol of female chastity) is regarded as key to family honour (Gill, Begikhani and Hague, 2012, p. 88). For this reason, some communities practice FGM on the grounds that it protects the family’s honour by ensuring sexual ‘respectability’ in young women. The World Health Organisation defines FGM as all procedures involving partial or complete removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs, whether for cultural or any other non-therapeutic reasons. FGM affects between 100 and 140 million women and girls worldwide and it is estimated that more than 3 million girls a year are at risk. Although FGM is primarily practised in Africa (and, to a lesser extent, the Middle East), international migration has extended the reach of this practice, so that it has become a matter of concern worldwide (Mandara, 2004). Empirical studies have shown that FGM is ‘widely’ practised in Iraqi Kurdistan (BMC Public Health, 2013).2 As FGM takes different forms in different societies and is performed for different reasons, it is not easy to trace the origin of this practice to any particular point or place in history. In some communities the procedure is observed as a religious rite, though it is carried out across Muslim, Christian and other faiths and there is no clear evidence in the Bible or Qur’an supporting it (Mandara, 2004). When FGM is discussed, the argument tends to centre on issues concerning the universality versus relativity of socio-cultural value systems and how protecting one human right may mean compromising another: in most cases, those who support FGM focus on collective rights and cultural and religious freedoms while those against the practice focus on individual rights, individual autonomy and universal rights (Phillips, 2010).

2  The Wadi organisation, which has conducted several empirical studies on, and campaigns against, FGM in Iraqi Kurdistan, reported in October 2013 that the practice has been decreased in Kurdistan Region. For more information, see ‘Significant Decrease of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in Iraqi-Kurdistan, New Survey Data Shows’, Wadi, October 2013. 29

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As with other forms of HBV, debates about FGM show how socio-cultural traditions are often invoked to justify VAW. Woman’s health, well-being and interests are seen as properly subordinated to notions of family honour concerned with promoting the family’s collective interests and social standing. It is precisely because the notion of ‘honour’ underlies so many forms of gender-based violence (including forced marriage, forced hymen repair, forced virginity, forced abortion and early pregnancy) that HBV cannot be studied, or even understood, either in isolation from other forms of VAW or the particular contexts in which specific forms of VAW occur (Gill, 2011, p. 221; Dustin, 2006). This claim marks a radical departure from scholarly tradition: HBV has historically been defined as a category of cultural violence distinct from domestic violence and VAW more generally. HBV is usually differentiated from other forms of gender violence on the grounds that it (i) occurs within a framework of patriarchal family, community and societal structures, (ii) involves premeditated acts designed to restore a societal construction of honour as a value system, norm or tradition, and (iii) assumes that men have a ‘right’ to control women’s sexual and other choices, often because of a concomitant belief that women are the property of men (Sen, 2003; Welchman and Hossain, 2005; Gill, 2011, p. 221). The problem is compounded by the fact that victims often do not recognise that they are victims of gender-based violence but interpret their treatment as an intrinsic or inevitable part of their culture. As Tripathi and Yadav (2004, p. 64) argue: a jealous husband in the United States may be driven to the same acts of violent rage as one in Pakistan or Portugal, but such attacks tend to be taken more seriously by authorities in developed countries where women are more educated about their rights.

Many women in patriarchal societies believe that they are not full human beings and/or that they are not equal to their male counterparts. The socialisation of young women in such societies revolves around notions of family honour: the norms and traditions that support honour-based value systems are often so deeply internalised that women are often complicit in both their own subjugation and the oppression of the women. Indeed, many women feel that they are to blame for any emotional and physical abuse they suffer (Gill, 2011, p. 221). Thus, within families, mothers, mothers-in-law, and older siblings are sometimes involved, both directly and indirectly, in the perpetration of HBV. Although male control of, and dominance over, women is the main underlying cause of VAW, the involvement of female family members is a by-product of interlocking gender role systems and life-cycle-based hierarchies (Gill, 2011, p. 221). According to Sangari (1999), when women become involved in the 30

Defining and Responding to Honour-Based Violence

socialisation of other women (particularly daughters), they tend to comply with patriarchal ideologies because their multilayered identities are rooted in class, caste, and familial notions of status: just as a woman’s role within her family usually subsumes a woman’s identity, so it also defines her position in society. Acquiescing to such ideologies becomes, for many women, the key to both selfworth and status in the community. Moreover, consent to patriarchal norms of religion, culture and class are strongly encouraged: the degree to which each woman conforms to the value systems embedded in these institutions is reflected in the way she is perceived by her marital and blood family – and, thus, how she perceives herself. The acceptance of patriarchal structures by women helps to legitimise VAW, in the eyes of both men and women, as a necessary force for sustaining social order (Kandiyoti, 1998; Gill, 2011, pp. 220–21). It works to control women and maintain the male-dominated status quo (Kandiyoti, 1998): men victimise and abuse women in order (consciously or unconsciously) to sustain their dominance within the social system. Thus, HBV can, and often does, involve men other than husbands, fathers, brothers, uncles and sexual intimates: more distant family members and even members of the wider community may also be involved. Only by seeing HBV as one manifestation of the wider problem of VAW can it be properly understood as a human rights violation. Honour Killings

At the extreme end of the HBV spectrum are so-called ‘honour killings’. The term ‘honour killing’ typically refers to the murder (or attempted murder) of a woman by members of her family who do not approve of her sexual behaviour (Abu-Odeh, 1996; Werbner, 2007). Although it is usually male relatives who commit these murders, female family members (most often the victim’s mother or mother-in-law) may be involved in condoning or helping to arrange the crime. As with less extreme forms of HBV, honour killings are committed in order to restore a family’s social reputation when their ‘honour’ is seen to have been damaged by the victim’s real or suspected actions. However, implication that victims are killed because of ‘honour’ suggests that they are the ones at fault, having brought the crime upon themselves by besmirching their own honour and that of their family (Gill, 2011, p. 222). Thus, the use of the word ‘honour’ tends to disguise the fact that honour killings are almost always premeditated and planned murders. Although honour killings do not appear in all societies, they occur in very many. Killing in the name of ‘honour’ cannot, then, be simplistically regarded as a manifestation of an alien, inferior or damaging culture. Like all forms of HBV, honour killing is a gendered type of violence, better seen as an expression 31

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of VAW, than as unique to certain cultures or ethnic groups. Claims that honour killings have no parallel (i.e. that they are unique) often result in the dismissal of these crimes as cultural aberrations; instead, they must be understood as part of a broader problem that affects all societies and social groups (Gill, 2011, p. 222). Only by seeing VAW as a continuum of gender-based violence can the issue be properly addressed. Murders referred to as honour killings ‘symbolize a wider, more prevalent logic that shows women and girls what is likely to happen to them if they don’t behave and conform to social and patriarchal expectations’ (Jiwani and Hoodfar, 2012, p. 3). The particular set of behavioural norms associated with using violence to restore lost ‘honour’ have not been recognised as a specific violation of human rights except in specialist circles (Gill, 2006; Meeto and Mirza, 2007). However, scholars (Kirti et al., 2011; Reddy, 2008; Tripathi and Yadav, 2004) have argued that it is the responsibility of states to prevent honour crimes by taking action on the issue of VAW, both on an individual basis and as part of a broader infringement of human rights: gender discrimination and inequality. In the supposedly multicultural West, cases like that of Banaz Mahmod demonstrate how the police and other statutory agencies often fail to protect victims and those at risk. Banaz made written and verbal reports to authorities, including West Midlands Police, but they were not taken seriously and the minimal protections offered ultimately failed to save her life (Payne, 2011). One of the most frequently cited cases of HBV in the UK exhibits a number of characteristics typical of most recorded honour killings. In 1998, Rukhsana Naz (a woman of Pakistani heritage from Derby), who had been forced into marriage at the age of 16, was murdered by her family because they thought she had become pregnant as the result of an adulterous affair. She was judged to have contravened her community’s laws through sexually deviant behaviour, bringing shame on her family. Once a family’s reputation is seen to have been ‘dishonoured’ in this way, the ‘culpable’ woman is in danger of being killed. The killer or killers usually treat the murder not as a crime but as a form of ‘honour cleansing’: as a way of wiping away a ‘stain’ on the family’s honour. Ironically, this cleansing process is accomplished through the spilling of blood (Gill, 2011, pp. 222–3). Despite the meagre (but increasing) amount of academic literature on honour killings in the Punjab, Kurdistan, Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, Afghanistan and other countries, a number of studies have come to the conclusion that these practices are fundamentally Islamic (Ginat, 1979; Kressel, 1981). However, honour killings are perpetrated not only by Muslims, but also by Hindus, Buddhists, Druze, Christians, and occasionally Jews of Sephardic background, primarily in Greek and Latin American societies. The crime of honour killing transcends cultural boundaries, though cultural and religious norms and traditions are often 32

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invoked to support the practice (Gill, 2011, p. 222; Idriss and Abbas, 2011). Ultimately, murders committed in the name of honour are crimes committed by men (and occasionally women), who use the trappings of culture and tradition to justify the violence they perpetrate against their female kin. The Scope of the Problem

The statistic quoted in Chapter 1 bears repetition: the United Nations Population Fund (2000) estimates that between 5,000 and 10,000 women are killed in the name of honour each year worldwide, though the majority of these crimes are committed in the Middle East and Asia. It is impossible to know the exact number of women killed, or to determine how widespread HBV is, as reports to the police tend to be rare and sporadic, not least because male and female family members often try to cover up these crimes. Moreover, many victims of honour killings are abducted before they are murdered: they disappear and are never reported missing (Dustin, 2006; Gill, 2011). To date, the few honour killings reported in Europe have occurred in migrant communities and have mainly involved South Asian, Turkish and Kurdish communities. In many of these cases, the victims also experienced forced and/or early marriage (Gill, 2010). Although there are no official statistics on honour killings in the UK, an incomplete survey of the cases that received coverage in the national media reveals that during the period 1998–2007 an average of 12 honour killings were investigated by the police each year (Metropolitan Police Service, 2007). The Criminal Prosecution Service (CPS) figures are similar, indicating that approximately 12 honour killings take place in the UK annually. However, it is generally agreed by those working on the issue that honour killings represent a fraction of the number of honour-based crimes committed in the UK, the majority of which, according to police records, occur in South Asian and Kurdish communities (Gill, 2009: Gill, 2011, p. 223). A recent Freedom of Information request by the British-based Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Rights Organisation (IKWRO) revealed that in 2010 ‘more than 2800 incidents of honour-based violence were reported to police across the UK’ (IKWRO, 2011). All 52 police forces across Britain were asked to disclose recorded incidents of honour violence during 2010: although 39 forces responded, identifying a total of 2823 incidents, the IKWRO estimated ‘that a further 500 incidents may have been reported to the 13 forces who did not respond’ (IKWRO, 2011). Of the 12 police forces that provided additional figures for the year 2009, nine ‘showed an increase in honour crime between 2009 and 2010’: ‘The overall increase across the 12 forces was 57 per cent. In London honour crime has doubled to more than 5 times the national average, 33

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and in Northumberland it has tripled in a year’. The five worst affected areas were London (495 incidents), the West Midlands (378 incidents), West Yorkshire (350 incidents), Lancashire (227 incidents) and Manchester (189 incidents) (IKWRO, 2011). Turning to Iraqi Kurdistan, it has only been during the last decade that the authorities have been in a position to even begin the task of collecting data. In addition, there is the problem that, even in its most extreme form, HBV is resistant to exact measurement. For instance, it is not always possible to determine when a suicide is, in reality, an act of auto-destruction, or whether it is an act performed under duress, or is the false representation of a murder. The main institution for data collection has been, since 2007, the General Directorate of Combating VAW. Overall, according to statistics from the Directorate, the clearly identifiable murder of women in recent years has decreased. However, reports and official statements claim that there have been more burning/self-immolation cases, as well as more women issuing complaints to the authorities about domestic violence. During our fieldwork, in 2010, Minister of Interior Affairs, Karim Sinjari, stated that, from January 2008 until the end of September 2009, 3829 women approached the authorities and filed complaints against men. Statistics collected by the General Directorate indicate that the number of complaints filed by women for different forms of violence, including sexual harassment, has been increasing each year: 2485 in 2010, 2538 in 2011, 3426 in 2012 and 4081 in 2013. The authorities believe that women feel more comfortable now to go to different government institutions to file complaints rather than resorting to harming themselves. While the number of complaints has increased, statistics show that the number of murder and ‘suicide’ cases has decreased: 69 cases in 2013 against 85 in 2012 compared to 105 in 2010 and 87 in 2011. Burning and self-immolation remain high. (We will develop this subject in Chapter 4 in a special section on mapping the extent of HBV in Iraqi Kurdistan) Women’s rights activists disagree with official statistics and claim that many cases of honour killings have not been included in official data collection. In response to such claims, the Head of the General Directorate of Combatting VAW, Kurda Omar, has stated that every single case recorded in any official institution (including courts, hospitals, police stations, judicial and medical offices) is included in their annual report.3 While women’s rights’ activists criticise the work of the General Directorate for not being accurate, the Director, Kurda Omar, has invited them to cooperate with her Directorate to ensure that all cases are included. Although no country has suggested that honour crimes should comprise a specific legal category, in policy terms honour crimes tend to be treated as 3  Quote from interview with Kurda Omar, July 2013. 34

Defining and Responding to Honour-Based Violence

distinct from non-honour-based forms of VAW. Yet many NGOs focusing on causes use the term VAW, rather than HBV, to define these crimes on the basis that VAW is broad enough to encompass the range of violence that women from both majority and minority communities experience (Dustin, 2006; Gill, 2009; 2011, p. 224). The danger in blaming or socially constructing honour killings as a problem of an exotic ‘Other’ is that it creates an ‘us versus them’ divide that complicates efforts to define and address the problem (Gill, 2006; Hogben, 2012; Sev’er, 2005; Sev’er, 2005a). As Hogben (2012, pp. 38–9) argues, this puts the gaze on the ‘Other’, rendering ‘these murders exotic, foreign, and alien to Western culture as if the West is free from all forms of patriarchy’. Feminist activists have been central in creating awareness about violence against women and girls through challenging patriarchy. Despite many gains, activists are still trying to deconstruct the underlying notions of power that support patriarchal values. Even though there is no consensus about the boundaries of patriarchy, most feminists agree that the core feature is that decision-makers in patriarchal societies are, by definition, male (Sev’er, 2005). As hooks (2000; 2004) points out, patriarchy is something men do not think about: it is simply a learned pattern of behaviour. hooks (2000) explores how men are socialised to act as rulers of the household: as part of this role, they are expected to emphasise patriarchal thinking, structured around gender scripts (e.g. what women should and should not do), ensuring that women will tend to follow a set of predetermined rules that support these patriarchal values and beliefs. When women do not obey these rules, they must be punished – and be seen to be punished. The association of the term ‘honour killings’ with Islam and/or Sikhism has led many Muslim and South Asian advocacy organisations across the globe to make public statements about the fact that these murders have nothing to do with the teachings of the Qur’an (Chesler, 2009; Hogben, 2012; Keeping, 2012; Schliesmann, 2012; Sev’er and Yurdakul, 2011). As Sev’er and Yurdakul argue (2001), focusing on the role of culture and/or religion fails to address the fact that patriarchy and gendered power structures exist in all societies and cultures: blaming certain cultures ‘ignores the fundamental issue of patriarchy, tribalism, control and power over women’ (Hogben, 2012, p. 39). Responding to HBV in the UK

To date, almost all the defendants in honour killings cases prosecuted in Britain have been from Pakistani, Sikh or Kurdish backgrounds and almost all offered a cultural defence (Gill, 2011, p. 224), claiming that the victim had dishonoured their family, so killing her was an obligation directly imposed by cultural traditions and socio-religious values. This allowed the perpetrators 35

Honour-Based Violence

to distance their behaviour from any association with VAW. Throughout the 1980s, UK judges accepted this cultural defence as a mitigating factor, especially in domestic violence cases involving South Asian communities; in consequence, the courts tended to impose reduced sentences, usually for manslaughter instead of premeditated murder. The women’s organisation Southall Black Sisters argued that such leniency (i) offered an incentive for patriarchal communities predicated on honour systems to continue (albeit in secret) to commit HBV, and (ii) it suggested that men have a right to monitor, punish, and even kill female relatives in order to control their behaviour (Gupta, 2003; CPS, 2007; Gill, 2011, p. 224). Cultural relativism must no longer be used as an excuse to allow minority communities to preserve cultural values and traditions that are fundamentally at odds with national and international law, including in relation to equality and human rights. Patriarchal communities in the UK often seek to establish autonomy, with their own laws, within (or even apart from) British society. However, all communities should be governed by the laws and principles of the wider society of which they are a part. Women must not be victimised for adopting norms and behaviours that are accepted, and even endorsed, in the wider community (Gill, 2011, p. 220). The police and courts in the UK are now moving away from cultural relativism as regards what they recognise as mitigating factors in crimes of VAW, while still trying to be sensitive to minority communities (Gill, 2009). This represents an important advance, though more remains to be done. At a casework level, community and women’s groups have been campaigning on the issue of HBV for many years. However, government initiatives to tackle the problem are more recent: a key initiatives was the Project on Strategies to Address Crimes of Honour, set up in 1999 in coordination with the Centre of Islamic and Middle Eastern Laws at the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London) and the International Centre for the Legal Protection of Rights (Gill, 2011, p. 224). More recently, the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) has taken the lead in efforts to prevent HBV. The immediate catalyst for this was the extensive media coverage of the murder of Heshu Yones, a 16-year-old Iraqi Kurd who was killed by her father in 2002 (Gill, 2011, p. 225; see Chapter 6 for a detailed discussion). Dissatisfaction with aspects of the prosecution of this case led to the development of new initiatives. Pressure from women’s organisations, especially following the publication of a MPS report on domestic violence that identified honour killings as an important area for future work, was a major impetus behind the creation of the Strategic Homicide Prevention Working Group on Honour Killings for London. A second, national group was developed to deliver training to all police forces in the country. In 2004, Scotland Yard re-examined 109 possible honour killings from the period 1993–2003, many involving women from South Asian communities; looking 36

Defining and Responding to Honour-Based Violence

at the motivations behind these crimes helped on-going work to develop risk assessment indicators and a national police database on honour-based violence (Gill, 2011, p. 225). The killing of Banaz Mahmod in 2006 (see Chapter 6 for a detailed discussion) and the subsequent prosecution and conviction in June 2007 of her father, her uncle and one other man from the community led to a further examination of police and prosecution policies in the UK. In 2007, the CPS began piloting a scheme to track HBV cases as part of a wider HBV project, including through establishing 25 specialist prosecutors to work in ‘HBV hotspots’ and instituting a system for flagging forced marriage and HBV cases (CPS, 2007). Following this, the Association of Chief Police Officers published and implemented a Strategy and Action Plan on Honour-Based Violence and Forced Marriage with associated training and risk assessment packages in 2008–2009. The fact that national strategies and guidelines now been produced, and training instituted for all police officers, shows that the police and CPS are now taking the issue of honour killings seriously. Shortcomings of Current UK Responses to HBV

Thus, things have improved to some extent in the UK. However, although there have been more focused and determined efforts to tackle HBV in recent years, both by the criminal justice system and by related agencies, there is general agreement among those working to combat the problem that much remains to be done to improve the overall quality of policing and prosecution and to tackle the continuing lack of dedicated service provision (Welchman and Hossain, 2005). At a European seminar on the issue in 2003, the then Head of the Serious Crime Directorate (the lead senior police officer dealing with honour killings), Commander Andy Baker, stated that honour killings were ‘not on the police radar’ (Baker, 2003). more than a decade on, it seems as though the police service, despite recent improvements and the efforts of some committed officers and managers, still lacks a solid basic understanding of the problem. Thus, the police often remain unable to offer an adequate response to women experiencing HBV (Gill, 2009; Gill, 2011, p. 225). Crimes of honour are the product of long-standing practices that have evolved in social environments where the control and subordination of women by whatever means deemed necessary are regarded as acceptable. Although local, national and international activists continue to work to eradicate HBV, there is still a mountain to climb. For example, current UK asylum and immigration law is often interpreted in such a way that gender-based persecution is not recognised as a legitimate reason for granting asylum (Siddique, Ismail and Allen, 2008). This must change. Until the problem of gender-based persecution 37

Honour-Based Violence

is confronted at its source, victims must be granted the right to live in a safe place. Programmes for the prevention of VAW cannot succeed without challenging the unequal power structures governing relationships between women and men. In other words, effective preventive work must address the root cause of the problem: inequality and discrimination. Previous UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Yakin Erturk, has argued that a gender-sensitive response must be adopted in order to end all forms of VAW (Erturk, 2005). Honour-based crimes must be recognised for what they are: crimes against women that are the products of societies and communities structured along explicitly patriarchal lines. Awareness of the context in which individual crimes take place is vital when working to help victims. However, cultural ‘sensitivity’ must not lead to the reduction of sentences for perpetrators, else there is a risk of encouraging communities to adopt and enforce illegal traditions that support the abuse of women (Gill, 2009; Gill, 2011, p. 227). While both refusing to tolerate crimes committed in the name of honour and building a strong police response are vital, there is uncertainty as to whether or not the push towards creating specific criminal offences concerned with HBV, including forced marriage, is helpful. However, this uncertainly can be considered a victory in that it shows that the complexity of the issue has finally been recognised. Moreover, debate about the issue has shown consensus over the fact that criminalisation without accompanying funding provision for services to support victims may well prove detrimental. Increasing funding for specialist services and projects designed to respond to different types of VAW is urgently needed, so any discussion that focuses attention on this fact is positive, even when no agreement over the matters that triggered the debate is reached. Recent research on forced marriage has questioned whether criminalisation alone can address the root causes of this and other forms of HBV (Gill and Anitha, 2010). Although it is clear that the police are trying to adapt, their response to recent cases of forced marriage and honour killing demonstrate a range of competing rationales that are simultaneously progressive and paternalistic. There is still evidence that too often the police still either minimise the severity of incidents of HBV in reports or implicitly blame the victim for not leaving her family (Gill and Anitha, 2011; Gill, 2011, pp. 228–9), hampering the effective implementation of measures intended to make women feel safe enough to report the violence perpetrated against them by their families (Gill, 2009; Gill, 2011, p. 228). Despite years of training initiatives, and the development of quality risk assessment tools, police officers do not always believe women’s stories, especially when they do not understand how to weigh personal testimony in HBV cases (Gill, 2011, p. 228). The issue of victim credibility was particularly evident in Banaz Mahmod’s case, but it appears to be an endemic problem. While the police condemn HBV, often they do so 38

Defining and Responding to Honour-Based Violence

in ways that suggest that all South Asian/Kurdish women are vulnerable and, thus, in need of paternalistic protection. This belief, even if held more or less subconsciously, reinforces the subordinate status of these women by promoting the view that the police need to provide protection for this vulnerable group, rather than ensuring the safety of all women equally. There must be a change in what Scheppele (1992, p. 194) refers to as the ‘habits of belief ’ that persist across the criminal justice system. For instance, in the UK, black and minority ethnic and refugee women who suffer domestic violence do not get help until they have had, on average, 17 contacts with statutory agencies: for white women, it takes 11 contacts on average (Brittain, 2005). Thus, there is growing consensus that policing and criminal justice efforts must move beyond present policy and, instead, push towards broader social change (Gill, 2009; Gill, 2011, pp. 228–9), recognising that the terms ‘honour killing’ and ‘honour-based violence’ fail to speak to the larger social structures of patriarchy that help to perpetuate all forms of VAW. Instead of focusing on the cultural context of crimes committed in the name of ‘honour’, it is vital to address the fact that VAW is found in all societies where there are unequal gender relations. This core argument is explored throughout the book, while the next chapter turns to the context of Kurdistan, offering a discussion of its background as a specific geo-cultural region with a traumatic recent history.

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Chapter 3

The Context: Iraqi Kurdistan Region Background History

Kurdistan (the Kurdish land) ranges over some 200,000 square miles and is generally mountainous, straddling the present boundaries of Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Armenia and Azerbaijan (Dahlman, 2002). Until the end of the First World War, Kurdistan was divided between the Ottoman and Safavid empires, which, according to the Zuhab Treaty in 1639, divided East from West along the Zagros Mountains. After World War I and following the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne,1 Kurdistan was divided between Turkey, Iran, Syria and Iraq. Since then, Kurds have been involved in a military struggle to defend their cultural and human rights, which have been violated at the hand of the different States sharing their land. Kurds are predominantly Sunni Muslims, at around 60 per cent (Izady, 1992), following generally the Shaf‘i school of legal thought, which is considered to be the least restrictive of the four schools, the others being Hanafi, Maliki, and Hanbali (Dahlman, 2002). Other religious groups in Kurdistan comprise different Shi’i sects, including Alavi and Ahli Haqq, as well as Christians and Yezidis. Yezidi Kurds practise an orally transmitted and syncretic religion linked to scripturalist religions such as Islam, Christianity, and Zoroastrianism (Fuccaro, 1999). Since the establishment of the Iraqi state in 1923, Iraqi Kurdish chiefs have challenged various central governments on their failure to uphold their obligations to provide the Kurdish population with their cultural, political and economic rights (Yeldiz and Blass, 2003). They have fought against different Iraqi regimes, taking refuge in the mountains. During this time, there have been periods of ceasefire, negotiations and unfulfilled promises by Iraqi governments, prompting Kurdish leaders to resume fighting from their isolated mountain refuges. The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) was founded in 1946 and led by General Mullah Mustafa Barzani, who took up the leadership of the 1  The Treaty of Lausanne was signed in 24 July 1923, between the allies of the First World War and Turkey. It settled the Anatolian and East Thracian parts of the Partitioning of the Ottoman Empire.

Honour-Based Violence

Kurdish nationalist movement in Iraq. In the late 1970s, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) was established, led by current Iraqi President, Jalal Talabani. The establishment of the Ba’ath regime (1968–2003) in Iraq presented the Kurds of Iraq with their greatest and most deadly challenge. In the late 1960s, the KDP agreed to a ceasefire and talks with the new regime, but the Ba’ath government failed to fulfil the demands for autonomy by the Kurds, who insisted on the inclusion of Kirkuk and Mosul governorates into an autonomous Kurdistan. They resumed military resistance and the Ba’ath regime initiated a policy of crushing the Kurds through military might, and began an Arabisation process designed to change the ethnic balance from Kurdish to Arab (Yeldiz and Blass, 2003). This process continued until the end of the Ba’athist regime in 2003. In the 1980s, during and after the Iraq-Iran war, the Iraqi regime launched several military campaigns against Kurdish combatants and civilians in Iraq. The most notorious military operation, named Anfal, took place in the spring and summer of 1988.2 The campaign of Anfal, an Arabic word taken from Surah 8 of the Qur’an, literally meaning spoils or booty of war, included a series of military offensives conducted in six geographical locations in the Kurdistan Region (Middle East Watch, 1993). Thousands of villages were destroyed. Approximately 200,000 Kurds, men and women of all ages, along with children were murdered or disappeared. Mass graves have since been found. The Iraqi military bombed the town of Halabja with chemical weapons in 1988 in an action not in any way anticipated by the townspeople who were going about their business as usual. About 5000 civilians were killed and more than 10,000 injured. The deadly attack on Halabja was one of 40 poison gas attacks against the Iraqi Kurds. A large number of villagers who survived deportation, imprisonment and mass murder, were then put together in concentration camps called ‘Mujamma’at’. These atrocities have inevitably impacted profoundly upon present-day Kurdish society: ‘The 35-year campaign of violence, deportation and mass murder that the population in the Kurdish region of Iraq had to endure during the tight rule of Saddam Hussein, has deeply affected the economic and social structures of the Kurdish society’ (Diakonia, 2008). The Current Situation: Iraqi Kurdistan Region

Iraqi Kurdistan Region is a constitutional entity within the federal State of Iraq, comprising three governorates in the north: Erbil, Sulaimaniya and Duhok. The 2  For more information on the Anfal, there are a variety of sources available. See e.g. Middle East Watch (1993). Also see Randal (1997) entitled: After such knowledge, what forgiveness? 42

The Context: Iraqi Kurdistan Region

Region also controls parts of what is constitutionally defined as the disputed territories of ‘Northern Iraq’, including parts of Kirkuk, Diyala and Salahaddin governorates as well as parts of the Nineveh Province (Bartu, 2010).3 Kurdistan Region borders Syria to the West, Iran to the East, and Turkey to the North. The area is estimated at 40,643 square kilometres with a rapidly increasing population of around 4 million (KRG, 2012). In the aftermath of the First Gulf War in the spring of 1991, Iraqi Kurds took to the streets against the regime in a popular uprising which saw the liberation of most of Kurdistan from the Ba’ath agents. However, with the Ba’ath regime still in place, the uprising ended in a mass and terrified exodus of hundreds of miles (often on foot) by the population towards the Turkish and Iranian borders in March 1991, when the Iraqi army militarily attacked Kurdish cities causing severe damage. After much debate and inaction from the West, it was then that Western Coalition forces established a no-fly zone or ‘safe heaven’ in Northern Iraq to protect the population against further lethal attack by the Iraqi government (Begikhani, 2005). Some months later, Saddam Hussein withdrew the Iraqi Army and his administration, and imposed an internal blockade on Kurdistan. In 1992, the Kurdistan Front, comprising various Kurdish political parties, held general elections establishing the Kurdistan National Assembly, but it was not until 2005, that the Kurdistan Regional Government was formed (Begikhani, 2005). In 1994, the two main Kurdish political parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) began a fratricidal war that officially lasted four years. The military confrontation stopped when the leaders of the two parties signed a ceasefire agreement under the supervision of the Clinton administration and in the presence of Madeleine Albright, then US Secretary of State. The war led to the end of the power-sharing arrangements between the KDP and the PUK and to the division of the territory with the creation of two separate administrations, the KDP-led administration in Erbil and the PUK-led government in Sulaimaniya (KRG, 2012). Although the military confrontation ended officially in 1998, the division continued up until May 2006, when, following the 2005 elections, the two administrations joined, and announced the unified Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). Currently, an allied government operates in Kurdistan Region. The government cabinet was formed in June 2014, following the September 2013 elections which brought forward the main opposition group, the Goran 3  Disputed territories of Northern Iraq are defined by the Iraqi Constitution, Article 140; they include regions previously inhabited by non-Arab populations, mainly Kurds, but were later Arabised by the Ba’athist Party as part of the Arabisation programme of Saddam Hussein. These regions are claimed by the Kurds and have been the core of tension between the Iraqi Central government and Kurdistan Region’s authorities. 43

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Movement, to the second rank of political forces in the Region, just before the PUK. The two Kurdish Islamic parties, Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU) and Kurdistan Islamic Group (KIG), are also included in the new government. According to many historians, the foundation of Kurdish identity is not religion, but rather language and culture (Bordenet, 2014). However, the consecutive wars against the Kurds and, in Iraqi Kurdistan, including the genocidal campaign by the Ba’athist regime, combined with the fratricidal confrontation between the KDP and the PUK and the general political turmoil of the Middle East, created a socio-economic context in the 90s, that favoured the emergence of extremist religious elements in the name of political Islam (Begikhani, 1997). These fundamentalist elements in the form of radical political organisations have relied on tradition, religion and custom, encouraging conformity to old social norms and values and using them to play on the social and political sensibilities of the vulnerable population. Women in the fundamentalist Islamist strategy in Kurdistan, as in other Muslim locations, represent the symbol of stability, continuity and community cohesion. Their discourse is based on patriarchal values seeking to redefine the role and duty of women in Kurdish society. This form of social control is transcribed through different methods: imposing the veil and ‘decent’ dress codes on women, limiting them to the private sphere of the family, and controlling women’s bodily conducts through which, they imagine, there is a preservation of honour and ‘traditional’ Kurdish identity. Breaching these multiple social and sexual boundaries puts women in the face of danger and leaves them in a vulnerable position, often leading to ‘dishonour’ and ‘shame’. The ideology of political Islam flourished mainly in the 90s, when the two principal parties were engaged in fratricidal warfare, and the Region was suffering from a lack of social and political programmes to redress the ‘chaotic state of Kurdish society’ after the general uprising of 1991 (Begikhani, 1997). After the fall of Saddam Hussein and the formation of the unified Kurdistan government, radical political Islam in Kurdistan was contained and transformed into three political parties, including the Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU), the Kurdistan Islamic Group (KIG) and the Islamic Movement of Iraqi Kurdistan (IMIK). They have been playing, alongside the Goran Movement and other minor groups such as Soclialist and Toilers parties, the role of the opposition in Kurdistan Region until the September elections of 2013. The KIU and the KIG share in the current allied Kurdistan Regional Government, formed in June 2014; the KIU holds two ministerial positions, including Electricity, along with Labour and Social Affairs, while the KIG holds the Agriculture ministerial position. The two parties as well as the IMIK are also represented in the parliament; currently, the KIU holds ten and the KIG six seats, while the IMIK holds one seat only. Alongside these Islamic parties, there are organisations 44

The Context: Iraqi Kurdistan Region

representing ‘moderate’ Islam, including the Kurdistan Union of Islamic Scholars (we discuss the role of this organisation in Chapter 7). Regarding the judicial system in Iraqi Kurdistan, like the rest of Iraq, it is based on Islamic law and respects religious minorities which are assumed to be proactive in their own religious codes. According to the Iraqi Constitution, which was adopted following a general referendum in October 2005, the federated region of Kurdistan has judicial powers and can enact and implement criminal laws and procedure.4 It has also the authority to stop the implementation of a national legal article and to stipulate an alternative one to put into action (See Chapter 7). In 2007, the Kurdistan National Assembly ratified the Justice Ministry Law, Law number 13, which, along with the Kurdistan Judicial Council, is designed to strengthen the judicial authority in Kurdistan Region. Article 2, Clause 1, of the Law stipulates that the aim of the law is to establish justice and respect for human rights in Kurdistan Region in accordance with international human rights conventions and treaties. The Region has three official institutions, recognised in the Constitution of Iraq, including the Kurdistan Region Presidency, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), and the Kurdistan National Assembly (KNA). Iraq’s Constitution also recognises the Peshmerga5 (the long-standing Kurdish freedom fighters) as the legitimate military force of the Region (KRG, 2012). Thus, Iraqi Kurdistan Region has become a stable area in the last 10 years. Years of oppression, war and genocide have been followed by a period of peace, with modernisation and ideas about democracy developing, even though the wider region surrounding Kurdistan remains contested in various ways. Based on the Iraqi Constitution, 17 per cent of the Iraqi budget is now allocated to the Iraqi Kurdistan Region. Also, within the legal frame of Iraq, the Region benefits from its own trade activities. Within that framework, the KRG has started activities to develop the oil and gas industry. At first, the KRG brought in small companies, but now they have managed to entice big companies such as Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Total, and Gazprom. What is more, in 2013, the KRG completed the first independent pipeline, which allows the Region to sell its own oil. This led the Iraqi central government to freeze the KRG’s 17 per cent share of the national budget. The KRG subsequently began shipping its own oil through the new pipeline with no success as, the US, siding with the central government in Baghdad, opposed the Kurds selling their oil, fearing it would embolden the Kurdistan Region’s bid to declare statehood and break up Iraq (Dombey & Raval, 2014).

4  See: The Constitution of the Republic of Iraq (Dastur al-Jumhurait al-Iraq), year 2005, Article 121. 5  The name for Kurdish freedom fighters means literally ‘one who confronts death’. 45

Honour-Based Violence

This relatively independent economic status with earlier contribution of some United Nations agencies, governments and international donors, has helped Kurdistan Region to reconstruct its villages, build schools, shopping centres and hospitals, as well as initiate training for judiciary, police and medical professionals. Parallel to these developments, an active civil society has emerged, including women’s and media groups. Until 2009, the KRG had a Human Rights Minister to monitor human rights, as well as a Women’s Affairs Minister. In a move to reduce the number of Ministries, these two Ministers were removed with the formation of the sixth Cabinet in Summer 2009. Although government has been officially unified, several Ministries remain separate and affiliated to the old administration system of the Erbil-led and Sulaimaniya-led administrations. Today, there are three Ministries, including the Asayish (Security), Peshmerga and Finances, which are yet to complete the process of unification started in 2006, and to end, once and for all, the legacy of the era of dual administrations. In an attempt to unify the Asayish forces, the Kurdistan leadership established in June 2012 a High Security Council to run and oversee the security of the Region. However, the legacy of division still undermines the goal of a unified and properly functioning system of government, covering all parts of Kurdistan Region (Osman, July 2012). While steps have been taken to bring greater administrative unity and considerable progress has been made, this legacy of division can be witnessed still in government strategies and work in general, and in dealing with women’s issues in particular. What is more, as we noted earlier, while we were editing this manuscript in the Spring and Summer of 2014, the attacks by IS, the Islamic State (also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria: ISIS) on Mosul and later on Shingal Mount and the Nineveh Plains created extreme new challenges to Kurdistan Region which have led, at the point of writing to combat, violence and a farreaching refugee and humanitarian crisis (UN News Centre, August 2014). Women’s Position in Iraqi Kurdistan

While, because of the absence of proper statistics, the exact number of the female population in Kurdistan Region is unknown, the large number of widows left by consecutive wars and genocide combined with the continuous migration of men in the 1980s, 1990s and the beginning of 2000s, have led to conclusions that women constitute the majority of the Kurdish population. There is a growing population of unmarried females, widows and separated/ divorced women in Iraqi Kurdistan. Women, who are deemed to be beyond the age for marriage, are defined with the stigmatising term of ‘qayra kich’ (old girls). This population has been on the increase for a variety of reasons, 46

The Context: Iraqi Kurdistan Region

including the migration of men, the high costs of marriage and housing, and finally the exercise of greater choice by women, which is not always welcomed by men. There are no exact statistics of their number in Iraqi Kurdistan Region, as is similarly the case for widows. However, there are suggestions that the number of Anfal widows stands at approximately 50,000. Many of these widows did not have the legal right to remarry, as the fate of their husbands was not clear. They were not registered as dead, but rather as ‘disappeared’. The law could not, therefore, allow their wives to remarry, even after many years had passed. After the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003 and the discovery of many mass graves, information about the fate of the ‘disappeared’ has begun to appear. However, to conform with social norms and values, many widows remain unmarried. Regarding divorced/separated women, according to media reports, the number of separations and divorces has increased in Kurdistan Region in recent years. Rudaw, a weekly paper, reported on 21 September 2010 that the number of divorces and separations increased by 66 per cent in 2010. For examples, 4792 cases of divorce and separation were recorded in the first six months of 2010 in different Kurdistan Region courts, compared to 4237 across 2009 and 3663 in 2008 (Abdulla, 2010). Our continued fieldwork demonstrated that, in the first six months of 2013, 11 per cent of married couples have been divorced, numbering 3492 cases registered across Kurdistan Region. Many reasons have been highlighted as behind these phenomena in a rather ‘traditional social setting’. While the greater independence enjoyed by women can be considered as the main reason, along with early and forced marriages, the lack of family education, and of dialogue and tolerance between young couples, some legal community members, such as Judge Abd-al-Basit Farhadi, stipulate the increase of alleged ‘infidelity’ caused by ‘alien’ TV programmes and soap operas, and the wrong use of modern communication technology (Rudaw, 2010). Most of these divorced women are between 18 to 30 years of age. Divorced and separated women seldom have the freedom to live alone. In most cases they have to go back to their parent’s home. If they do manage to live as single women, with or without children, society stigmatises them with pejorative names for divorcees, such as ‘talaqdraw’, which prejudices them and places them and their families under pressure, intense enough to even result in violence, leading at times to murder and suicide (Shakir, 2010).6

6  Famous Kurdish female columnist, Shakir, refers to the case of Saya Fatih who committed suicide on 2 June, a day after she received her divorce certificate. 47

Honour-Based Violence

Gender Roles

Traditionally, gender roles have been clearly defined in Kurdish society. Since early childhood, initially within the family and later within the wider society, individuals are usually educated in a way which embodies a set of socially accepted norms and values identified with each particular gender. Kurdish social norms and values are characterised by a male-advantaged hierarchy with dominant male and subjugated female orders. Within families, while boys usually learn to manipulate their physical and social environment through physical strength and power, girls usually learn to behave and present themselves as objects and za’eefa: inferior/weak creatures. In fact, the stereotypical term, za’eefa, is used in the Kurdish language to describe girls and women both at private and public levels. These socially constructed gender stereotypes lead to differentiating roles, activities and status defined by strong power relations. Women are usually expected to learn to be obedient, docile and educated to become submissive wives and dedicated dutiful mothers, who look after the household, children and family. They are allocated the private space of the house with, traditionally, little access to the outside world. On the contrary, men usually learn to be dominant, powerful and controlling fathers and become heads of their family with decision-making skill. The public space is perceived as a male attribute where they interact with the outside world separately from their womenfolk. Women have a lower status in the family as men dominate the private and public spaces through patrilineal relations, labour division, and financial and political decisions, including even intervening in selecting partners for their children. In this context, traditional forms of arranged, early and forced marriages are still in evidence, especially among the mainly uneducated rural and tribal populations. Female virginity upon marriage is an imperative requirement, and women are expected to show respect as well as politeness to men to the level of reverence, and to behave according to strictly defined social norms. Bypassing or breaching any norms, even in small ways, devalues a woman and undermines her reputation and social esteem to the point of being perceived collectively, by family and community, as ‘shameful and dishonouring’: worthy to be eliminated (Begikhani, 2005). Legal Status

The Iraqi legal system is the foundation of law in Kurdistan Region, and, despite some decreeing of new laws and amendment of existing ones, Iraqi legal provisions remain in force. In 2008, the Kurdistan National Assembly ratified Law number 15, and so amended Article number 188 of the Iraqi Personal Status Code issuing a new alternative law. The alternative law 48

The Context: Iraqi Kurdistan Region

prohibits forced and early marriage and limits polygamy, making it ‘conditional’ (Al-bazzaz, 2009). Honour and preserving family honour in particular occupy a considerable place in the Iraqi criminal justice system. Apart from Articles 128, 130, 132, 377 which have been amended in 2000–2001 (see Chapter 7 on the judiciary), there are other Articles that take a gendered approach to the assessment of crime and, in some circumstances, to the penalty imposed. These include Article 409 related to ‘adultery’ (zina), which provides for a reduced sentence for violence against a wife or for her killing, if the killing is in response to her adultery. Also important is Article 41 which allows for the ‘established right’ of a husband or father to ‘discipline’ (ta’dib) his wife or children within limits (Begikhani, 2005), and Article 393 which refers to rape as a private offence and, significantly, permits consideration of the victim’s sexual history and does not stipulate a minimum penalty (UNAMI, UNHR and ASUDA, 2009, p. 13). These provisions are discussed in more detail in Chapter 7. We will also discuss further in Chapter 7 how, based on the Iraqi legal system, the convergence between private and public offences and the limited role of public prosecution present further challenges facing the establishment of justice for women. Article 1 of the Public Prosecutor Law stresses that the role of public prosecution is limited ‘to contribute to the protection of family and childhood’ (i.e. not women per se). A most important legal step to combat these difficulties was made when the Kurdistan Parliament voted in June 2011 for the Combating Domestic Violence Law (CDVL), Law number 8, which then became a subject of attacks by faith leaders who started criticising the Law in Friday’s prayers and launching a campaign advocating against it. This outraged campaign allegedly led the President of the Region not to sign the Law as was legally required. However, it was automatically ratified because of the legally permitted delay, which for some analysts was a strategic tactic used by the President, while for opposition groups it represented a lack of the political will.7 According to women’s rights activists, as well as EUJust Lex in Iraq, and based on existing statistics and research at the time of writing, the law has not met its ambition to become an effective legal instrument in combating VAW (Van-Wijland, 2013) (see, also, Chapter 7 on the legal system). Education

There is no doubt that in Kurdistan as in all societies, education is fundamental to bringing real and positive changes in society. For decades, school attendance 7  From discussion with former MP Payman Izzaddin from the opposition Goran list. Erbil, October 2012. 49

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for Kurdish children in general has been difficult as a result of war, displacement and struggle for survival, but girls have been disproportionately affected (Human Rights Warch, 2010). In addition to consecutive wars and population displacement, social restrictions have also deprived many women of education (IRIN, 2007). According to a report by the Iraqi Family Health Survey in 2006/2007, 43.3 per cent of women in Iraqi Kurdistan are illiterate, compared to 19.6 per cent of men (World Health Organization, 2006). Some families, especially in rural zones and among uneducated sectors of society, stop sending girls to school, often forcing them into early marriage or into helping with household chores on a full-time basis. According to a report by the World Health Organization, over 26 per cent of women between the ages of 20–49 years are married before they reached 18, and 10 per cent of women and girls between 15 and 19 are married (World Health Organization, 2006, p. 26). In cities, according to our study observations, the number of female students, teachers and lecturers has been increasing in the last decade. However, women in the education and higher education sectors have been facing many challenges and problems related to the allocation of resources, and access to decision-making and senior positions. Women are still very marginal in publishing, in decision-making posts in service agencies and the education field, in international networks of specific fields of study, and in representing Iraqi Kurdish higher education initiatives and institutions in the global arena (al-Ali, 2012). The increasing number of women in education and higher education has not yet played a positive role in empowering women, leading to their selfrealisation and access to equal rights. Health

The health system is Iraqi Kurdistan Region is generally poor and outdated. Although, in recent years, access to formal and institutionalised health care has increased in the Region, many women still do not have access to good quality health or health care. Our study demonstrates that a number of local and international agencies have been involved in promoting the health of women in particular, and there have been special emergency health centres dedicated to treating women suffering from burns. However, centres for psychological relief and support are yet to be developed, not only in rural areas, but also in the main cities. While the security situation in Kurdistan Region is different from that in central and southern Iraq, because of the legacy of consecutive wars there and continuing social violence, women tend to suffer from depression and posttraumatic stress disorders (Rashid, 2010). According to the UNFPA, there is a pressing need for interventions to help individuals, families and communities to cope (UNFPA, 2013). 50

The Context: Iraqi Kurdistan Region

Regarding pregnancy and reproduction measures, the majority of women receive antenatal care and 58.7 per cent are assisted by a doctor during delivery. However, according to the United Nation’s Children Fund, 19.8 per cent of women in the three Kurdistan Region’s governorates do not receive neonatal and postnatal care (United Nations Children Fund, 2006). There are suggestions that in urban settings, women sometimes have access to contraceptives. Exact and reliable figures of usage are difficult to ascertain however, given the secrecy which is imposed upon women by the necessity to conceal their behaviour if they exercise any reproductive choice, and the fact that such expressions of autonomy are not usually welcome within the context of the patriarchal domination of social life by men.8 We should also note that there is an absence of proper medical supervision and regulation of contraception, which again places the health of women in jeopardy. For abortion, outlaw status means that access to this service carries even greater danger. An important health concern among women in Kurdistan Region is related to the practice of FGM. As discussed in the earlier chapter, FGM is widely practised, not only in rural areas, but also in Kurdish cities like Sulaymaniya and Erbil. FGM is carried out in Iraqi Kurdistan through the cutting of the clitoris of girls at childhood, in order to curb their sexual desire and preserve their sexual ‘honour’ before marriage (Osten-Sacken & Uwer, 2007). The finding of many years of fieldwork by activists and campaigners against FGM confirms that, among the consequences of this practice, many girls bleed to death or die of infection. If they survive, they frequently suffer adverse health effects, sometimes including psychological troubles, including deep trauma. Their suffering, both physically and psychologically, is very commonly intensified during marriage – and pregnancy and birth in particular (Osten-Sacken & Uwer, 2007; HRW 2010). After years of campaigning by local and international human rights activists, the authorities have started to tackle the problem and have addressed it at the judicial level by banning it in Law number 8, but, in reality, little has been done in terms of protection, therapy and healing. Employment

Political transition and modernisation have shifted social and economic contexts in Kurdistan Region. Our field study demonstrated that many women in the Region are now engaged in paid employment. In rural areas, women still work in agriculture and tend to crops, animals and the household, while, in the 8 For the presentation of statistics on the use of contraceptive technologies in Iraqi Kurdistan, see ‘They took me and told me nothing: Female genital mutilation in Iraqi Kurdistan’. Human Rights Watch. June 2010: 28. 51

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urban setting, their position has shifted somewhat. Women are represented to some extent in the judiciary, police, primary and secondary education, higher education and other branches of the public sector, as well as in parts of the private sector. Although women are visible across these various sectors, including in the media industry and universities, they tend to have only a very marginal presence, and they are invisible in high positions (as discussed above). Regarding the media, during our fieldwork and the time of writing this book, there have been eight women’s media publications and two women’s radios run by women’s activists and journalists (for more information on women’s media, see Chapter 5). However, women are invisible in the mainstream media at the peak levels of ownership and control. In the higher education sector, only 4 per cent of women are represented in the top positions, including in the Councils of the Universities, which recruit deans for all faculties (based on statistics from the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Summer 2013). Women are visible and well represented in the work of NGOs. There are estimated to be 50 women’s organisations run by women. Many are involved in campaigns to combat VAW, and attend local and international public forums, conferences and seminars, both as speakers and delegates. Even so, it remains the case that women are seriously under-represented in employment. Female under-representation in the labour market is due to many challenges, including the difficulties facing many women in reconciling family and working life and the public perception of equal opportunities. Our research observations demonstrate that the public perception of women’s work outside the home is essentially about earning extra money. And in the context of gender relations in Kurdistan Region, men generally believe that it is their duty and main responsibility to go out and earn a living for the whole family. This also allows them to maintain their social control and dominant position at home and in public spaces. Our research demonstrated that the public rarely appreciate the fact that employment for women, beside its instrumental function – earning money and establishing an independent economic status – is also about selfrealisation, interacting with the outside world and forming social relations. This situation has led to stereotypes against women participating in the labour market and an ignoring of the challenges facing women at their work-place, including substantially lower salaries, sexual and other forms of harassment, and lack of access to vocational training and promotion. Political Representation and Public Visibility

Despite the aforementioned challenges and indices of disadvantage, women in Kurdistan have begun to make an impact and, following campaigns by women’s rights groups, a quota for female representation in the Kurdistan Parliament was 52

The Context: Iraqi Kurdistan Region

imposed in 2005. At first, 25 per cent of seats were reserved for women, but this was increased to 30 per cent following further mobilisations. In the current parliament, of 111 parliamentary representatives, 34 are women, with four women leading parliamentary committees, including women’s rights protection and legal committees. The Women’s Rights Protection Committee in Parliament has proposed several legal initiatives and prepared draft bills to advance women’s rights, including the domestic violence law and an attempt to legislate on FGM, with the latter being integrated in the CDVL. Progress has also been registered in the representation of women in the governorates’ councils, with 14 women in Sulaimaniya governorate, six in Duhok and 11 in Erbil. In 2009, the Head of the sixth Cabinet, Prime Minister Barham Salih, took the decision to establish a special government body dealing with women’s affairs at a high government level. PM Salih’s manifesto included significant support for gender equality and women’s rights. His proposal was agreed by consensus and the decision to establish the High Council of Women’s Affairs was implemented in January 2010. The High Council, as it is commonly called in Kurdistan, comprises representative members of major political parties in Kurdistan Region, including opposition groups. It is headed by a Communist Politburo member and former Head of the Women’s Rights Protection Committee in Parliament, Ms Pakhshan Zangana (see, also, our further discussion on the High Council of Women’s Affairs in Chapter 7) Thus, while there has been progress, there is still a long way to travel. Very few women are represented in the leadership of Kurdish political parties and there is only one female Minister in the current government cabinet. The under-representation of women in political institutions, as well as in other key institutions of society, undermines access to resources and decision-making processes, contributing to continued discrimination, inequality and disadvantage. Concluding Remarks

The deeply gendered factors discussed above (in terms of health, employment, education, gender roles, marriage etc.) impact on women’s lives in Iraqi Kurdistan in complicated ways and make it more likely that they might experience honourbased violence. We will discuss these experiences of violence more fully in the next and subsequent chapters. In conceptual terms, as we considered in detail in Chapters 1 and 2, the occurrence of HBV is linked to the prevailing patriarchal nature of social relations in Kurdistan and inside Kurdish communities in the diaspora, in which men dominate almost all spheres of life, as we have illustrated above in the discussions in this chapter. Patriarchal expectations and behaviours manifest themselves in a complex interplay with male-dominated traditions, cultural and religious factors, family 53

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structures and customary honour codes that, certainly in the past, and to a considerable degree presently, govern almost all aspects of personal and intimate behaviour patterns (Begikhani, 2005, Gill, 2006). Together with gendered disadvantage for women across the board, cultural and religious issues play a varying and complicated part in this situation, as does the traumatic history of the Kurds and of the Middle Eastern region as a whole, and the wars and genocides experienced. We have laid out these historical, gendered and wider political contexts in this chapter. However, we concluded in our study that, within these interacting and intersecting sets of social factors, it is traditional patriarchal patterns of behaviour, and the control of families almost totally by male members in many cases, that are the most salient factors, not only in terms of HBV, but also of other personal and intimate violations of women. In this respect, violence in the name of honour can be clearly seen to be one part of the spectrum of violences endured by women in Kurdish communities, and also in other communities more widely (Gill, 2011). In the next chapter, we move on from the general contextualisation of Iraqi Kurdistan Region, and turn to examining the nature and extent of the honour abuse experienced by women in the Region in more detail.

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Chapter 4

The Nature of HBV and Women’s Voices from Iraqi Kurdistan Honour-based Violence in Iraqi Kurdistan

In the study on which this book is based, story after story was told to us of killings, brutalisation and violation of women, usually young, often teenagers, in the name of honour. Our various interviewees made wide-ranging comments about this situation trying to convey their perception of honour and finding causes of such crimes, as in the following brief selection: The practice of honour crimes has increased because of the militarisation of the Kurdish community in Iraq. It is due to the increasing presence of weapons, the wars … These have undermined the rule of law. (Former Peshmerga) Honour in our society is linked to the hymen, to virginity. (Health officer) There is nothing more valuable for a woman than her honour. Once lost, it can never be regained and she is finished. (Elderly woman interviewee) Honour is represented in women’s bodies, their social and sexual conduct. In this context, the freedom of women is seen as a violation of traditional norms and customs. (Senior Goran official)

In Iraqi Kurdistan, as in many honour-based communities, any attempt by women to resist control by men in the family and step beyond the restrictions of social borders very often brings both the danger of damage to reputation, and the individual and their family being perceived as ‘shameful’ and ‘dishonoured’. To dishonour is thought to require punishment and publicly legitimised sanctions. As we have discussed, the punishment in general, and murder in particular, usually involves several members of the family who get together, consult and plan what is to be done, including the killing of their female kin. It is a scenario performed by a group to regain their honour in the wider community, which expects such action, even applauding it as ‘heroic’ (Begikhani, 2003). The experience and observations of professionals and advocates, as well as the words of affected women interviewed in our research, provide, at least

Honour-Based Violence

some testimony to the reality of the practice of honour-based violence, of killings in the name of honour and of forms of mutilation and ‘dishonouring’ across Kurdistan Region. HBV is prevailing and we deal with it in our shelter on a daily basis. It happens because of the morality code which is perceived as sacred in our community. So any act that breaches this sacred code could lead to violent acts. The cases we deal with are different: there is a case of a woman who has been badly physically abused by her husband, her face was severely [permanently] distorted by battering and he cut her nose off. There is another case of a woman whose lover has been killed and her life is in severe danger. You know being in love in this community is still perceived as something bad/shameful. (Female activist)

In our study, as we noted in the previous chapters, we identified a wide range of types of honour-based violence, including burnings, suicides and honour killings, which were experienced by our interviewees, or related by their families or support agencies. We were given (sometimes harrowing) details of real-life examples of HBV experienced by women including abandonment, incarceration, exile from home, physical attack and punishment following love relationships, stabbings, removal from school and complete deprivation of education, forced marriage, rape and ‘corrective’ rape, public dishonouring, cutting off women’s noses or ears, forced hymen repair, and FGM. We met with, or talked to family members or support workers of, women whose freedom was severely limited to the point of imprisonment, and we also identified the use of information technology to incite destructive cyber abuse and deliberate public dishonouring through the internet. We followed up in detail distressing examples of burnings, forced self-immolation, forced suicide and honour murders. While most of these acts of violence were levelled against women, our findings have shown that men also face murder and violence on occasion, especially in cases of contact with women to whom they are not related and from a different tribe or community, love affairs and rape. It was also clear from our findings that violence against women experienced by Kurdish women is not confined to HBV, but takes many other forms as well, often related, across the different religions and cultures of Kurdistan, to patriarchal patterns of behaviour and understandings of women’s role in the maintenance of family honour and of traditional family structures. Thus, not all the examples with which we were presented were honourrelated. Nevertheless, in the study, we were given example after example of women perceived as ‘bad’, dishonourable or shameful who had been directly punished and had undergone, in the name of honour, severe physical abuse and torturing, confinement, the control of their movements, coercion, deprivation 56

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of schooling and employment, punitive marriages, mutilation, forced divorce, forced abortion/infanticide and forced prostitution as punishment. As can be seen from the various lists above, the wide-ranging scope of honour crime makes measuring it virtually impossible. It encompasses an extraordinarily broad range of punitive, and often murderous, practices, ranging from control over attire, physical presentation and movement, to access to cultural goods and services such as education, to the limitation of sexual choice and forced marriage (often, after rape, to the rapist), to physical violence, torturing and maiming, to murder. We present here three examples of honour-based violence that we investigated. We use the real-life words that were used by the women concerned. All names have of course been changed, apart from the last one, Niga Rahim, whose case is well known, and whose murder in 2012 sparked public outrage. ‘I was Raped and Lost Everything’: The Case of Zara When I was 15 years old, one night I was staying at my brother’s house, with my sister-in-law, who is also my cousin, while my brother was away. One night, her brother (my cousin) slept over. I was sleeping in the same room as my sister in law, lying next to her with the baby cradled between us. Her brother came to my bed in the night and I started to scream for help, but my sister-in-law did not react. He raped me and threatened me not to tell anyone; otherwise he would inform my brothers that I asked him to make love with me, that I gave myself to him. I would then be dishonoured and rejected. So I did not say anything to anyone. After four months, the doctor said that I was pregnant. My mother paid a midwife 400 US dollars to abort the baby. It was done in a dark room and, as soon as it was finished, I had to leave home. Later, my father and my uncles and my school found out about it. I had to stop going to school and have not been back. They got together and asked the family to marry me to the man, even for two months – to save face. But he refused and denied the act against me. Later my brother, accompanied by his brother, took him to the suburbs and killed him. My life was then in even greater danger. Then officer J. came and saved me. I heard later that my family and his family tried to negotiate a Namusana (a sum of money or a piece of land given as the price for honour and the bloodshed) but this was refused.

Zara then had to be taken to a refuge for her safety, where, at the time of the research, she had lived, almost imprisoned, for a very long time, with no hope of leaving or of any solution being found. (However, there was a more positive outcome in terms of a formal role Zara later took up at the shelter, discussed in Chapter 7.) 57

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‘My Father Gave Me to a Man so he could Marry the Daughter of the Man I was Given to’: The Case of Lana I was 13 years old and I was given away without me knowing by my father in exchange for another woman in a ‘jn ba jn’ marriage arrangement to a man who was in his 50s. My father did this so he could marry again. It was a deliberate exchange. My father married the daughter of the man I was given to. I have now lived with my husband and cared for his 11 children for 13 years. I have been abused, beaten and suffered during all these years. More recently, I found myself falling in love with another man and we were close. Later, my husband knew about the relationship and so one of my stepsons attempted to kill me because of honour, but people intervened and stopped him before I was dead. After that, I was arrested along with the man and accused of adultery and dishonoured. I was put in a Detention Centre and kept there for one year and a half. He was asked by the court to pay 2000 US dollars to my husband as divorce compensation. Now, my father regrets what he did. I don’t think that he will kill me … But I have to stay in this place until my problems are resolved. After a year and a half in the Detention Centre, I was then sent to this Protection house. I have been here for another year, so that is two and a half years altogether. I have two kids who are now separated from me for that time. When Family Becomes a Threat: The Case of Niga Rahim

Niga Rahim, a 15-year-old woman, was raped by one of her older brothers several times throughout 2011. She became pregnant and her case reached the local court. At risk of her life within the family, the judge decided to send her to one of government refuge centres run by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. She gave birth in Spring 2012, in the refuge and the baby was forcibly taken away from her and given to an anonymous family for adoption. Following the birth, negotiation took place with the family who were regularly visiting her and convinced her to go back home. On 12 June 2012, the Garmyan-based Directorate of Combating VAW, along with the shelter, agreed to hand her back to her family through a Balennama (a promise document). She was killed by her second brother on 20 July of the same year. The case sparked public outrage, including among women’s rights activists who launched a campaign calling on the government to take action and establish justice for Niga. On August 2012 and following the first meeting of the Women’s Rights Monitoring Board, established in 2012, the PM publically condemned the crime and called for the formation of an Investigation Committee to look at the conduct of the government institutions in relation to the case. The Committee was formed with two women on board, including an activist, and concluded that there were 58

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serious shortcomings at the court level, as well as within the DCVAW. Following the result, the Head of the local branch of the DCVAW was removed from his post. The brother was arrested and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment. Mapping the Extent of HBV in Iraqi Kurdistan

As we noted in Chapter 2, identifying the scope of HBV is not easy and methodological problems prevailed in data collection. Statistics are hard to come by. It is only during the last decade that the authorities have been in a position to even begin the task of collecting data. In addition, there is the problem that, even in its most extreme form, HBV is resistant to exact measurement. For instance, it is not always possible to determine when a suicide is, in reality, an act of autodestruction, or whether it is a forced act performed under duress, or is the false representation of a murder. In this regard, the research team was sensitive to the claims that many supposed acts of self-immolation and burns accidents, very common in Iraqi Kurdistan, appear to be authored beyond the victim. As the director of the Emergency Nursing Centre (ENC) in Erbil, Dr Rawand Mushir Hawezi, told us: ‘it is difficult to get accurate statistics on burning cases related to HBV, as women do not talk. They do not file complaints against anyone, as they are frightened’.1 Even if they speak, according to former head of Erbil DCVAW, Mr Ari Rafiq, ‘they do not tell the truth, as they are afraid if they survive, their family would kill them’.2 With investigative skills and technologies operating at a low level of development, and with policing and judicial systems open to political influences, to presuppose under-recording is a reasonable assumption. When we add to our understanding the fact that honour killings will be conducted in secrecy and that the fate of victims may be regarded as beyond the proper jurisdiction of the law, the difficulties of data collection are greatly multiplied. As we outlined in Chapter 1, the main institution for data collection has been, since 2007, the General Directorate of Combating VAW. Their regular monthly reports and general annual report at the end of each year, mention different categories of violence, including sexual violence, complaints, torture/beating, self-immolation, burning, suicide and killing (see also Chapter 7). Even though, according to current general director, Kurda Omar, whom we interviewed in summer 2013, ‘the reports and data are accurate, based on facts, not biased and inclusive’, civil society groups disapprove of them. In fact, with the release of each report, concerns by activists and members of civil rights groups are raised in local media outlets about the accuracy of the statistics. Whether the number 1  Quote from interview with Director of the ENC, Erbil, 9 December 2009. 2  Quote from interview with former head of Erbil DCVAW, Ari Rafiq, Erbil, 16 March 2009. 59

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has increased or decreased in the recent years, our findings indicate that VAW and HBV are continuing in Iraqi Kurdistan and they have become one of the most pressing issues in the Region. Burning appears to be the dominant form of honour violence and cause of death. The cases are classified in the DCVAW reports as ‘anqast u qaza u qadar’, which literally translates as ‘intentional/premeditated and accidental’. The term is used here to refer to incidents where there are reported, unknown or distorted factors behind the death. Most of the fire incidents are referred to as ‘qaza u qadar’; that may include burning during cooking, or filling a stove or ‘Paramez’ – a cooking and baking tool functioning with gas or petrol – i.e. with burning oil. It would appear that the term, anqast (premeditated) could cover murder, attempted murder and also attempted and actualised suicide. The demarcation between these categories can be misleading. While self-immolation is clearly categorised, among those recorded as burning cases, the reports do not tell how many of them are caused by accidents and how many are the product of the actions of others (murder). It is essential that, in the future, this data is collected in a more precise manner. For example, in 2008, in Sulaimaniya Governorate, the General Directorate report shows that in the first nine months of 2008, 140 women experienced burning. Of this figure, the report adds, only 21 registered as self-immolation and 119 were registered as accident-related burns (Barewabarayati … , Sulaimanya, 2008: 2–4). Again, the category of ‘accident’ can be misleading, for the reasons specified above. The 2008 annual report by Erbil-based DCVAW states that, among 163 burning cases in Erbil and its surrounding areas in 2008, 77 were ‘pre-meditated’ and 86 cases were caused by ‘qaza u qadar – accident’. Of this figure, 72 women survived and 91 died from their injuries. In Duhok, 58 women experienced burning, including 21 ‘pre-mediated’ burnings and 37 cases caused by accident ‘qaza u qadar’. Of these women, only four survived.3 In 2009, the statistics show that across the whole Region, 414 women experienced burning through self-immolation, both accident ‘qaza u qadar’ and pre-mediated. According to the 2009 report, over 50 per cent of them died (Barewabarayati … , Annual Report, Erbil, 2008: 14–15). Later statistics by the General Directorate show that self-immolation and burn accidents are the most practised form of violence among and against women in Kurdistan. Between January 2010 and June 2014, 1518 women experienced burns and self-immolation, including 351 in 2010, 351 in 2011, 358 in 2012, 302 in 2013 and 156 in the first six months of 2014. The reports 3  We noticed a difference in the figures presented by the joint Erbil-Duhok report and the separate report prepared by Duhok in the same year. The Duhok document reports 52 burning cases, saying seven survived. We considered the centralised, compiled 2008 report by the Erbil Directorate. 60

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do not tell how many of those women survived or died as the consequence of their burning. In addition to statistics collected and published by the Directorates, media outlets are also involved in the process, with their main focus on burning cases and killing. According to the organisation, Kurdish Women’s Rights Watch, which compiled local media reports on self-immolation and burning of women in 2008 in Kurdistan Region, there were reports of 248 women killed or injured by fire burning (Rashid & Hodgkin, 2007). The Human Resource Data Bank reports that in the first eight months of 2008, 290 women were burnt (HRDB, 2010). As we discussed earlier, we have observed that the majority of burns cases continue to be registered as caused by ‘qaza u qadar – accident’. These accidents typically involve supposedly faulty cooking or heating appliances. We are struck by the fact that, when there is a case of a woman being burnt due to such ‘accidents’, in very few cases are there any other persons exposed to injury. These are ‘accidents’ which mostly occur in the home. Kurdish families are usually large and busy, and women rarely find themselves alone or not part of familial observation. However, we are led to believe that, with the exception of a few cases, when a woman has a burns accident, no one is ever nearby, witnesses it, or is at risk of immolation. If we also consider the low levels of survival, brought upon by extensive burns, even greater suspicion is generated. When a cooking or heating appliance fails and causes a fire, one would expect immediate evasive and remedial action to be taken by anyone around, by others in immediate danger, and by all the people sharing the same space. How is that women in accidents are the only ones suffering very extensive – or any – burns? (See, also, Rashid, Begikhani & Hogan, 2009.) It is worth noting that the majority of burning cases occur in rural areas and suburbs, with 95 cases throughout 2008 in the Erbil governorate, compared to 68 inside the city of Erbil with its large population. In Duhok, 43 burning cases were reportedly from rural areas and suburbs, while 15 were from the city of Duhok. The same is true for Sulaimaniya governorate. In the first five months of 2008, 18 burning cases were registered from the city and 48 ‘outside the city’ (Berawabarayati … , Sulaimaniya, 2008). It may be the case that urban dwelling provides greater liberalisation of social relations and makes it more difficult for violence to be perpetrated without the observation of the authorities. As for recognised murder figures, according to the official report by the General Directorate, 109 women were killed in 2008 in the three Kurdish governorates. Compared to official numbers collected by the same institution in 2007, the number dropped by 38. In 2009, the report by the Directorate says only 85 were killed in the three governorates in Kurdistan Region. Between January 2010 and the end of June 2014 and in the three governorates, 384 women were found dead, either killed or committing suicide, according to the reports. The number of recorded killings was 69 in 2012 compared to 85 in 61

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2013. As the official date shows, in recent years, the highest number of killings occurred in 2010: 105 cases, including 49 murders and 56 suicides. The reports do not tell how many of these ‘unnatural deaths’ are honour-related. Also, the related court documents are ambiguous and do not provide an answer to this question. Most of the murder cases are tried by the article 405 of the Iraqi Penal Code with the sentence varying between six months to 12 years. (We will talk further about the legal system in Chapter 7.) The Kurdistan Institute for Judicial Medicine carries out virginity tests for all murder, burning and suicide cases, where a file is sent to the court, a distressing practice related to honour. According to Dr Yasin Ameen, director of the Institute, who is personally involved in this process: ‘60 to 70 per cent of the murder cases of women in Kurdistan Region are honour-related’.4 Likewise, the former director of the Erbil DCVAW, Mr Ari Rafiq, states that: ‘honour is the dominant motif when understanding all the different forms of violence experienced by women in Iraqi Kurdistan’.5 The 2009 report from the Directorate in Erbil indicates that the vast majority of women are killed by male members of their own families, and, according to the 2008 Sulaimaniya DCVAW, the majority of perpetrators in the Sulaimaniya governorate are husbands, followed by fathers and brothers. However, our research interviews, as well as the literature on honour killings show that, although killings are in most instances executed by one person, the decision to kill is frequently the product of a collective decision, arrived at after family and, in some cases, tribal consultation, including the decision as to who should carry out the murder (Begikhani, 2005; Begikhani, Gill and Hague, 2010). The reports by the General Directorate show that the majority of the perpetrators of severe acts of violence, as well as the victims, are illiterate and, among those who are literate, ‘their level of education is low’. Improving the level and coverage of education is of course a worthy aim in and of itself, but, given this finding, it is clear that progress in the field of education provision may well have beneficial results in improving the position of women. It is also the case that, when women have greater access to the means of communication, they are undoubtedly empowered and therefore better placed to access the resources necessary to expand their horizons and to defend themselves from abuse. However, while HBV may be practised most vigorously amongst the poorly-educated and within rural isolation, as we illustrate in our report, even

4  The research team visited the Institute on several occasions, including on 11 May 2009, 5 and 28 April 2010, and interviewed Director, Dr Ameen, who kindly put at our disposition the latest data. 5  Based on interview with the Mr Ari Rafiq, 16 March 2009 and a telephone discussion on 30 August 2010. 62

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the urban educated elite are not immune from the practice, up to and including murder (Begikhani, Gill and Hague, 2010). We will present various further examples of these types of killings and of HBV throughout the following chapter, and will return specifically to issues of criminal justice and the law in Chapter 7. Challenging the Violence

In response to the pressing issue of VAW in general and HBV in particular, the Kurdish community, women’s organisations and government professionals have begun to address strategies and develop actions towards combating this ‘epidemic’ in the society. Although such strategies and actions have been slow, our study demonstrates that, in recent years, women’s rights groups, official authorities, and the community, including media groups and faith leaders, have begun to integrate VAW and HBV into their agenda and have worked, at least to some extent, towards their eradication. Throughout our research, we have been able to observe such policies and activities, assess progress so far and also highlight weaknesses and shortcomings at government and civil society levels. The rest of this chapter focuses on the work and activities of women’s NGOs involved in combating VAW in general and HBV in particular. Background of Kurdish Feminism

Historically, Kurdish feminism was born and developed inside Kurdish nationalist organisations. As such, national liberation and attachment to national identity appear to be the main aim of Kurdish feminist groups (Begikhani and Passerelles, 2005). The first Kurdish feminist organisation, called the Association for the Development of Kurdish Women, was created in 1919 in Istanbul. The group was under the influence of Kurdish intellectuals from prominent families who were themselves influenced by modern European ideas and the ideology of nationalism. The organisation was founded for the purpose of enlightening Kurdish women with modern thought and for reforming Kurdish family life. However, the organisation was short-lived. In 1946, the Yaya organisation was founded within the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI). This organisation was the child of the shortlived Mahabad Republic.6 Its aim was to develop literacy and an attachment 6  A short-lived autonomous region in East Kurdistan (Iran), established in January 1946 under the influence of the Soviet Union. It was led by Qazi Muhammad who was captured and executed after the withdrawal of the Soviet Union in December 1946 (Eagleton, 1963). 63

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to national identity among women. With the end of the Republic, the Yaya organisation disappeared. Nevertheless, the Yaya tradition was kept alive by women Peshmergas within the KDPI. In 1952, a group of women related to male politicians in the KDP of Iraq formed an organisation called the Kurdistan Women’s Union. Their constitution declared that the organisation was set up to defend women’s rights across social, cultural and political institutions. However, the activities and politics of the organisation, which is still active, have closely followed the changing contours of the KDP’s political programme and history. Inside the PUK, it was only in 1989, during the Anfal campaign in South Kurdistan (Iraq) that a group of women organised themselves. They established an organisation called Zhinan Kurdistan Women’s Union. The structure was organised as a response to the special situation faced by displaced and refugee families who had fled from the intensification of the Ba’athist’s campaign of genocide. They state in their constitution that: ‘Zhinan is an independent democratic organisation open to all women regardless of their ethnic and political background’. One of the main founders of the organisation is currently the Iraqi First Lady, Hero Talabani. She retains great influence in the group, which is still active. During the division of Iraqi Kurdistan between the KDP and PUK, both Zhinan and the Kurdistan Women’s Union operated in the zones controlled by their respective patron parties (Begikhani, 2005). Since 1991 and the formation of the KRG in general, and after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003 in particular, the number of women’s organisations has increased in Kurdistan Region. This was facilitated by several factors, including new possibilities created by the fall of the Ba’athist regime, growing awareness of civil activities, as well as awareness of women’s and human rights along with gender equality, the role of information technology, the return of exiled women to Kurdistan after years of life in the Diaspora and the presence of international organisations in Kurdistan sponsoring women’s projects (Begikhani, 2005), as we noted in Chapter 1. Today, it is estimated that there are 50 women’s organisations operating officially in the three Kurdish governorates. Although not all of these organisations are equally active, their awareness and concerns about VAW in general, as well as their focus on HBV, have increased significantly in the last 10 years. Our study shows that VAW has recently been occupying centre-stage in the activities of a considerable number of women’s rights groups in Kurdistan, including those affiliated to the political parties, which, in the beginning, were less gender-orientated in their policy and action. The activities pursued in relation to the subject of our research include raising public awareness, training, campaigning and pressure creating, providing outreach services, legal assistance as well as limited psychological support to women with protection 64

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measures. As our study has demonstrated, women’s groups have been carrying out these activities in a dedicated way, either singularly or as part of networks of organisations. Although criticism has been raised about there not being enough cooperation and solidarity between women’s groups, they have, in the last 13 years, tried to form their own networks, bringing together several organisations to carry out campaigns and awareness-raising programmes. Among these networks, as we indicated in Chapter 1, it is important to highlight the ‘Nawandi Hawbashi Zhnan- Women’s Joint/Cooperative Centre’ established in 1997 and comprising 18 women’s and civil rights groups, the Women’s Network, established in 2005 and comprising 22 organisations and including a number of famous female personalities, along with the newer Zhiyan Group. The latter is the latest women’s collaborative network established in 2012 following Niga Rahim’s murder, regrouping 14 organisations, including media groups. The aim of these networks have been to coordinate activities, mainly campaigns, for greater public awareness and the promotion of women’s rights, as well as for combating VAW. Responses/Activities of Women’s Organisations Awareness Raising Programmes

Almost all women’s organisations in Kurdistan have included awareness-raising in their general work programme. The awareness-raising programmes are carried out through holding seminars, workshops, conferences, exhibitions, marches and campaigns in the cities and towns, with the production and distribution of posters, involvement in media debate and broadcasting through mainstream media and women’s media channels. These activities are conducted throughout the year, but intensified on specific occasions such the International Women’s Day and the International Day to Combat VAW. They have contributed to breaking silence around many taboo and sensitive issues such as FGM, HBV, forced as well as early marriages, domestic violence, rape and sexual harassment. On 8 March 2008, the Women’s Media and Information Centre showed a documentary film on Du’a Khalil’s stoning to death case, followed by poetry readings and discussion in the city of Sulaimaniya.7 Organisers invited female students from different secondary schools across the city, encouraging them to engage in the discussion on HBV following the documentary film. Members of the research team attended the event. In the Q & A session, the discussion around HBV with the public was so animated that, after the event, some

7  Tuée pour l’honneur, documentary by Kurdish film director Mr Giawdat Sofi, 2008. 65

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students mentioned that ‘there was a difference between the moment we moved in and the time we left the hall. The event marked us’.8 During the lifetime of the research, the Asuda Organisation to Combat Violence Against Women was involved in organising a series of events to raise awareness on women’s legal rights in general, and HBV in particular, among the internally displaced populations, as well as faith leaders and judges. Members of the research team attended two of its events, one in Erbil in October 2008 and the other in a Sulaimaniya suburb in March 2009. The Erbil event was organised in cooperation with the Ministry of Endowment and Religious Affairs, and aimed to raise awareness among faith leaders about women’s rights and the need for their support to combat VAW. The March event targeted the internally displaced population in the Sulaimaniya suburb. Ms Amira Hassan, a senior legal representative in Sulaimaniya, was invited to address the meeting that gathered about 100 men and women, focusing on women’s legal rights in the context of the reformed laws introduced by the KRG. We have highlighted two examples here, but, during the period of our research, we have also observed that women’s NGOs, such as the Women’s Empowerment Organisation, Kurdistan Women’s Union, Harikar, Khatuzin, Zhnan Women’s Union, Rasan, Start, Khushkan and many others, have been involved in different activities aiming at raising public awareness inside communities on VAW in general, with some of them focusing on HBV in particular. We have also observed that some of the initiatives carried out by ‘independent’ women’s rights groups, not affiliated to the ruling political parties, have been perceived as more avant-garde and progressive than those conducted by party-affiliated groups. The activities of the latter have been often described as ‘traditional or tribal’. These terms are mostly used by radical women’s rights activists who disapprove of the involvement in women’s issues of faith leaders and mediation committees within the KDP and PUK, called Komalayati. We have observed that this disapproval comes also from the fact that most of the organisations that adopt these approaches are affiliated to the leading political parties, including Zhnan and Kurdistan Women Union. The disapproval can be seen as a form of disassociation from official authorities, but also reflects political strata and divided interests, as well as regionalism in the highly divisive Kurdish context in the Region. These have, to certain extent, weakened women’s organisations, diluted their effective cooperation and the perception of their effectiveness among the public. What is noticeable, however, is that the research team observed that, among the grassroots, ordinary people are trusting of women’s organisations which are backed by the KDP and PUK, because, as Babekir from an Erbil rural area said: 8  Research team members attended these events, participated in the debate, and carried out interviews with some of the participants. 66

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‘we know these organisations, trust them as they don’t deviate our women’. The question can then be asked: is this trust and these forms of acceptance due to the role of such organisations in reproducing traditional gender roles, rather than challenging them? We have observed that there were more positive responses among ‘traditional’ layers of the society to activities and interventions aimed at changing attitudes with consideration for their ‘traditional’ stance. It is worth noting, as suggested by then MP and current Head of the High Council of Women’s Affairs, Pakhshan Zangana, that: ‘the reality of Kurdistan, requires both forms of ‘traditional’ and ‘radical’ methods of feminist intervention’. The research team observed the positive impact of those described as ‘traditional or tribal’ more particularity in rural settings. For example, the Zhnan Kurdistan Women’s Union involved the Union of Kurdistan Islamic Scholars and the Komalayati bureau of the PUK to carry out a series of awareness courses against early and forced marriages (gawra ba bchuk) in the Saruchawa village, Pishdar area, in the Sulaimaniya governorate in 2009. During the course involving the families, they registered all the cases of early and forced marriages concluded between families in the area. Following the course, the population mobilised and deactivated/cancelled 68 marriages among 132 cases, through ‘tribal mediation, but without involving money’ in the affair.9 During our visit in late April 2009 to the area and at a meeting with the then governor of Koysinjaq, Ms Kurda Omar, we met with administrative representatives of some of the villages and were told that they approved such initiatives which help avoid tribal/clan disputes that can lead to bloodshed. The Zhnan Kurdistan Women’s Union, in cooperation with Directorate of Human Rights, the Union of Kurdistan Islamic Scholars in Raniya and the Komalayati bureau of the PUK, set up, in 2004, a federation with the aim of raising social awareness among the rural population in Pishdar and Bitwen areas, near the Iranian frontier. The Head of the organisation, Kafiya Sulaiman, commenting on one of their activities in this direction, carried out in 2009, said: In 2009, we launched a project on raising public awareness by holding 70 seminars on HBV in Garmyan and Pishhder. We selected an open-minded faith leader, a lawyer and a social worker; they all addressed HBV and especially honour killings in their different capacities. For example, the lawyer addressed the problem from a legal perspective, the faith leader argued that Islam does not allow such crimes, and the expert on social work explained the impact of such crimes on people. 9  ‘Dway znjirayak kori hoshyari I yakyati Zhnanai Kurdistan, gundi Saruchawa 68 kchi marakraw azad dakan’ (‘After a series of awareness courses by Zhnan Kurdistan Union, Saruchawa village liberates 68 married girls without money deal’, weekly Zhyanawa, number 371, 31/05/2009. 67

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We noticed that these kinds of consortium initiatives addressing VAW in general, and HBV in particular, from legal, religious and health perspective, are well received, especially in rural settings. In addition to these important activities that women have been involved in over recent years, there has been the significant step of women’s organisations setting up their own radio stations, such as Khatuzeen and Tawar, as well as establishing women’s publications, such as Jiyanawa, Rewan, Khatuzeen magazine, Shawushka, Wê, Warveen and Yaksani (see e.g. Khatuzeen, 2009). The content of some of these publications have marked a challenge to traditional forms of writings about women and gender relations, such as by reporting on honour killings, articles, storytelling and VAW statistics. We develop more on this theme below in our discussion of the media. Since its establishment in 2005 until it ended in 2011, Zin radio used to air every morning for 8 hours in and around Erbil. Among its weekly 20 programmes, there was one which was especially devoted to VAW, including HBV. Similarly, Tawar radio which belongs to Zhnan and covers the Garmyan area, Sulaimaniya governorate, as well as newly liberated zones such as Khanaqin, Mandali, airs its programmes in an area which was heavily subjected to the Anfal operations in the 1980s and is in high need of awareness and support. According to a survey by Youth Freedom Organisation, the radio has the biggest audience in the area.10 As women in Iraqi Kurdistan are not all literate, and although the two women’s radio broadcasts do not cover all of Kurdistan Region, awarenessraising programmes through radio have direct impacts on a wider female public. Campaigns and Creating Pressure

In the last 10 years, Kurdish women’s rights groups and their networks have initiated several significant campaigns, including the campaign for defence of women’s legal and civil rights, the campaign for imposing a quota for the representation of women in the Kurdistan Parliament, the campaign against Iraqi G passport, the campaign against FGM, the campaign to denounce Du’a’s murder and to call for government action against HBV, the campaign by the Women’s Media and Information Centre against the ‘cyber abuse/public dishonouring’ of a single mother, Azeema Baboli, and the Zhiyan Group campaign advocating justice for the 15-year girl, Niga Rahim, whose case we discussed earlier. The role of diasporic Kurdish women in launching international campaigns for the rights of women in general, and against HBV especially, cannot be ignored. In 2000, a group of Kurdish women in London, coming from all parts 10  From a telephone interview with Tawar Radio Director, Jihan Muhamad, 1 September 2010. 68

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of Kurdistan, launched the Kurdish Women Action Against Honour Killing (Begikhani 2005; see also Gill, Begikhani and Hague, 2012), coordinating later with the ongoing Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Rights Organisation (IKRWO), launched in 2002. In these campaigns, women’s organisations initiated petitions and collected signatures which were later taken to local authorities for consideration. They organised seminars, marches and media debate, and printed and distributed posters against HBV. To talk briefly about some of these important initiatives, we can highlight the campaign to condemn Du’a’s murder (Summer 2007) and the Start Campaign to Combat Violence Against Women (November/December 2009). In June 2007, following the killing of Du’a Khalil and the distribution of internet footage carrying her murder, a group of Kurdish women’s organisations launched a campaign calling for justice for Du’a and urged the government to address the issue of HBV and make it a priority. The group made its statements and publicised their activities and aims. One of the aims of the campaign was to initiate an all-night vigil at the Kurdistan Parliament (which then failed to get permission to proceed). In 2009, the Start Social Development Organisation launched a ‘16 days campaign to combat violence against women’ in the Erbil governorate. They initiated a number of activities, including several days of workshops with university and high school students, as well as school leaders inside Erbil and its surrounding areas, to raise awareness about HBV, posting and distributing a special poster illustrating VAW, visiting shelters and meeting with survivors of violence. One of the latest important campaign activities was carried out in July 2012, when more than 14 women’s rights group came together to launch a campaign group against HBV called, as we have mentioned above, Zhiyan. This campaign has been a response to the tragic killing of the 15-year-old woman who was made pregnant by one of her brothers and killed by her second brother a few months later (as we highlighted earlier in this chapter). Women’s campaigns are often for a short period of time and the main aim is to create pressure on the authorities to mobilise resources and to address the situation of women, and their experience of violence in particular. The impact of such activities on the general public cannot be denied. According to an evaluation by the Start organisation, in addition to the indirect positive impact on the general public, 300 people directly benefited from its November 2009 programmes.11 What is noticeable in such campaigns is the very low participation by men, if not their complete absence. Talking to men about these 11  See ‘Proja u chalkiyanai Start la saratay mangi 11 tawaku kotayi mangi 12 y 2009’ (‘projects and activities of the Start organisation from November to December 2009’). Available at http:// startssdo.com/files/articles/310510052822.pdf [Accessed November 2010]. 69

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issues, we found that most men in Kurdistan appear to consider that such issues are related to women, and only women should mobilise to deal with them. The research team observed that the involvement of highly-placed male figures in such activities could make a wider impact on the public. We noted that the participation of the great Kurdish poet, Sherko Bekas, in one of the marches in the city of Sulaimaniya in 2004 to denounce VAW, mobilised, not only wider media groups which covered the issue, but also ordinary people in the street. Male figures like Mr Sherko Bekas are important to mobilise public opinion. We are greatly saddened to report that he died in 2013. c. Training and Empowerment Programmes

Women’s organisations in Iraqi Kurdistan Region were in need of training and empowerment programmes throughout the 1990s. However, with the third millennium and more particularly after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, women’s NGOs in Kurdistan have become well-equipped to themselves engage in training members of government institutions, such as the police, health and legal groups, faith leaders and social workers, on women’s rights protection and on mechanisms to combat HBV. In this regard, the role of international NGOs, as well as diasporic Kurdish groups, must not be underestimated. One example, in relation to the subject of our research, is the legal training for lawyers and judges, as well as for women’s rights’ activists, government civil servants and faith leaders, carried out in December 2007. The training was initiated by the Women’s Rights and International Law Organisation, the Global Justice Centre and KWRW. It consisted of four days of intensive training on ‘Gender Rights in Transitional Justice and Beyond’, in both Erbil and Sulaimaniya. d. Protection, Legal and Outreach Services

These services provided by NGOs include receiving women into centres for ‘limited’ counselling, accompanying them to court, to hospital and to the police, and providing lawyers, hotlines for relief provision, mediation and protection through shelters. In terms of outreach, receiving women in their centres and the provision of legal and psychological support are the largest services provided by women’s groups in Kurdistan. In 2008 and the first three months of 2009, Zhnan, for example, dealt with 499 different cases. Among these cases, 350 were resolved ‘through social intervention/mediation’ and 102 ‘through legal approaches’ (Zhyanwa No 367, 2009). With regard to hotlines, 14 hotlines were provided by the government (see the later chapter on government initiatives). Women’s organisations provide 24-hour services to distressed women and women at risk. Both the Kurdistan 70

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Women’s Union through Hevi Phone, and Asuda through Heli Garmi Asuda, have provided support and counselling to women in need. They use local media channels, including radio, TV and print media, to inform the public about such services and to encourage them to make contact when needed. According to the President of the Kurdistan Women Union, Dr Kurdistan Mukriani: ‘in 2008, the organisation had to deal with 360 cases through the Hevi Phone in the space of five months. All calls have been recorded for a future study aiming at identifying the main problems facing women in Kurdistan Region’. e. Shelters and Relief Services

The most significant service that women’s rights groups have been offering to violated women, and those at risk of murder, has been refuge. Historically, it is women’s organisations that initiated the idea of opening shelters and providing refuge to ‘vulnerable’ women. In the late nineties, the independent women’s organisation affiliated to the Kurdistan Communist Workers Party opened a refuge in Sulaimaniya for women at risk called Women’s Protection House. There were other protection houses set up around that time, including Nawa Centre in Sulaimaniya (1999) and Mali Khanzad (2002), initiated by the German WADI organisation, and Lanay Hawkati for homeless people. According to our study findings, none of these early shelters continued their activities longterm.12 In 1999, Zhnan Kurdistan Women’s Union opened Aram Refuge (Panagay Aram), and, in 2000, Asuda for Combating VAW set up Asuda shelter. Aram was established on the initiative of the Kurdistan Disaster Fund and woman’s rights activist, Ms Nazaneen Rashid, from London, who secured funds from DFID, in 1999. In 2000, with the initiative of the Norwegian NPA organisation, Asuda shelter was established.13 The two shelters provided refuge and long-term protection for women at risk. According to Asuda director, Ms Khanim Rahim, interviewed in August 2009, Asuda provided protection: ‘not only to women from Kurdistan, but to women of different ethnic and national backgrounds from other parts of Iraq or foreign guest workers’.14 12  According to our findings, these early shelters could not continue their activities. Mali Khanzad was closed in 2007 under ‘ambiguous’ circumstances. The Women’s Protection House was attacked in the late Nineties allegedly by PUK forces, and accused of ‘immoral acts and prostitutions’. For more information on this subject, see Ahmad. S (2004). Qurbaniyani Namusparsti (Victims of honour fanatics). Kurdistan: Bnkay Kaway Roshnbiri Kurdi, 305–6. 13  While editing this book, we observed that the activities of the Asuda were reduced and their shelter was not receiving any more cases. 14  Through our later fieldwork, we found out in the summer of 2013 that Asuda has been closed. The situation remains unclear. 71

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Some of these organisations are also involved in mediation on behalf of the women who seek their help and their families, as well as between families when needed. While independent women’s groups declare themselves to be against this kind of conflict resolution, those affiliated to the two ruling political parties approve of ‘resolution as the best way to avoid the escalation of violence and bloodshed’. It is worth noting that the mediation process is carried out by people who are not always qualified to do so, but they respond to the growing needs of men and women seeking dispute resolution. Women’s organisations are largely in favour of intervention through the law, but they do realise that mediation has proved to be positive, especially when the families involved do not want their case to reach the court, since for them, as stressed by Dr Kurdistan Mokriani, interviewed in October 2008: ‘going to court or the police, means lengthy procedures and a greater chance of more people knowing about it. They want an amicable quick solution at the hand of recognisable figures in these organisations’. To provide relief services to women staying at the few shelters, the organisations have involved ‘psycho-therapists’ helping women through counselling. This service is provided by most women’s organisations working in the field of VAW. Kurdistan Women Union has set up, in cooperation with the regional Health Ministry, a centre to relieve distress among women. The centre, called ‘Bnkay Asuda bo naxoshia daruniyakani Afratan – Asuda Centre for Women’s Mental Illness’, provides counselling to women in distress and women with mental health problems. There is no doubt that, as a consequence of engaging in activities such as protecting ‘dishonourable’ women, women’s organisations and activists are targeted in the society. There are media attacks, allegations and gossip which harm not only those women who are working in these centres, but also the cause of women in general. Further, in May 2008, Asuda shelter was attacked by unidentified gunmen and a survivor of HBV was injured. Unfortunately, one of the campaigns that occupied the local media during the writing of our research report concerned a petition against the long-term and previously well-regarded Asuda organisation, published in Rudaw weekly in May 2010. The controversial aspect of the petition is that it was signed by a group of activists, mainly women, who stated that they denounced Asuda for its ‘lack of accountability’ and called on the authorities to form a committee investigating Asuda’s work. The group went even further to say that Asuda was involved in ‘women’s trafficking’, and the word trafficking was misused and misinterpreted. The group clarified later that they had meant that Asuda and Asuda’s director were ‘making business out of women’s cases’. This case illustrates the lack of communication and cooperation between women in general, and women activists in particular, leading to tension and dispute. Such a situation pushes them to publicise their criticisms which can then be interpreted 72

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as an attack on a women’s organisation and women’s causes. Although not intentional, the outcome of such a move is not to repair a situation that appears ‘wrong’ to them, but to cause harm (see Rudaw, 2010). As we have noted earlier, the role of diasporic Kurdish women and international NGOs cannot be ignored in empowering Kurdish women’s organisations and raising awareness amongst women’s groups on gender issues and VAW. In addition to help, cooperative projects and campaigns provided by diasporic Kurdish women from different parts of Kurdistan, including KWAHK, KWRW and IKWRO, a number of UN agencies, foreign governments’ institutions and international NGOs have been operating in cooperation with women in Iraqi Kurdistan. The research team attended some of the seminars, conferences, workshops and training courses provided by international institutions and organisations such as Amnesty International, the KWRW and Global Justice Centre, Heartland Alliance, the International Crisis Committee, the International Human Rights Law Institute, NPA, Qandil, RRT and WADI. A number of them, such as the Norwegian NPA, have initiated long-term projects that are ongoing. They have been also involved in providing material and logistic support to women, alongside initiatives aiming to familiarise them with empowering mechanisms through training and awareness-raising programmes. Challenges/Shortcomings of Women’s Activist Projects

In the above section, we introduced our findings on the activities carried out by women’s NGOs in Iraqi Kurdistan Region focusing on combating VAW in general, and HBV especially. We highlighted the importance of such activities. However, women’s NGOs in Iraqi Kurdistan are not without fault and shortcomings as noted above in the case of Asuda. We have summarised their shortcomings and weakness articulated by our respondents in the following points: • Women’s projects and activities have been mainly centred in the cities, marginalising rural areas. This has been seen in public as a failure to reach out to women in rural and poor urban areas, who are in greater need. According to a survey carried out by Rewan newspaper, women’s rights groups are dealing with the elite and not working in certain sectors of society, adding that ‘the majority of women in Kurdistan are not satisfied with women’s organisations’ (Rêwan No 192, 2009). • A lack of involvement of men. Our research findings show that the public awareness programmes carried out by women’s organisations have been focused 73

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on female populations. They have not targeted men and male youth, who need to be included in such programmes. • A lack of genuine cooperation between the different organisations and a kind of competition which is not aspiring to do better, but aims to harm. • A lack of liaison between women’s organisations and government institutions. Working or cooperating with government institutions is often seen as a source of stigma, and some women do not want to be associated publicly with the government, saying they ‘will be faced with protest and criticism from the public’.15 Such fear arises from various factors, including the perception of corruption inside government institutions, allegiance based on party affiliation, the absence of nuanced politics and conviction to defend the cause, a public opinion which is partisan and motivated by different ideologies and the interests of different factions and political parties. • A lack of structure, organisation, accountability and transparency. • A lack of the expertise and specialist knowledge necessary for providing for the psychological and legal needs of abused women. • A lack of independence from political parties. While it is important to cooperate with government institutions to provide safety and the best service to women at risk of violence, it is also important to challenge prevailing gender patterns in society by openly and rationally criticising the politics and action of the political parties when they violate human rights in general and women’s rights in particular. There are spaces for positive engagement without compromising or sacrificing key principles. • A lack of confidentiality. There is a lack of confidence in the capacity and systems of NGOs to observe the strictures of confidentiality, the precondition for the safety of victims.

15  Quote from interview with Hana Shwan, Rewan Editor in Chief, Sulymanya, 9 March 2009. 74

Chapter 5

Media Representation of Honour-Based Violence The media in Kurdistan, as elsewhere, are a powerful set of actors in society. Outlets, whether they be the press, TV stations, radio or internet platforms, have the capacity to both inform and allow for debate and deliberation, which in turn can play an important part in the processes of governance, ideological and cultural formation, along with decision-making at all levels of society. As such, the media constitutes a 4th estate (Hogan & Trumpbour, 2010), a power in the land. How this power is mobilised is of great importance to understanding the limits and possibilities placed upon the struggle against HBV. In this chapter, we focus on the representation of HBV in the media in Kurdistan (our study did not look at the international media representation of VAW and HBV). Historically, Kurdish media outlets (until recently mainly newspapers) trace their origins from inside political parties, serving as transmission belts for party agendas. Apart from the women’s press, until the last few years, little media space has been devoted to examining societal and gender issues. With the emergence of the ‘independent’ non-party affiliated press at the beginning of the third millennium,1 the situation began to be challenged within the mainstream press. Until 1997, the only newspaper dedicated to women’s issues in general and HBV in particular, was the monthly Yaksani paper, established in 1993 and owned by the Independent Women’s Organisation.2 In 1997 and 1998, two other women’s papers emerged: Ainda, owned by the Union of Kurdistan Islamic Sisters and published in Kurdish and Arabic, and Zhyanawa, owned by Zhnan Kurdistan Women’s Union. At the time of our fieldwork, there have been several further women’s newspapers, including the monthly Khatuzin, twice monthly Rêwan,

1  The first Kurdish ‘independent’ and ‘private’ newspaper born outside the political parties is the twice-weekly Hawlati newspaper, with its first issue published on 5 November 2000. Hawlati staff split in 2005 and that led the way for the publication of a second ‘private independent’ paper in 2006, called Awêne. Nowadays, there are a number of papers in Iraqi Kurdistan Region attributing such status to themselves. 2 Independent Women’s Organisation, a radical women’s group dedicated to defending women’s rights, advocating gender equality and combating HBV, was founded in May 1993, inside the Kurdistan Communist Workers’ Party. Their offices were closed down by the ruling authorities in Erbil, in 1998, and in Sulaimaniya in 2000.

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twice-monthly Shawushka, twice monthly Warvin and the monthly Wê. Apart from Rêwan, the four others stopped ‘because of the lack of funding’.3 Throughout the project, we have monitored all the women’s publications, as well as a number of ‘independent’, privately owned and political party-owned newspapers, including daily Aso (reportedly owned by Prime Minister Salih), Awêne, the weekly Chawder (owned by PUK politburo member, Mala Bakhtiyar), Hawlati, Khabat (organ of the KDP), Kurdistani Nwê (organ of the PUK), Rudaw, Rozhnama 4 (organ of the Goran movement) and Yakgirtu (organ of the KIU).5 In addition, we have observed some of the satellite TV and radio programmes, in particular during the week-long campaign to combat VAW held each year (25 November to 2 December 2009), including Kurdistan TV (KDP), KurdSat (PUK), Spêda (KIU), Zagros (reportedly owned by the KDP), independent Nawa Radio and Khatuzin Radio. During the same period, we also monitored various Kurdish websites, such as Dengekan, Kurdistan Net, Peyamner, PUK Media and Sbey. Our aim was to look at how media represent and address honour-based violence and honour killings, including the language and tone of coverage, whether it is accepted or condemned, and to look at the freedom and constraints on the critical reception of religion, Kurdish culture and politics. In addition to this exercise, between March 2011 and April 2012, some of the research team were involved in establishing and developing a Gender and Violence Studies Centre at the University of Sulaimaniya,6 a pioneering academic centre aiming to contribute to developing the curriculum, improving research capacity at the University of Sulaimaniya, empowering women within higher education institutions and helping to advance women’s participation in governance. The team has held several round-table debates and meetings to consult with local and Kurdistan Region-wide women’s organisations, media agencies, legal representatives, other academics and relevant agencies. Among the topics related to the aims of the Centre, participating agencies discussed the role of the media in advancing women’s issues, as well as the need for active participation of women in media circles. Our conclusions from these various investigations and the original study are as follows.

3  From an interview with Warvin editor Lanja Abdulla, August 2013. 4 Both Rozhnama and Aso stopped publishing in 2011. 5  ccording to a report by the weekly Rudaw newspaper, there are over 300 newspapers and magazines in Iraqi Kurdistan nowadays and the team research had to select a sample of the papers (and their respective websites) that needed to be monitored, based on their circulation and impact on public opinion. See Rudaw, issue number 1. 6  The project was funded by the British Council for 18 months with matched funding from KRG Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research. It started in March 2011 and ended in April 2012. The Centre continues to work with the University of Bristol through new funds secured by the KRG. 76

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Women’s Media

Our research findings in relation to the women’s media reached several conclusions. Women’s media outlets have challenged the monopoly exercised for years by male-dominated media channels. HBV, honour killing and selfimmolation were first brought into public by women’s papers, especially those independent from political parties. This has helped to break the cycle of silence around honour crimes. If Robert Fisk refers to the ‘media freedom’ in Iraqi Kurdistan in relation to honour crimes, which according to him, may overcompensate for the secrecy which surrounds honour killings in other countries (Fisk 2010), it is due to the courage and bravery of women’s rights groups behind women’s publications. However, there is still much to be done, as a feminist public sphere still remains underdeveloped. It should be said that, apart from Warvin and Shawushka magazines, women’s publications are all, financially and editorially, affiliated to women’s organisations, which are not all independent from political parties. Each of these publications is considered the organ of its affiliated group giving priority to activities of the group and their ‘ideology’. Having said that, they make a positive contribution and do cover general issues related to women and their experiences of violence when they can. Our findings demonstrate that staff at women’s publications are not always media professionals and their reporters are not specialists in gender issues and HBV. The subjects covered by women’s publications, are generally women’s health, family and sexual education, criticism of the legal status of women as well as criminal and judicial policies, while also focussing on damaging social practices such as gossip and ‘tribal’ arranged, forced and early marriages in Kurdistan. During the parliamentary and presidential elections in 2009, women’s publications dedicated many pages to election issues, such as the quota for the representation of women in parliament, women’s participation in the election process and the profile of women candidates. The Rêwan and Zhyanawa papers even issued supplements dedicated to ‘women and elections’. Within this type of coverage, VAW in general is highlighted as the most ‘pressing issue’ in today’s Kurdistan. Considerable space is given to the issue during special occasions, such as International Women’s Day, 8 March, the International Day to Combat VAW, 25 November, and the ensuing week-long campaign to combat VAW. While urging women to ‘form pressure groups in the face of violence’,7 some 7 Monthly Ainda (2009). ‘Tundutiji barambar ba jnan la poshakeki nweda (Violence against women in a new outfit)’, issue 146, year 13, 15 November 2009, Sulaimaniya: 4. The monthly Ainda reflects an Islamic vision and represents faith leaders’ views on social justice and gender quality; while promoting women’s role inside the religious community. The paper serves as a space through which traditional and patriarchal believes are circulated. 77

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of these papers, also stress the need for awareness-raising programmes among men and a more active government and parliamentary role in combating VAW. Women’s papers and magazines can serve as important archives, keeping records of the latest activities of their respective organisations regarding VAW, and publicising international reports on Kurdish women’s situation, as well as the latest developments regarding women’s issues in the government and parliament. Through the evolution of reliable data-banks, women, society and government can be provided with information that, over time, can serve as an index of development and progress, an accounting device which can also be used to cross reference and check the accuracy of other data sources. Within the general ‘critical ‘media environment in Kurdistan Region (see Osman, 2010), women’s publications are not very active in developing an informed discussion or analysis of the barriers presented by patriarchy, nor of the specific issue of HBV. They tend to stress in a moralistic tone the ‘moral and correct’ behaviour of women. For example, the coupling of virginity and virtue is usually not problematised or critiqued, love relations and sexual freedom are not openly accepted, while dominant understandings of masculinity are questioned only to a limited extend. The women’s media also translate and publish reports on HBV in Kurdish communities in the diaspora, such as the Banaz Mahmud and Tulay Goren cases. These reports point the Kurdish public to what is going on inside the diaspora and how HBV is dealt with in other locations. They also publish cases related to other communities such as the Pakistani community. We found, however, that these cases are not always reported with professionalism, and reference to sources is often absent.8 As with the mainstream media, there is a lack of analysis and professional investigation, which ends in non-factual reporting. Women’s media coverage on VAW is limited to news reports and cases as told by the police, by the DCVAW or health professionals. Seldom do they go out and conduct their own field investigations, based on interviews with victims’ families and witnesses, related judicial and criminal investigators and women’s activists. This leads to the absence of a depth and breadth of analysis, despite their good intentions. Warvin, Rêwan and to a lesser extent, Zhyanawa, which try to go beyond this limitation, but not without hesitation, can be seen as exceptions in this regard. Even so, the two examples below illustrate a lack of professionalism. Rêwan and Zhyanawa are, in many ways, excellent publications, but reports such as those below present a number of problems. These reports have not been edited or précised by the researchers.

8  For example, the mutilation of a Pakistani woman (with her photograph) was reported by the Khatuzin magazine, issue number 50, June 2009. 78

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Hawreen was Killed by her Brothers (Rêwan, 16 July 2009, p. 1)

Hawreen, who was protected by a one of the women’s organisations, was killed by her brothers after her return to the parental home. Hawreen had a social problem and stayed in the Asuda centre in Sulaimaniya for several months. After she returned home on her demand, she was tortured and killed by her brothers. Hawreen was 25 years old. After torturing and killing her, her brothers ran away. An informed source said: ‘Hawreen had to stay at the Asuda centre because of a social problem. She left the Centre on her demand. She was also protected by the police for a few days, but insisted to go back home and her killing occurred immediately after her return’. The source added: ‘One of Hawreen’s murderers is her brother who came back from the UK to achieve this act. The murderers hung Hawreen on a fan until she died’.

Our research notes on this Rewan report of the honour killing of Hawreen included the following: no details of the date of killing; no information as to whether the police have been involved in investigating the alleged crime; no analysis of what a social problem might mean in the context of this young woman’s life. The report should read that the woman’s brothers were ‘alleged’ to have carried out the killing (rather than that they had killed their sister), until they have been tried and found guilty in the courts. However, the description provided was short and did not reach these standards. There is no way, from the report, of conducting any independent verification of its accuracy or otherwise. This form of writing, which is sparse in the use of verifiable data, is unhelpful. Our monitoring scheme also showed that there was no follow-up to the cases with filed complaints.

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99% of the Men who Committed Violence Against Women have been Arrested (Zhyanawa, Garmyan, 18 October 2009)

According to official statistics by the Garmyan Directorate of Combating Violence Against Women, 99 per cent of the men who committed acts of violence against women have been arrested. Head of DCVAW in Garmyan, Lieutenant Adnan Muhammad, told Zhyanawa: ‘We work for women and for reducing violence practiced against them. For that purpose, a lot of women visit us and we have done a good job for them’. He explained that: ‘in our region, 99 per cent of the men who committed violence against women have been arrested and questioned/investigated’. Lieutenant Adnan added that: ‘Now women are more aware, this is why they visit us and talk about their problems’.

In this report in Zhyanawa, the unlikely statistic of the number of violence perpetrators arrested is not critiqued. (If it were true, it would be vastly far in excess of the equivalent statistic in any other country, anywhere in the world). The article takes the statement by the Head of the Garmyan DCVAW at face value. No investigation had been done by the paper to verify the claims made; no reference is made to any judicial or police document confirming the Director’s statement; and no alternative voice is presented. There is no doubt that such reports unfortunately discredit the women’s papers concerned which have a great history of raising awareness about women’s rights in general, and HBV in particular. However, it is important and necessary to produce evidence-based, nuanced and subtle reports on such sensitive issues. The best media channels that can reach women and make an impact on public opinion, especially among illiterate women, are women’s radio stations. They air direct and live programmes, addressing the issue of HBV, including honour killing and self-immolation, and draw the audience into discussion through live telephone conversations broadcast from the studio. However, the coverage of these radio channels is limited to particular areas and they do not cover all parts of Kurdistan Region. Mainstream Media

In the last few years, local media outlets in Iraqi Kurdistan have been generally involved in reporting news reports on violence against women inside Kurdish 80

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society and have integrated women’s issues in general, and VAW in particular, into their coverage. ‘Independent’ and ‘privately-owned’ newspapers have been particularly active, dedicating greater space to such violence and are more outspoken than other mainstream media in addressing women’s issues and gender equality. However, the dominant media representation of HBV and honour killings has been limited to brief news reporting, without details of killings, self-immolation or other incidents. The media channels which are affiliated to political parties demonstrate an excessive sensitivity and hesitancy to challenge established bases of power, in particular with regard to government, party leadership and faith leaders. However, independent and privately-owned media have been more critical of the political and religious authorities and have discussed gender violence issues, but do not openly challenge the prevailing understanding of honour as embodied in women’s bodies and sexuality. There is a tendency among these independent and privately owned papers to portray the KDP and PUK, as well as the government and faith leaders, as backward elements that hinder the development and progress of Kurdish society. As we argue throughout this chapter, it is necessary to produce evidencebased, nuanced and subtle analysis. Making irrelevant or unsupported political points is a disservice to society, as is omitting to cover HBV and its victims, but this is what tends to happen. Simplistic readings of Islam, or the refusal to recognise government and women’s organisation initiatives, regardless of their political affiliation, divert readers from developing a deeper understanding of the phenomena, and therefore the means and responses to combat it. Failing to recognise the positive contributions of these important actors in society carries the danger of producing a negative reaction, diverting them from exercising power in the service of human rights, while also diverting public attention away from the main issue: crimes against women in the name of honour. Generally speaking, media outlets are seldom involved in critical thinking and question the existing ideas about honour. Our respondents among media groups did tend to distance themselves from the dominant understanding of honour as embodied in women’s bodies, but their analysis remains private, abstract and hidden from view. These media do not openly challenge patriarchal values and practices, but instead, for many of them, reproduce traditional norms and gender patterns. When a woman is killed and her killing is confirmed to have been ‘provoked’ by infidelity, media reports play around with the problematic of honour motivation and often seem to justify murder. An illustration is drawn from Hawlati, which published an interview with the alleged killer of Begard Hussein in April 2008. He was given space to justify his act through reference to Begard’s alleged relationship with another man and said that he had not completely divorced her. Hawlati did not call into question the dynamics behind the crime, its roots in patriarchal norms and customs, but rather took the case 81

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as if it was a normal petty crime and interviewed the perpetrator – who is still at large – without informing the police. Although Hawlati is regarded as a leading paper, which has a record of attempting to address gender issues, notably initiating a campaign against FGM in April 2009, it would appear to carry elements of the dominant public understanding of HBV. We should, however, highlight here a petition-based campaign against FGM led by the most influential private and ‘independent’ media agencies in Kurdistan, including, Hawlati newspaper, Rozhanam newspaper, Levin magazine, Awenakan magazine, Nawa Radio, and the Women Legal Assistance Organisation. In cooperation with Wadi, these media agencies and organisations implemented a successful 10-day campaign that involved distributing 1000 buttons, 7000 calendars, 500 brochures, 17 sound clips and presenting and airing many radio programmes.9 While the emphasis of ‘independent’ media upon the importance of human rights is to be welcomed, it is in the production of silences that they, too, indicate a negative power and demonstrate the need to engage in reflection and reform. Here, we note that the murder of Begard Hussein, a journalist and poet, did not cause any outcry at all among independent papers, while the murder of young male journalist, Sardasht Othman, in May 2010, created ‘agitating’ mobilisation in the defence of ‘freedom of speech’ and ‘human rights’. It is worth asking here: Are the human rights of a woman less important than the human rights of a man? Is it the case that the daily abuse of women, including horrifying acts of honour killing, are not as worthy of attention? Are women less valuable as human beings than a male journalist or a male political leader? If political and cultural considerations are not at stake, advocates for human rights, freedom of speech and justice at all levels of society, should equally mobilise and call for justice. It remains the case that mainstream media channels are owned and run by men, with the presence of women extremely limited. While the involvement of greater a number of women would not necessarily lead to improved coverage, their absence almost guarantees limited interest. Media outlets do not cover HBV to any great extent, nor develop any informed discussion or analysis of male-dominated society or male violence to their female wives and family members. As we discussed with regard to women’s publications, they usually instead stress in a moralistic tone the ‘moral and correct’ behaviour for women. They often emphasise the supposed wrongdoing of women victims of male violence, such as ‘infidelity and immoral behaviour’ which can be used to justify subsequent violence against them. Ideas about the maintenance of virginity and the lack of sexual freedom for women (but not, of course, for men) are often 9  See Kurdish radio programmes, for example, at http://www.stopfgmkurdistan.org (2013). 82

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broadcast, and honour-based violence is rarely discussed in detail, taking on the issues for women. We noted a lack of analysis and gender sensitivity, as well as sub-professional investigation in many of these publications. The coverage is mostly news reporting without details or follow-up writing. Reporters rarely probe structural causes of honour crimes and suicides, and fail to conduct their own investigations, relying instead on police statements or comments from heads of burns units when reporting on such cases. Statistics released by the General Directorate are presented without the exploration of alternative data. In comparison to other mainstream media, Rudaw has been an exception. The paper has a dedicated and specialist reporter, Mr Soran Bahadin, who does not rely upon official channels only, but goes out into the field, and meets and interviews potential witnesses, judicial and criminal investigators and women’s activists. However, Rudaw does not usually examine the social pressure, frustration and stigma that force these women to kill or burn themselves. The strict control of family and community over women and their desires and need for understanding, love and sex, are rarely acknowledged or questioned. Some of these points are illustrated in the following reports which we have not been edited or précised by the research team.

Two Young Girls were Burnt (Peyamner website, Bahoz-Erbil, 21 July 2009)

In the Bakhtiyari quarter of Erbil and following a fire incident, a female student was burnt. Yesterday, after arriving at the Emergency Hospital, (B. Q. H, aged 20), student at the secondary level, told the police that she put the gas cooker on to make tea, but the gas blew, causing scorches to a large part of her body. Her father wanted to extinguish the fire and sent her to hospital. The woman rejected the idea that she burnt herself and did not file a complaint against anyone. According to the doctor dealing with her case, the woman had suffered 86% burns and her life is in danger. Police have opened a file to investigate the case.

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(Awêne, 2 December 2008)

A 16-year-old girl from Majeedawa district in Soran area set herself on fire on 17th November and died on 1 December. The family denied any reason behind the selfimmolation of their daughter.

Turning to other media, TV channels through soap operas and popular programmes can play an effective role in combating HBV. However, this has not happened so far, and the possible power that TV can operate has rarely, as yet, been directed positively. All the TV channels do carry, from time to time, roundtable discussion, interviews and documentary material on social and gender issues, such as FGM, early, forced and arranged marriages, hymen repair, and women’s status and participation in social and political life. But these programmes usually do not address, with any deep analysis or from a critical point of view, notions of male control, women’s rights, patriarchy or the strict control of family and community over women (see also, Begikhani, 2007a). HBV is usually addressed from the perpetrators’ point of view, more than from victims’ points of view, which explains, but also reinforces, silence imposed upon survivors and victims of HBV. One example to be highlighted is related to the UK case of Banaz Mahmod. After the verdict was issued by the Old Bailey Court in London, Kurdistan TV produced and carried a documentary film on honour killing focusing on her case. The documentary interviewed Banaz Mahmod’s family members justifying the murder and challenging the court verdict. Such a programme does not only fail to challenge the dynamics behind such a practice, but also sends a dangerous message to women to abide by patriarchal rules. Media outlets do not have long-term programmes and strategies to raise awareness about and challenge HBV. According to journalist and writer, Rebin Rasul, interviewed in April 2010: ‘They raise it on occasions, such as International Women’s Day or the week-long Campaign to Combat VAW, and then forget about it’. For Mr Rasul: ‘papers such as Awêne and Hawlati newspapers have given importance to such violence, but it is Rudaw which has a more professional approach in covering such issues’. Privately-owned and ‘independent’, the paper does sometimes publish radical articles criticising the prevailing understanding of honour, and political and cultural attitudes towards HBV. However, the groups behind such outlets do not often have a genderedbased strategy and their agenda is dominated by localised political issues. Some of these shortcomings can be seen in the following article, which again the research team has not edited. 84

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A ‘Disappeared’ 16 year-old Kurdish Woman Allegedly Shot in Honour Killing (by Soran Bahadin, Rudaw, Erbil, 22 August 2010)

After she was accused of sleeping with a man, the 16-year old Payman Khalil was threatened with death by her father and other family members about three months ago. Since then, the woman has controversially disappeared. Her father, Khalil Jalal, says that Payman escaped the house as soon as she had received the threats. The police of the Dibaga, a town disputed between the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the Central Government of Baghdad, has yet to make any investigation into the case. Some people including Erbil’s police have said that Payman was killed by her father and thrown into a ditch in a nearby village near the volatile city of Mosul. ‘Payman’s father-in-law and I agreed to kill Payman. But she escaped and we did not kill her’, said Jalal, the father. Two years ago, when she was just 14 years old, Payman was married to one of her cousins. Dibaga is about 38 kilometres away from Erbil. It belongs to the Makhmour District and is populated by about 8000 people under the control of the Iraqi Central Government. The region is highly conservative where violence against women is relatively high. The Makhmour police stated that they were not even aware about the case. They said they would not investigate anything if someone does not file a complaint. But after a few days of the disappearance of Payman, KRG’s Erbil-based Centre to Combat Violence Against Women (CCVAW) asked the Erbil’s Police Station to make its own investigation. ‘Payman was shot dead by her father in a village nearby Dibaga and then thrown into a ditch. Payman was killed over alleged marriage betrayal. The families of both sides have reconciled’, said a report by the police of Erbil. Nabaz Omar, the Mayor of Dibaga, said that he had heard the news of Payman’s death about three weeks ago and informed the police. (Continued on next page)

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‘Investigations are ongoing. Police have not reached a conclusion yet. The dossier has been sent to the court. The lady’s family has kept the incident secret. We do not have adequate evidence about her possible death’, said Omar. ‘But we will continue the investigations until we will find adequate evidences. Then the lady’s close relatives will be arrested for “not reporting her missing to the police”’. Jalal, Payman’s father, said that his brother, who is Payman’s father-in-law as well, had told him that he had seen a guy with Payman in her house. ‘My brother said he had seen them together with his own eyes. That is why he and I decided to kill her. He was insisting on the killing and I agreed’, said Jalal. ‘But Payman’s husband told me that he knows his wife and that she never cheats on him. He was defending his wife. I told him I would kill you both’. Payman’s father says her daughter must be alive. He said he had made unsuccessful attempts to find her. ‘If Payman come back, I will investigate the subject comprehensively. If she had betrayed, then I will turn her to the government. If not, then I will not forgive my brother’. Payman’s father says the incident has damaged his personality. ‘We are looked down on by the people. People do not respect us as they used to’, said Jalal. ‘Before I was happy to be among others and visit those whom I know. But I do not go out now’.

We have also observed that political party-affiliated papers are more inclined to cover news of honour killing and other forms of HBV when these incidents happen outside the territories under the direct control of their own respective parties. Again, political factionalism and division between political parties in Kurdistan manifest themselves in the media coverage of HBV.

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(Khabat, 6 November 2008)

A woman of 17 years old from Zarate area in Sulaimaniya city hanged herself at her family home and died. The Bakhtyari police said that, based on the initial investigation, the girl did not have any problems with her family. The girl’s body was sent to the Department of Forensic Medicine. Police are investigating the case. (Sbey website, 6 November 2008)

A woman, of 22 years, in Duhok burned herself. She suffered 92% burns. An 18-year-old woman has been kidnapped in Duhok and she is still missing. A woman was shot in Kani Mahmad in Duhok.

Generally speaking, the media in Iraqi Kurdistan has not been able to engender a culture of rational debate, helping to form public opinion challenging traditional gender norms. The emphasis upon gossip and the sensational serves to mask the serious task of uncovering the true nature of HBV and misses the opportunity to address the human rights of women. As a media specialist, Hiwa Othman, says: ‘this unwholesome atmosphere in which the Kurdish media operates makes it easy for people to just defame, insult or praise others with complete disregard to any code of ethics or professional standards’ (Othman, 2010). Cyber Media

In the last 12 years and since the fall of Saddam Hussein, the lives of individuals and the interaction between people in Kurdistan and their relationships between individuals have been shaped by new information communication technology and cyber media. Our research demonstrated that the cyber media, which includes all kinds of publications on the internet and cyberspace, has doublesided effects for women. On the one side, it has created a new space for women to reach out to the outside world and engage in a new mode of interaction. Through this new space and mode of communication, women can break the silence around HBV and VAW, and can go beyond their immediate geographical location, participating in online debates, getting involved in petitions and national and international campaigns, and above all making their voices heard. 87

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On the other side, this new mode of communication has placed women in the face of new challenges, founded on the very basis of the code of honour. The cyber media has created ‘anonymous actors’ referring to the honourdishonour equation. The internet and mobile phone usage have contributed to the circulation of rumour and a strong appetite for gossip and desire to ‘dishonour’. It matters little that the alleged reports may or may not be true, the issue is, when seemingly plausible accounts are in the public domain, the life of these women is danger. As journalist, Taman Shakir, has articulated: ‘such gossip and rumour, once circulated, affect badly the reputation of women and their families putting them under huge pressure and even at risk of HBV’.10 Our study found that a new form of honour-related abuse and violence has emerged from the cyber media, centring on women’s bodies and sexuality. It consists of exposing women’s privacy and sexuality, real and/or fabricated, to the public with the aim of dishonouring them in the profoundly maledominated society in Iraqi Kurdistan. Most of the women who experienced this form of HBV are well-known figures, whose credibility and image play a vital role in their public standing. By exposing their often fabricated private experience and sexual behaviour to the public, those ‘anonymous actors’, hidden behind the cyber curtain, seek to contravene the credibility and public standing of these women, leading to permanent dishonour and disgrace. In a society where reputation and public credibility are the most potential capitals for women, it is inevitable that those women and their families are put under collective pressure which can end in isolation, suicide and murder. The ‘game’ consists of publishing and circulating ‘dishonourable ‘and ‘fabricated’ pictures and footages of women, through internet and mobile phones to the public, writing defamatory reports and articles against them posted on the internet, hacking their personal face book and email accounts, publicising their private data and sending threatening text and Facebook messages. The ultimate aim is to exercise power, placing these well-known women under a system of control, surveillance, attack and extreme fear. Also, as such attacks target mainly prominent women in the field of politics, media and activism, the aim is to silence and isolate them, which can symbolically be considered as another form of murder. As we noted earlier, these anonymous attacks have been made mainly against public figures, such as famous TV presenters, Avin Aso and Huda Khalil, famous columnist, Avin Ibrahim Fatah, political activist, Azeema Baboli and women’s rights activists, Bahar Monzir (Rudaw, 2013). Here, we record a case of cyber abuse/public dishonouring case through the use of information communication technology

10  From discussion with journalist, Taman Shakir, July 2012. 88

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‘They made a prostitute out of me’: The case of Azeema

‘I was a successful political cadre. I did not have support inside the politburo, but rather gained support of the public and grassroots. When I nominated myself to stand for the parliamentary elections in 2009, my name was deleted from the list. They did not want me to stand for the elections and removed my name and put in a substitution one. They could not directly intimidate me, but after I nominated myself for the Kurdish parliament, they went for me and tried to dishonour me publicly. They produced pornographic footage and circulated it through mobile phones saying that the woman in the footage was me. It has been circulated to a wide range of people. You know, if they write something negative about you on the internet, it is not that bad, but making a prostitute out of me. I took the case to the police, but, because of political intervention, there was no follow up. I now carry a gun. I no longer have guards, because their salaries were cut off. I have lost everything. I had my salary, my status, and my reputation put at risk. My child and I are now staying with my mother.’

Azeema nominated herself again in 2013 parliamentary elections and won the elections. She is now an MP and leading the Parliamentary Committee for the Protection of Women’s Rights. Combined with these kinds of abuse, the study documented another form of attack on visible and famous female figures in Kurdistan, which comes from certain religious figures using the mosque for such a purpose. An outstanding example is the attack on singer, Parwaz Hussein, who, in Spring 2013, participated in the competition-based Arab Idol programme and made considerable progress in it. She was attacked by certain Mullahs for her ‘nonKurdish’ outlook and ‘imprudent’ clothing (Awêne, 2013). The attack was an example of a form of demagogy politics which incites public emotion, outrage and danger against outstanding women in Kurdish society. Our research concluded that it is not always easy to document evidence of such abuses and to mobilise police and judiciary to protect those cyber abused women. As Taman Shakir, who, herself, has been attacked in cyberspace, stressed: ‘these acts of violence are premeditated and action to pursue perpetrators in law has been very limited if not non-existent. They can be from your close circle’. The situation has preoccupied women’s rights activists who have organised campaigns against such acts, calling on authorities to adopt new measures to protect the targeted women. The most recent campaign of this type consisted of a petition launched in August 2013, calling on authorities to act against the abuse and defamation conducted against women through cyber media, using 89

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legislation and by decreeing a cyber media law in Kurdistan Region (Warvin, 2013). There is a specific law, Law number 6 of 2008, which addresses defamation and the bad use of all means of modern communication. The Law was voted by the Kurdistan Parliament on 19 May 2008. Article 1 of the Law stipulates that ‘telephone, postal and other electronic communications fall in the field of private affairs and should not be violated’. The Law criminalises the misuse of such means of communications, especially if it leads to ‘dishonouring’ and violating ‘the private life’ of individuals and putting them into danger. It also calls on companies running these means of communication, including mobile phones, to regulate their systems with the aim of uprooting anonymity. According to women’s rights activists, this Law is progressive and can lead towards an eradicating of the culture of gossip and defamation through internet and mobile phones. The Law imposes a minimum of six months and up to five years detention for perpetrators of such crimes. However, our research findings indicate that such laws fall short in protecting women or establishing justice in terms of such crimes, and implementation has not been consistent. In addition to Law number 6, there are other legal instruments included in the Iraqi Penal Code (IPC) and the Iraqi Criminal Procedure (CPC). Articles 433–5 of the IPC impose a maximum punishment of one-year detention for perpetrators of defamation, and Article 3 of the CPC reads that the offences of insult, defamation or slight injury are considered private offences. These offences can be ‘converted’ to public offences if the acts are committed against someone in the performance of a public service. In the cyber media case, if the victims are not part of the public service sectors, the law does not cover their cases. It is obvious that there is an ambiguity between private and public offences that makes it impossible to distinguish when it comes to its implementation (information from a speech by the legal adviser to the Eurus Lex in Kurdistan, Mr Jan Van-Wijland) (Van-Wijland, 2013). What is more, these Articles may be overruled by the Combating Domestic Violence Law (CDVL) that we address later in Chapter 7, which imposes a maximum punishment of 3 years detention. The response of the authorities to this new form of honour-related violence has not been focussed. The subject and development of new policy have been discussed at the Council of Ministers and at official meetings of the High Commission to Combat VAW and the Women’s Rights Monitoring Board (WRMB). However, in practice, little has changed so far. Disparate responses to certain cases such as Azeema Baboli’s and Bahar Monzir’s have been made through special meetings with relevant authorities including with the Interior Minister, but there remains an almost total lack of regulation in terms of legislation and policy. In conclusion, the research found evidence that the media has a crucial role in perpetrating traditional norms, values and attitudes about gender, women 90

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and family honour. They often play on religious and cultural factors and on appeals to traditional patriarchal values and to customary understandings of Kurdish society and gender relations. However, the opposite is also true. The media can, at best, play an important part in raising public awareness and changing people’s perceptions of gender roles and the notion of honour. To achieve this, media outlets need to observe international media ethics and avoid stigmatising women, reproducing gender stereotypes and using the honour/ dishonour equation in a voyeuristic or judgmental way, or to gain audiences. One crucial approach here consists of developing a progressive gender strategy integrating professional media measures with international standards. Media outlets need also to aim to produce balanced reporting and to avoid sensational and patriarchal coverage. This requires a broad understanding of gender and honour-based violence, dialogue, and a non-prejudicial communications approach with women, government institutions and NGO’s dealing with HBV, as well as careful analysis and critical debate. When considering the media environment as depicted in this chapter, the research team came to the conclusion that a number of recommendations are necessary in the Region. They are included in the Action Plan for Iraqi Kurdistan section (see Appendix 1).

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Chapter 6

Honour Crimes and Kurdish Women in the Diaspora This chapter moves on from discussing HBV in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region to considering the situation in Kurdish diasporic communities in the UK, documenting the voices of women’s organisations in their struggle to achieve social justice for victims and raise awareness. Building on Chapter 1, this chapter explores the ways in which Kurdish women, Kurdish organisations and other women’s NGOs have worked to expose the issue of HBV and to provide training and advice to enhance police and criminal justice responses. While some failures have now been remedied, more remains to be done. Through analysing three high-profile cases in the Kurdish community – those of Heshu Yones, Banaz Mahmod and Tulay Goren, and the parallel case of Surjit Athwal (who was not Kurdish) – the chapter considers how British criminal justice responses have changed and developed over the last decade, and what more can and should be done. Kurdish Communities in the UK

The Kurdish diaspora is an outgrowth of the history of oppression and discrimination experienced by the Kurdish peoples (see Chapter 3 for a detailed discussion). In the case of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, the existence of a diaspora in the UK can be largely attributed to the recent genocides, wars and militarisation of the area: as Mojab and Gorman (2007, p. 62) argue, ‘The emergence of a new Kurdish Diaspora took place in the context of a bloody conflict over Kurdistan’. The difficult conditions in the Region have resulted in substantial emigration, including to Europe. As the statistics collected by most government agencies are based on country of origin, census information on the number of Kurdish immigrants, refugees and citizens residing in Western nations is not readily available (Gill, Begikhani & Hague, 2012, p. 78): Kurds are generally categorised as Iraqi, Iranian, Syrian or Turkish in most official statistics (Mojab & Gorman, 2007, p. 63). However, according to the Institut Kurde de Paris (2010), most estimates suggest that there are now more than a million Kurds in Western countries (2010). Although there are no reliable estimates regarding the number of Kurds in the UK, Kurdish organisations,

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including the Kurdish Cultural Centre, estimate that 65–70 per cent of people in Britain originating from Iraq are Kurdish, while the figure is 70 per cent for those originating from Turkey, and 15 per cent for those from Iran. According to figures collected from reports, publications and interviews by Kurdish community groups, the Kurdish population in the UK is probably between 130,000 and 300,000, though most estimates put the maximum at 200,000. The Kurdish population in London is estimated to be between 60,000 and 80,000. Exile and emigration are often accompanied by nostalgia for one’s homeland; thus, within the diaspora, a strong sense of ethnic and national identity has developed. Highlighting the intimate connection between exile and Kurdish nationalism, Martin Van Bruinessen has argued (2000, p. 67) that: The awareness of Kurdistan as a homeland, and of Kurds as a distinct people, has often been strongest in those Kurds who lived elsewhere, among people of different languages and cultures. … It was exile that transformed Kurdistan from a vaguely defined geographical entity into a political ideal.

As with other migrant communities, the second generation have shown a strong interest in their origins: ‘the desire to discover ‘who I am’ led to a significant surge of interest in political and linguistic identity among younger Kurds during the 1980s and 1990s’ (McDowall, 1997, p. 457). As a result, since the 1980s, a considerable number of Kurdish organisations, Kurdish workers’ associations and women’s organisations have been created in the UK. Since the 1990s, many specialist support organisations have also been set up to help Kurdish refugees and asylum-seekers. However, Kurdish people have faced ongoing hostility and difficulty in establishing themselves in the UK. Frequently, these challenges are compounded by Kurdish communities being viewed by mainstream society as clinging to a ‘backward culture’ that promotes human rights violations, including honour crimes (Begikhani, 2005; Gill, 2009). The media and general public tend to view HBV as intrinsic to Kurdish culture rather than as a manifestation of patriarchal social structures common to many cultures (see Chapters 1 and 2 for a more detailed discussion). However, in most Kurdish communities in the UK, a degree of modernisation has taken place, though, in others, patriarchal values and traditions remain strong. Many of these patriarchal traditions conflict with the values of mainstream British society, and some with British law. This makes it hard for second and third generation Kurds to define their own values. Berruti’s 2002 study of young Kurdish women in France provided evidence that patriarchal customs, including early and child marriage, are still practised in some communities despite opposition from younger community members keen to embrace ‘modern’ ideas and ways of life (Berruti, 2002). Instances 94

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of HBV and killing in the name of honour often result from these sorts of intergenerational conflict (Gill, Begikhani & Hague, 2012). The killings of Fadime Shahindal in Sweden, Hatice Sürücü in Germany, and Heshu Yones, Banaz Mahmod and Tulay Goren in the UK have raised the media profile of so-called honour killings in diasporic Kurdish communities (Berruti, 2002; Hague, Gill & Begikhani, 2013). Although women’s organisations have done much to raise awareness and to support victims and those at risk, the media often ignores the efforts of Kurdish women’s rights activists and organisations to address VAW from within Kurdish communities (Gill & Anitha, 2010; Gill, Begikhani & Hague, 2012; see also Chapter 1). Kurdish Women’s Organisations in the UK

Kurdish women’s organisations have played a key role in the fight to address and prevent HBV, FGM and polygamy in the UK. For example, since its founding in 2002, the Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Rights Organisation has campaigned about HBV and forced marriage in the UK’s Middle Eastern communities, providing advocacy services for thousands of clients. These organisations have also worked to provide assistance, support and knowledge to women in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region. Organisations founded by members of the Kurdish diaspora have worked with the British Government, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the police and other agencies to advocate for and implement policy improvements. They have also helped to educate these agencies about HBV, combating the discrimination and stigmatisation of Kurdish women, as well as campaigning both for justice in individual cases of honour killings in the UK and for inadequacies in official responses to be addressed (Hague, Gill & Begikhani, 2013). As in Kurdistan, Kurdish women in the diaspora have created an autonomous network of cultural, social and political women’s associations in London and other European cities. Through their efforts, and those of individual activists, many taboos associated with gender-based violence, and especially HBV, have been broken over the past decade: increasing the media’s focus on honour killings and HBV has been a major part of their efforts to erode the traditional silence around incidents of VAW. Now, crimes such as honour killings, domestic violence, forced marriage, FGM, sexual torture and rape as a war crime have become subjects of public debate, international campaigning and policy development. Although non-specialist women’s organisations, such as Women’s Aid, have long provided advice and support services for domestic violence victims, it is only in recent years that they have extended their remit to include honour 95

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killings and HBV. This confirms the finding of the study underlying this book that, until recently, there was a general lack of understanding about HBV and its connections to other forms of gender-based violence, which led to discrimination on the part of both non-specialist women’s organisations and statutory bodies. However, recent publicity on HBV and high-profile cases of honour killings have brought about significant change. Many Kurdish and black, minority ethnic and refugee (BMER) organisations, as well as non-specialist women’s NGOs, are now working to establish expertise around honour crimes. This increase in awareness and understanding of the problem has helped encourage victims to seek support, but has also dramatically increased the workload of these organisations. For instance, a worker at the Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Rights Organisation stated, during the study behind this book, that they dealt with over 100 cases: in 2008 and 2010 ‘it was doubled or trebled’ of previous years. However, successive governments have made little investment in resources aimed at helping and protecting BMER victims and those at risk of VAW and HBV. UK Criminal Justice Initiatives to Combat HBV

Until recently, the main government initiative on HBV in the UK focused more or less exclusively on forced marriage rather than on developing a better understanding of the range of forms of HBV and VAW, and the connections between them (Gill, 2006; see also Chapters 1 and 2). One of the key exceptions was the 1999 Project on Strategies to Address Crimes of Honour, set up in coordination with the International Centre for the Legal Protection of Rights and the Centre for Islamic and Middle Eastern Laws at the University of London. However, throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, criminal justice responses to honour crimes remained poor, with the police demonstrating ignorance about HBV and a lack of effective strategies and protocols. More recently, the Metropolitan Police Service has taken the lead in efforts to tackle and prevent HBV, though the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has also set up a number of important initiatives. The initial catalyst for this was the media coverage of the murder of Heshu Yones in 2002. The media coverage of Heshu’s murder was characterised by dissatisfaction with agency responses. In January 2003, partly in response to public criticism over the case, the Metropolitan Police Service set up the Strategic Homicide Prevention Working Group on Honour Killings to cover the London area, with a second national group delivering training to all police forces in the country. In June 2004, Scotland Yard announced that it was re-examining 109 possible honour killings from the period 1993 to 2003, with a view to developing risk 96

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assessment indicators and a national police database to monitor and record cases more effectively (Gill, 2011, p. 225; see also Chapters 1 and 2); as there were previously serious shortcomings in the recording of police data (including in the Heshu Yones case), this was an important advance. A simple working definition of HBV was also developed; one of the senior police officers who contributed to the research that informs this book explained the process thus: We developed, in March 2007, a frontline working definition to what we thought honour-based violence was and that is … a crime or incident which has or may have been perpetrated to defend the honour of the family and all of the wider community. We looked at the issues around the fact that honour-based violence was a national and international problem, given that it transcends national and international boundaries and borders. And it transcends a number of, and was not isolated to, one particular religious and faith group.

This was an important step forward at the strategic level for the police’s understanding of HBV. In June 2007, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) followed suit and began piloting a scheme to track honour crimes. This was part of a wider project on HBV that involved both the training of 25 specialist prosecutors to work in HBV ‘hot-spots’ and the creation of a system for flagging forced marriages and violent crimes in which honour was a key factor (CPS, 2007). Building on the Metropolitan Police Service’s guidance, the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) created the ACPO Strategies on Honour-Based Violence and Forced Marriage (2008), together with a two-year implementation Action Plan. The Strategies centre on the provision of comprehensive guidance and training for police officers around the country, including how to use the ACPO’s risk assessment tool. Risk assessments in individual cases are now conducted through the Domestic Abuse, Stalking and Honour-Based Violence Risk Identification, Assessment and Management Model (2009). Since the ACPO Council accredited this tool to be implemented in 2009, all police services, and a large number of partner agencies across the UK, have, for the first time, been using a common checklist for identifying and assessing risk. However, its use has not been without issue: the tool has been critiqued for being insufficiently nuanced, for being bureaucratic, and for having a solely criminal justice focus. Thus, several interviewees in the study behind this volume spoke about the importance of building on present risk assessment procedures: more robust tools are needed to identify the seriousness of individual cases when they first come to the attention of the police. Nevertheless, both holistic criminal justice responses and good practice principles are beginning to be implemented. The training programmes, guidelines 97

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and risk assessments developed as part of the ACPO Strategies are particularly promising. Dedicated officers have also begun to transform the Metropolitan Police Service’s approach to HBV; through the ACPO Strategies, these efforts have been extended around the country. Indeed, some of the officers who were interviewed for the study behind this book have spoken on the international stage about the Strategies, which are now recognised as world-leading. However, this forward-looking work at the strategic level has yet to be fully embedded and implemented (Hague, Gill & Begikhani, 2013). There is agreement among those working on the ground that much remains to be done to improve the quality of policing and criminal justice responses. An interviewee from Southall Black Sisters described the fact that simply undertaking training or using an inevitably rather crude risk assessment procedure is not enough to transform practice: They are not saving women’s lives … we are being told that [the police] need more and better training, but frankly I’m not sure that is enough anymore. There has been a decade of this response, and still women are dying and still children are dying.

The case studies below illuminate previous institutional failings in high-profile cases, while also recognising the improvements that have grown out of these failures. The Murder of Heshu Yones

One of the most highly-publicised honour killing cases in the UK concerned the murder of Heshu Yones, who was just 16 when she was killed by her father, Abdalla Yones, on 12 October 2002. The Yones family had migrated to Britain in the mid-1990s to escape persecution by Saddam Hussein’s regime in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region. Heshu’s ‘crime’ in her father’s eyes was that she had become ‘Westernised’ in Britain. At his trial, Heshu’s father stated that he felt provoked by Heshu’s Western style of dress and Lebanese Christian boyfriend (Gill, Begikhani & Hague, 2012, p. 84). Other statements made in his defence suggested that he was ‘forced’ to kill his daughter because she had put him in an ‘untenable position’ by making a ‘stain’ on the family’s honour (R v. Abdulla M. Yones). When interviewed during the study behind this volume, Detective Inspector Brent Hyatt, a member of the Metropolitan Police Service’s Serious Crime Directorate at the time of the case, explained that: Abdalla Yones killed her [Heshu] to shield his so-called honour. A few months before her death, she had been taken to Kurdistan to be married off. But the 98

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marriage didn’t take place because the groom’s family discovered she was not a virgin. Abdalla brought Heshu back and decided to eliminate her. The family approved of the crime.

During the trial, the court heard how Abdalla chased Heshu from room to room before cornering her in the bathroom of the family’s London home and attacking her with a kitchen knife. He stabbed her 11 times. Before Abdalla struck the final blow, he held his daughter down over the bath and slit her throat. The last blow was wielded with such ferocity that the tip of the blade broke off when it hit a bone in her neck. She bled to death on the bathroom floor, wedged between the bath and the toilet. When her body was discovered, the white-handled knife was still sticking out of her throat. In sentencing Heshu’s father to life imprisonment in 2003, Judge Denison QC stated that ‘The killing and the manner of it was an appalling act … It’s plain that you strongly and genuinely disapproved of the lifestyle in this country of your daughter, but it must not be an excuse to kill’ (Gill, 2011, p. 225). In line with the general belief of the time that HBV is mainly a matter of nonWestern cultural values and traditions, the judge also described the case as ‘a tragic story arising out of irreconcilable cultural differences between traditional Kurdish values and the values of Western society’. The result of such simplistic, stereotyped views is that entire communities have been stigmatised as atavistic and barbaric (Gill, 2009; Gill, 2011, p. 225). At the same time, anxieties about cultural sensitivity have sometimes caused both the judiciary and the police to proceed over-cautiously in investigating and prosecuting honour killings and other crimes involving traditional cultural practices. However, Mike O’Brien, Home Office Minister at the time of the Yones case, commented that ‘a murder is a murder’ and that, in the matter of honour killings, cultural sensitivity must not become an excuse for ‘moral blindness’ (Gill, 2011, p. 225). This view was shared by Commander Andy Baker, then Head of the Metropolitan Police Service’s Serious Crime Directorate: There were certainly people who had tried to protect Abdalla Yones, who could be investigated on suspicion of perverting the course of justice … We are completely satisfied that some members of the community, or his friends, tried to assist him in that cover-up … Anyone who committed this, or commits any other murder, will be thoroughly investigated and brought before the courts. We will not tolerate it. Nor should any community. It is murder. There is no excuse. Full stop.

Heshu’s case demonstrated inadequacies in the policing and prosecution of honour killings that were further exposed in the Banaz Mahmod case. 99

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The Murder of Banaz Mahmod

Banaz Mahmod Babakir Agha’s family migrated to Britain from Iraqi Kurdistan in 1998. Twenty-one year old Banaz was living with her family in Mitcham, South London, when she was strangled with a shoelace in 2006. Her body was stuffed into a suitcase and then buried in a garden in Handsworth, Birmingham. Her decomposing remains were finally found in April 2006, three months after she disappeared (Gill, 2009: Gill, 2011, p. 226). Her family had arranged her marriage to a cousin from their clan group. Shortly after the marriage, Banaz sought a divorce on the grounds that her husband was abusing her. This was regarded by the senior male members of the family as a betrayal of the family’s honour. The situation deteriorated when Banaz fell in love with 28 year old Rahmat Suleimani, a Kurdish Muslim from an Iranian (as opposed to Iraqi) clan group. This relationship was seen as scandalous by Banaz’s family. The situation escalated when her actions became known throughout the tight-knit Kurdish community in south-west London. When the family became aware of Banaz’s intention to elope with Rahmat, her father held a family meeting. At the insistence of Banaz’s uncle, it was decided that her punishment would be death. In June 2007, Banaz’s father and her uncle were found guilty of her murder: Banaz’s father was found to have ordered the killing, though his brother had organised its execution. Another member of the Iraqi Kurdish community, Pshtewan Hama, pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice in relation to the murder. In March 2007, a fourth man, Mohammed Marif Hama, who had apparently been recruited by Banaz’s father, pleaded guilty to murdering her. Hama was secretly recorded talking to a friend in prison: transcripts of the recording were read out at his pre-sentence hearing. In the recording, Hama admits to ‘slapping’ and ‘f***ing’ Banaz. He can also be heard laughing as he describes how she was killed with her uncle ‘supervising’. Banaz was garrotted for five minutes, according to Hama, but it took another half an hour for her to die: ‘I swear to God it took him more than two hours. Her soul and her life would not leave. I was kicking and stamping on her neck to get the soul out’. Two further suspects in the murder fled to Iraqi Kurdistan but were eventually extradited after lobbying by various national and international organisations: the extradition was finally ordered by the Iraqi Kurdistan Region’s authorities in spring 2010. Omar Hussein and Mohammed Saleh Ali stood trial at the Old Bailey in October 2010. Both men were found guilty of the murder of Banaz Mahmod and of threats to kill Rahmat Sulemani. Both were sentenced to minimum terms of over 20 years’ imprisonment. In handing down these sentences on 10 November 2010, Judge Brian Barker described the murder as ‘a barbaric and callous crime’ (Gill, 2011, p. 226). He went on to criticise the two as ‘hard and callous men who were quite prepared to assist others in killing 100

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in the so-called name of honour and who placed respect from the community above life, tolerance and understanding’ (BBC, 2010). All six men convicted of the crime believed that their acts of violence were a justifiable response to Banaz’s ‘dishonourable’ behaviour (Gill, Begikhani & Hague, 2012, p. 84). Thus, the case exposes the patriarchal underpinnings of many cases of HBV, demonstrating that HBV is perpetrated not only by husbands and sexual intimates, but also by members of the extended family and wider community. Banaz’s case was particularly horrific, not only because of the extended nature of her ordeal, but the fact that she and Rahmat had been repeatedly threatened and there had been previous attempts both to abduct her and to end her life. During one such attempt, she called the police after escaping through a window. However, despite the fact that her hands were bleeding badly, the police treated her as though she were making a play for attention in the aftermath of a private family argument; they dismissed her claims as dramatic and calculating, and even considered charging her with criminal damage in relation to the window she had broken in her escape. They also advised her to find a translator before attempting to file a report. The policewoman concerned later admitted that she had made a terrible mistake in her handling of the incident. Shortly after these events, Banaz recorded a video message on Rahmat’s mobile phone about the police’s refusal to help her. This message, entered into evidence during the trial, helped to expose how routine police failures to protect young women in minority communities were at the time and how often these failures resulted from the fact that threats of HBV were rarely investigated until the person at risk had become a victim (Independent Police Complaints Commission Inquiry, 2008; Britten, 2008; Gill, 2009; Gill, 2011, p. 226). Despite the fact that Banaz’s situation was reported to the police on four separate occasions prior to her death, they systematically ignored the evidence and failed to institute follow-up investigations until after she was murdered (Gill, 2009). However, Banaz’s death spurred a massive police inquiry during which 779 statements were taken, 47 house searches were conducted and 22 arrests were made: would that half this effort had been put into protection and prevention while she were still alive. At the time officers had relatively little information about HBV; however, in the wake of Banaz’s murder a senior officer from the Metropolitan Police Service’s Violent Crime Directorate stated that the lessons learned had ‘galvanised the police to know and understand honour-based violence – or at least to attempt to begin the process’ (Gill, 2011, p. 226). While the police and prosecutors have introduced new measures to protect victims and punish perpetrators (key among these the training initiatives implemented by ACPO), much remains to be done in terms of training officers to respond effectively 101

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both to threats of HBV and to cases in which women have disappeared while abroad, as in the murder of Surjit Athwal. The Murder of Surjit Athwal

Surjit Athwal1 was a Sikh woman of Punjabi descent. In 1998, she went to India with her mother-in-law for a wedding and was never seen again (Begikhani, Gill & Hague, 2010). In 2007, Surjit’s husband and mother-in-law were convicted of her murder: both were sentenced to life imprisonment. In handing down these sentences, the judge described the fact that the perpetrators considered the ‘so-called honour of [their] family members was worth more than the life of this young woman’. The initial investigation into Surjit’s disappearance failed to extract key evidence, and the case was closed. However, following extensive campaigning by her family, a new team of officers re-opened the case six years later, in 2004. Eventually enough evidence was gathered for the case to proceed to trial in 2007. From 1998 to the conclusion of the trial in 2007, Surjit’s natal family in England strove to engage with the police, members of parliament, the Foreign Office, the Foreign Secretary, the Punjabi police, and the British media in a bid to secure both a comprehensive investigation in the UK and robust British Government representations for an equally comprehensive investigation in India. The failings in the case were many. Front-desk police officers at two British police stations rejected attempts to register Surjit as a missing person suspected of having been murdered. Officers at both stations said that they could not handle disappearances abroad, even those involving British citizens. This was one of the reasons that, at the conclusion of the trial in 2007, Surjit’s brother called for a public inquiry into his sister’s murder and that of Banaz Mahmod. Another key problem in Surjit’s case concerned the fact that the initial lead officer unilaterally declared to the media that, whilst Surjit’s whereabouts were unknown, there was nothing to worry about; officers subsequently focused on the fact that Surjit had left the UK of her own volition. Only after the family made direct contact with the Serious Crime Squad at Scotland Yard, through an informal contact, was the case officially taken up again by the police. Moreover, even in written communications and meetings about the case, FCO officials gave no indication about whether they would liaise with the British police: the interviews conducted during the study behind this book, and the team’s coverage of the court case, revealed that the FCO failed to assist in 1  In the study behind this book, the UK-based project lead for this research interviewed a key female witness in this case and also family members: the data from this research informed this sub-section. 102

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the police investigation. Meanwhile, the FCO’s representations to the Indian Government for investigations to be carried out in India were characterised by prolonged inactivity, incomplete information, and unfulfilled promises. Timeconsuming bureaucracy, refusal of visas to British police officers on the part of the Indian authorities, delays and inactivity by Interpol, and a lack of response from Indian Government departments complicated the situation. Surjit’s family described official efforts in both the UK and India as characterised by inconsistency and fragmentation, with little sharing of evidence and information, and poor handling of extradition applications. This lack of a coherent and consistent approach by the network of agencies that can claim jurisdiction in cases involving persons who have disappeared or been murdered overseas is only now starting to be addressed. After the conclusion of the trial, Surjit’s brother, Jagdeesh Singh, stated that there had been many failings in both the UK and India, though he praised the efforts and dedication of the police team that brought the case to trial. He also stressed how vital the work of specialist advisory and advocacy NGOs like Southall Black Sisters, who supported the family throughout the process, was for BMER victims and their families. This claim is significant given that many of these organisations are currently facing major cut-backs, or even closure, following the institution of huge cuts in public expenditure in October 2010. A lack of ‘joined up’ investigative action is often fatal to the successful resolution of cases like Surjit’s: Surjit’s family continues to press for an inquiry aimed at ensuring that lessons are learnt. However, partly as a result of Surjit and Banaz’s cases improvements were set in motion. These have now borne fruit, as seen in Tulay Goren’s case. The Murder of Tulay Goren

Tulay was born in Turkey; she came to the UK with her family in 1995. In 1998, when she was 15, she began a relationship with an older man, Halil Unal. Although he was also a Turkish Kurd, Tulay’s family disapproved of the relationship because Halil was from a different branch of Islam. When Halil sent his community elders to her father, Mehmet, to provide a character reference in support of his wish to marry Tulay, he discovered that she was not yet of marriageable age. Nevertheless, he and Tulay remained determined to marry when she came of age, refusing to end their relationship. On several occasions, family arguments about their continuing relationship became heated to the point where Tulay suffered minor assaults and the police were contacted. Despite the fact that they spoke to the Goren family at least six times about violence in the household, the police were blind to these incidents as warning signs that could have prevented Tulay’s murder; as Newham Asian Women’s Project (an organisation with over 25 years’ experience working with minority 103

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communities in East London) argue, lax policing practices allow perpetrators of HBV to re-offend (Gill, 2008). Tulay finally left home to live with Halil, a further humiliation for the Goren family. During the research team’s observation of the Goren trial, they were struck by one expert witness’ claim that male immigrants to the UK often experience a loss of status, while women sometimes gain new opportunities in relation to employment and broader social networks. This threatens male control in the family, where Kurdish women traditionally hold submissive roles. In Kurdish communities, it is expected that unmarried women will take care not to spend time with men they are not related to (unless they are chaperoned) in order to demonstrate their determination to stay chaste until marriage. Indeed, many men of Mehmet Goren’s generation continue to believe that a father’s primary role is to ensure that his daughters maintain their virginity until marriage, including by disciplining them for any ‘misbehaviour’. Thus, Tulay’s father saw her actions as bringing shame directly on him and the rest of the family. A family meeting was held at the Goren family home to try to persuade Tulay to reject Halil; when she refused and tried to leave, she was prevented from doing so and then given sleeping pills by her mother. Tulay’s father and her uncles, Cuma and Ali Goren, then arranged a meeting with Halil; however, Tulay managed to warn him not to attend, fearing a trap. Tulay was never seen again and her remains have never been recovered, though in the days following her disappearance family members noticed that there was considerable disturbance of the soil in the back garden (Gill, Begikhani & Hague, 2012). In the aftermath of Tulay’s disappearance, Halil was persuaded to attend a meeting with her family in the hope of making contact with her. At this meeting, Mehmet attacked Halil with a meat cleaver. In August 2000, Mehmet was convicted of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment, though this was reduced to five on appeal. The initial police investigation into Tulay’s murder began as a result of Mehmet Goren’s arrest for the assault on Halil, though it proved inconclusive. Tulay’s mother, Hanim, maintained the same position as her husband – that Tulay had run away – as she was too frightened to speak out. The case was re-opened in 2008, partly due to a positive shift in the Metropolitan Police Service’s policy and understanding of HBV. The turning point came when Tulay’s mother agreed to give evidence for the prosecution, though, after doing so, she was too afraid to attend court for the rest of the trial. The prosecution argued that Mehmet murdered Tulay with the assistance of his brothers, Ali and Cuma, after a ‘family council’ decided that she and Halil must die. The prosecution also alleged that Tulay’s body was temporarily buried in the garden of the family’s home. In December 2009, Mehmet Goren was given a life sentence, with a minimum term of 22 years, for killing his 104

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daughter after kidnapping her (Regina v Mehmet Goren, Ali Goren and Cuma Goren). However, the jury was not convinced of Ali and Cuma Goren’s involvement: both were cleared (Gill, Begikhani & Hague, 2012). Tulay and Banaz’s cases demonstrate how vital it is for the police to capitalise on opportunities to protect those at risk of HBV before it is too late. However, the failures in these cases were at least partially due to the fact that little was known about HBV and honour killings at the time because few officers had been provided with training (Gill, Begikhani & Hague, 2012). This is starting to change. Policing and Criminal Justice Interventions

In the study behind this volume, all of the participants from women’s NGOs agreed that there has been a sea-change in the police’s response to HBV (at least in London) over the last few years. In this regards, the views of an interviewee from the Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Rights Organisation were representative: I compare it with at least 2002, when Heshu Yones died, and at that time the knowledge and the information from government or from the justice system was actually very low, and not only that but the issue of cultural sensitivity when, even in the court, it was kind of justification for perpetrators to receive very lenient charges. I believe the situation has very much changed now. Police and many other organisations are much quicker in responding to the needs of women.

The interviewees from the police and other statutory agencies (including the FCO and CPS) agreed that there have been substantial positive changes. One police officer stated that ‘We really are quite good at the investigation now: now we are trying to use a more holistic approach’. Similarly, an interviewee from the FCO’s Forced Marriage Unit stated that ‘the police now have a holistic response [and] they are now playing a positive role in investigations: more are being victim-centred and recognise victim safety is a priority’. These improvements, however, do not extend across the entire police service and criminal justice system. Moreover, the balance of the police’s efforts is still tilted towards investigation of serious crimes after the fact, rather than on protection of those at risk so that crimes may be prevented. The prosecutor in the Banaz Mahmod case offered the following insights into the need to flag HBV cases as soon as the police are informed of relevant incidents, and then to follow through on this information to protect those at risk:

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I do think the police need to take allegations of HBV seriously. That requires police officers having the imagination to think ‘What could this be part of ? Am I looking at the entire picture here, or should I really be asking different questions? Should I really be a bit more cautious before I say that a caution will do?’

The fact that women who choose to remain in violent intimate relationships and/or family situations tend to be viewed as lacking credibility is a particularly thorny problem in relation to cases involving BMER women. Police protection is often conditional and discretionary: the nature and extent of any protection offered depends on individual police officers’ perception of the incident(s) in question. This is intended to provide the police with considerable room for manoeuvre, so that they can choose the most appropriate response for specific situations. However, one of the longstanding criticisms of the police, which has been levied by prosecutors, women’s groups and victims of HBV alike, relates to police attitudes to this type of crime: officers often dismiss or overlook HBV, viewing it as part of the culture of BMER communities, culturally stereotyping both victims and abusers. These perceptions influence how police officers use their discretion, often to the detriment of those at risk, as in Tulay and Banaz’s cases. Thus, beliefs about the causes of HBV have a significant influence on officers’ responses. In the study, the most common causal factors mentioned in interviews were religion, culture, the role of extended families, and pressures to marry. One officer described HBV as ‘completely culturally rooted. … they don’t feel as though they [are] doing anything wrong’. Another stated that: This is something that is just accepted, whether it is first-generation, or secondgeneration, and it is, from what my understanding is, ‘I give birth to that person and therefore I have the right to take away the life too if they bring shame upon the family’.

A third officer focused on the role of religion, claiming that ‘some religions take it upon themselves to maybe promote attacks on people they don’t agree with … if they feel that person has offended their teachings’. While erroneous and ill-informed understandings of religion and cultural customs were common in interviews with respondents from the criminal justice system, specialist officers at the strategic level often focused on patriarchal power relations and the role of culture equally: I look to it as a fundamental issue around power and control and that’s power and control of men, over women … Because they can. Because that is always what they have done and that’s what men, or boys and youths have been bought up to do. … we have seen that, in some cases here, in London, around where we have got boys 106

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and young men lining up: queuing up to be involved in the perpetration of these crimes because it is what is expected of them. It is because they get the kudos. They get the honour attached to them and their families for what they have done.

Similarly, the police officers interviewed during the study who had regular dealings with honour crimes displayed considerable sensitivity in their responses to this and other forms of VAW in BMER communities; one interviewee stated that ‘This is a real journey we’re on, and one that at each stage is constantly being informed by survivors and work with the NGOs’. However, interviews with both London-based police officers and members of NGOs demonstrated that the effectiveness of the police’s response to HBV is a postcode lottery due to the uneven implementation of new developments (see also Gill, 2009; Hague, Gill & Begikhani, 2013), though good practice is spreading with the roll-out of new training programmes and guidelines. Recent initiatives by the CPS have contributed to a new approach to policing HBV that combines a clear criminal justice agenda with improved inter-agency services designed both to support victims and to change the way in which perpetrators are dealt with (Gill, 2009). Even so, some interviewees questioned how much progress has really been made, including one police officer who focused on religion as the key causal factor behind HBV: I’m not really sure too much has changed since Heshu. I’m not really sure if another Heshu walked into a police station or a Banaz or a Surjit whether they would really be identified because some of the things I hear on the ground right now are that things haven’t changed so much.

Although all of the police officers interviewed in the study felt that attitudes had changed significantly since Heshu’s murder, the senior officers who participated identified a pressing need for all relevant statutory agencies to undertake training, not just the police, to enable the inter-agency cooperation necessary to employ the ACPO Strategy: I think the criminal justice system needs to have training at every level, from first-line responders through to judges, because it’s no good us presenting a case before the CPS [if they] don’t have the properly trained people that don’t understand what you are putting to them. The Views of Women’s Organisations

While there have been a number of welcome criminal justice improvements in practice and policy, the majority of the women NGOs interviewed felt that 107

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many police officers still demonstrate a lamentable ignorance about the causes and consequences of HBV in BMER communities. There remains worryingly sparse attention to the issue in terms of health, social, welfare and support provisions for victims. Opinion among the women’s NGOs regarding the overall efficacy of the British Government’s approach to HBV remains mixed (Gill, Begikhani & Hague, 2012, p. 82). As a representative of Southall Black Sisters argued, successive governments’: contradictory approach is … very ironic because post 9/11 and 07/07, the government’s priorities have been around preventing extremism, [resulting in] the government putting a lot of money in, millions of pounds, into funding faith-based organisations. … [This, in turn] has created a situation where the more conservative elements within minority communities have been … boosted with more funding from the state … [while] groups who are secular, like ourselves – women’s organisations – have actually faced [a] funding crisis and, as a result … closure or reduced services.

Interviewees identified key current difficulties as revolving around the lack of funding for and investment in support services (a major concern identified by all interviewees from women’s NGOs), the unenlightened views expressed by some member of the police force and other statutory bodies, and successive governments’ focus on providing criminal justice responses without broad support and protection being offered to victims and those at risk. These challenges have meant that women’s organisations are struggling to meet the needs of the women coming to them. A more holistic approach is urgently needed; many interviewees highlighted the importance not just of improved criminal justice initiatives, but properlyresourced women’s support projects, refuges and outreach services working in conjunction with awareness-raising programmes and welfare measures. This is the UK’s next big challenge in combating violence committed in the name of ‘honour’.

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Chapter 7

Issues for Law, Policy and Practice in Iraqi Kurdistan In the last chapter, we discussed some of the advances and shortcomings of the law and of criminal justice responses to HBV in the UK. We now turn to a similar discussion in Iraqi Kurdistan Region. Iraqi Kurdish society is currently going through many social, economic and political changes. It is experiencing an acute and often violent struggle between conservative and modernising forces. Women and gender relations have been at the centre of this transformation and struggle (from roundtable discussions at the Gender & Violence Studies Centre, Sulaimaniya, 2011). After years of silence over honour-based crimes throughout local history, Kurdish women’s organisations, and more lately the KRG, have recently started to integrate HBV into their agendas, and the role of women’s rights activists both in Kurdistan and in the diaspora needs to be celebrated in this progress. The first government intervention was at the level of legislation, initiated during the period when the Kurdistan Region was divided between the Sulaimaniya based PUK-led administration and the Erbil-based KDP-led administration. We discuss these various developments to date in this chapter. Legal Reform

In April 2000, the PUK-led government issued a decree, no 59, ordering to stop applying Articles 130 and 132 of the Iraqi Penal Code no. 111 of the year 1969. The decree orders the courts ‘not to apply Articles 130 and 132 on the IPC no. 111 of the year 1969 to reduce the penalty of perpetrators’ of honour killing. The decree signed by PUK Secretary General and former Iraqi President, Jalal Talabani, states that: ‘Lenient punishment for killing women or torturing them with the pretext of purifying shame shall not be implemented. The court should not apply Articles 130 and 132 of the Iraqi Penal Code no.111 of the year 1969 to reduce the penalty of the perpetrator’. Article 130 stipulates the degrees to which sentences may be reduced in cases of accepted lenient excuses, providing: ‘If the mitigating excuse applies in a crime punishable with the death penalty, the punishment shall be reduced to life or temporary sentence or to imprisonment for not less than one year. If the punishment is temporary

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or life sentence, it will be reduced to imprisonment for not less than six months, unless otherwise stipulated by law’ (Begikhani, 2005). The KDP-led administration began legal reform in 2001 within the Parliament. In June 2001, the Parliament voted for the amendments of several legal articles in the Iraqi Penal Code, with the aim of guaranteeing ‘justice for women’. The most significant initiatives concern Article 377, 128, 130 and 131 of the IPC. Law no.14 of 2002, is the most significant in relation to honour crimes. The amended law reads: ‘Crimes against women with the pretext of ‘honourable motivation’ will not be legally liable for lenient punishment and Articles 128, 130 and 131 of the Iraqi Penal Code number 111 of the year 1969 will not be implemented’. Article 128(a) addresses conditions for the mitigating excuse: ‘[Legal] excuses [have the effect of] either exempting from penalty or mitigating it, and there is no exemption unless defined by law. Besides these circumstances, the commission of the crime for honourable motives or based on grave (khatir) provocation by the victim without right shall be considered a mitigating excuse’ (Begikhani, 2005). Apart from the Iraqi Penal Code and the law that touches directly upon honour and violence committed in the name of honour, there are other Iraqi laws that legitimise women’s subjugation and inferiority. After many years of debate, the KRG initiated amendment of some Articles of the Iraqi Personal Code No 188 of the year 1959. The most significant one was related to polygamy. In 27 October 2008, the Kurdistan National Assembly passed a law by 35 votes against 30, making polygamy ‘conditional’ (Begikhani, 2008). The new legislation limits the circumstances under which a man may have more than one wife, permitting him to take a second wife, and no more as stipulated by the Qur’an, only when his first wife is unable to have children or suffers from a disease. It also mandates that a man cannot have a second woman if he has pledged in his first marriage contract never to take another wife. While conservative groups and members of some of the Islamic parties in Kurdistan Region protested against this new legislation, saying it instigated reforms against their social and religious norms, feminists and human rights activists expressed their discontent that it did not go far enough, and called for a full ban of polygamy (Begikhani, 2008). The Combating Domestic Violence Law

The most courageous step by Kurdish authorities consists of passing the Combating Domestic Violence Law (CDVL), number 8, voted by the Kurdistan National Assembly on 21 June 2011. The CDVL was ratified and published, in 11 August 2011, in ‘Waqay’e Kurdistan’ journal (Journal of Kurdistan Actualities No. 132, p. 2011). While women’s rights and civil society groups applauded 110

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the Act and called on the government to address implementation strategies of the law, religious leaders ‘threatened’ the President against its signature and launched a campaign against the Act (NRT TV 2011). It is worth noting that some legal professionals called on the parliament to review the Law, as according to them, there are articles in it which converge with the existing legal provisions, notably the Iraqi Penal Code (IPC). Women’s rights activists stood against this attempt calling for the development of implementation strategies (Civil magazine, 2012). Although not signed by Kurdistan Region’s President as legal procedures require, the Law was automatically endorsed, after it had gone beyond its legal deadline. And with its publication in the journal of the Kurdistan Actualities, it became ready for implementation. The CDVL was the result of many years of work and advocacy by several women’s rights activists, legal practitioners and female legislators. It consists of 10 articles and it defines domestic violence as any act, word or threat against a member of a family based on gender and that might lead to ‘physical, sexual or psychological damage and violating their rights and freedoms’. In addition to proscription of FGM, the new Law considers as examples of domestic violence: forced and early marriages, preventing female education, hitting a child, nonconsensual divorce, exchanging women to settle family feuds and female suicide, if the family is the cause, as crimes. It also provides the provision of a specialised court, police units, health, social affairs and education ministries, as well as rehabilitation institutions to tackle the issue with a holistic approach. According to professionals and media reports: ‘this Law will be a vital tool for protecting women and raising awareness of domestic violence’ (Waladbaghi, 2012). And for international NGOs working on the ground, the CDVL is ‘an exemplary law in the Middle East and its implementation will lead Kurdistan to a new and progressive period in the field of human rights protection’ (Waladbaghi, 2012). A number of government and judicial institutions were asked to ‘prepare the ground’ for the Law’s implementation, including the Judicial Council, and the Interior, Health, Labour and Social Affairs Ministries. On the basis of the Regional Judiciary Authority Law, number 23 of the year 2007, a specialised court is to be established, which will have the competence and authority to issue a ‘protection order’ for those reported to have been subjected to domestic violence. The Interior Ministry is asked to appoint specialised female investigators to deal with DV cases, to raise public awareness about combating it and to follow up domestic abuse cases. The Labour and Social Affairs is required to provide protection centres to victims/survivors of DV, and along with the Health Ministry, to provide necessary treatment and rehabilitation requirements. As we noted earlier, with the publication of any law in the ‘Waqay’e Kurdistan’ journal, the legislation should enter into the implementation phase. 111

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According to human rights officer at the UNAMI in Erbil, Huma Shakeb Khan, some progress has been made towards the implementation of the Law in one year. However challenges are also emerging (from a discussion at a roundtable meeting, 13 October 2012). Some of these challenges are related to the technicality and overlap among various legislations, including with the IPC. As time passes, it has been often reported by judges working on the VAW that there are very few cases registered under the CDVL so far.1 On the other hand, women’s organisations report that most cases are still registered under the IPC. Serious crimes which lead to the killing of a woman are covered by the IPC and are tried under the reformed articles within it, although this practice may be considered questionable. Indeed, the law-makers have adopted the special provisions of the CDVL to be applied, and being special provisions they overrule the general provisions of the IPC. An important aspect of the Law is the establishment of a reconciliation body. The CDVL stipulates the formation of a reconciliation committee, vital in courts dealing with domestic violence cases in Kurdistan (although often critiqued in a UK context). However, the Law does not specify who should form this Committee, or who should sit on the board of such a body. It stipulates that: ‘the tribunal should refer different parties in dispute to a reconciliation committee made of experts and specialised people, with the aim of resolving the dispute before the case is sent to specialised court’ (Article 5). According to our latest information, no steps have been taken to form such a committee so far. As things stand now, there are a number of bodies in Kurdistan who are engaged in the reconciliation process, but they stand outside the CDVL. For example, the General Directorate of Combating VAW is one of the bodies dealing with reconciliation procedures, and its main role is to make reconciliation between the parties. The Office of General Prosecution says that most cases concerning women under the CDV Law or Article 413 of the IPC are reconciled. We have noticed that attempts to form the formal reconciliation committee have been made by the DCVAW in Duhok and Erbil, but women’s rights activists have been suspicious of the ‘credibility of the members of the committee, their expertise and the religious background of certain of them’ (taken from a roundtable meeting with women’s rights groups in Sulaimaniya, 18 July 2013). On 8 August 2012, the recently established Women’s Rights Monitoring Board at the Council of Ministers, headed by the PM, decided on the formation of a Government Committee to deal with the implementation of the Law as a matter of urgency (from the minutes of the Women’s Rights Monitoring Board meeting, August 2012 – internal). Since then, a number of steps have been made, including designating three specialised judges, appointing police investigators 1  Interview with Judge Nizar Hassan from Garmiyan (July 2013). 112

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dealing with domestic violence cases, and providing training and awarenessraising programmes about the Law inside legal and police communities. The High Council of Women’s Affairs, as well as women’s rights groups, have also been advocating for the allocation of a special budget for the implementation of the Law and the formation of a monitoring body to watch over its functioning. So far, no practical steps have been taken towards meeting such demands. However, our study concluded that the CDVL has its own shortcomings, founded within the text. In terms of the reality of Iraqi Kurdistan Region, such shortcomings make its implementation challenging and some women’s rights activists continue to discuss ways of amending certain articles of the Law, based on a proposal they have been trying to draft. The activists see the shortcomings in the order of the definition of DV used and the concept of gender within it, the lack of precise legal as well as technical requirements regarding the reconciliation committee, the contradictions and inconsistencies between existing provisions and the new Law, as well as the private offence versus public offence issue (see below). The CDVL has failed to give a clear definition of domestic violence and of the concept of gender on which the criminal behaviour should be based (Van-Wijland, 2013). Another complication comes from the article related to the ‘competent reconciliation committee’. The CDVL reads that the court shall refer the parties of the lawsuit to a competent committee formed from experts and specialised individuals to reconcile between them, as we have discussed. However, the Law has failed to regulate this institution so far, and it is unclear what is meant by a competent committee, by experts and by specialised individuals. There are no details about the competencies required, or directives or standards about the working methods of the committee. So, given this situation and as well as the other obstacles, it is impossible at the time of writing for the judges to comply with the ‘reconciliation’ requirement of the CDVL (Van-Wijland, 2013). Also, the Law’s main focus on domestic violence means side-lining genderbased violence and VAW when it occurs in public spaces. That means that because the Law focuses on the ‘private’ space, it does not criminalise incidents of violence practised against women outside the ‘domestic’ space. What is more, according to the Law, domestic violence is a private offence, which means that it is considered to be a family matter. It follows that, in cases where a representative is required to file a complaint, the appropriate representative should be another family member, who could be the perpetrator of the crime. In the last case, Article 5 of the Iraqi Criminal Procedure Code (ICPC) applies, which has not been tailored to address this specific situation. It goes without saying that the majority of DV cases are serious threats to family life and therefore to society, and they need an equal and balanced approach, which is only possible if the criminal justice system can react without being dependent 113

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on a family complaint. This leads to the conclusion that the legislator might be encouraged to make DV acts public offences (Van-Wijland, 2013). Finally, the new Law overrides some existing provisions, especially the IPC and the ICPC, in relation to defamation, insults and rape. In relation to defamation, the common criminal provisions on Articles 433–5 of the IPC are overruled by Article 2 of the CDVL. The IPC imposes a maximum punishment of one year detention, while the CDVL imposes a maximum punishment of three years detention. When it comes to rape, Article 393 of the IPC, which is the general provision, is overruled by Article 2 of the CDVL, which is the special provision. If a cousin rapes his 25 years old niece (fourth degree consanguinity), the maximum punishment according to the IPC is 15 years’ imprisonment. But according to the CDVL the maximum punishment is three years’ imprisonment. In this special case, the law-makers convert rape from a felony into a misdemeanour without any reasoning (Van-Wijland, 2013). Last, but not least, the CDVL requires a specific court to deal exclusively with DV cases. However, from our study and testimony by legal experts, at the moment there are no ‘competent courts’ in the Region to tackle domestic violence in the sense required by the CDVL. Based on such arguments, there have been demands for the Law to be sent back to the parliament for amendment. However, the government and many women’s rights groups are in favour of developing appropriate strategies to actively and properly implement the Law. Weakness of Criminal and Legal Agencies/ Lack of Law Enforcement Mechanisms Judges do not work rigorously on cases related to honour killing and without their arrest warrants we cannot launch investigations and act. (Senior police officer) We do issue arrest warrants and send them to the police. However, police institutions do not follow them up. (Investigating judge)

Police and judicial bodies are considered very important government institutions in Iraqi Kurdistan Region for determining good governance, protecting citizens and securing justice through the rule of law. However, in relation to honour crimes, our research findings show that the police and legal representatives in Kurdistan very often demonstrate reluctance, and tend to blame each other for the frequent lack of rigorous investigation and poor inconsistent judicial practice. The outcome is that there are a number of alleged murderers of women who walk free in Kurdistan. 114

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The Case of Begard Hussein (Known Also as Begard Qalati)

Begard Hussein, 27 years old, was a poet and journalist. She was a single mother, living with her six-year-old daughter in a rented house after she separated from her husband. (She was married by a Mullah and her divorce was not registered in the court.) She was stabbed to death, allegedly by her ex-husband on 18 April 2008 at her house in Erbil. The next day, the ex-husband was interviewed by Hawlati newspaper2 (as we noted in our chapter on the media) and admitted publicly that he had killed her because she was in love with another man. ‘I had not completely divorced her’, he told the paper. As of August 2010, her exhusband remains at large. Her police file in Erbil shows that Begard Hussein had reported to the police a number of threats received from her ex-husband. The Erbil branch of the Directorate of Combating Violence against Women had advised her to seek protection in the Nawa Centre in Erbil, but she declined, fearing that she would be separated from her daughter and that such a move would also prevent her pursuing her profession. She asked for a personal guard, but the police could not provide this. It was during her reporting of the threats that a police officer gave her his number, asking her to call in case of danger. The record shows that, while the ex-husband broke into her house and before she was stabbed to death, she called the police officer in question calling desperately for help. He answered the call, but he did not take any immediate action. According to a senior investigation police officer in Erbil, the perpetrator: ‘has probably fled to Kirkuk, which is not under KRG jurisdiction’. The Case of Kurdistan Aziz

Kurdistan Aziz was 16 years old and from the Kolkarash village, Siktan area, depending on the town of Koya. She was in love with a 19 year-old man (R. A. R). The man approached Kurdistan’s family but her parents refused to let her marry him. The young couple decided to elope, making the journey from Siktan to Erbil. They approached the police station in Tairawa Quarter on 12 February 2008 for help. The police opened a file and started a legal investigation into the elopement. On 25 February 2008, Kurdistan was sent to the Institute for Judicial Medicine for a virginity test. The virginity test document reported that ‘her hymen was intact and that there was no sign of sodomy either’. On 20 February, her file was transferred to the Erbil Directorate of Combating Violence against Women. On 24 February, a court hearing was staged about 2 Bi-weekly Hawlati – now daily (2008). ‘Hawlati wurdakariyakai kushtini Begard Hussein blaw dakatawa (Hawlati published details of Begard Hussein murder)’, 20 April. Sulaimaniya: Ranj publishing. 115

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the elopement. The parents were present to testify and asked the court to hand over their daughter. ‘Because Kurdistan Aziz did not commit any sexual crime’, the investigating judge decided that she should go back to her parents, after making them sign a ‘Balennama – a document of promise’ guaranteeing her safety. Following that decision, the Erbil DCVAW called upon Kurdistan Aziz’s parents and asked them to sign the Balennama which was also signed by Kurdistan Aziz ‘who asked to go home’. The formal procedures at the DCVAW require a follow-up of the case after the release/departure of the woman, but her record shows that no follow-up action had taken place. On the evening of 18 May 2008, Kurdistan Aziz was killed. Three days later, her parents reported the death of their daughter to the police. Both parents were arrested and stayed in prison for several months. In their statement, they said that they were out on the evening of the crime when they received a telephone call from D, a cousin, claiming that he had killed Kurdistan and left the region to go abroad. The research team, accompanied by two police officers, visited Kurdistan’s house and met the parents in the presence of one of the uncles who, before agreeing to talk to us, called a senior military member (Peshmerga) of the family to get his approval. However, his telephone was switched off. ‘You were lucky’, one of the police officers who accompanied us said, ‘as the military man would not have allowed the interview’. The uncle and the father agreed to talk to us without the presence of the mother who stayed outside the room, making tea. The uncle dominated the discussion and the father appeared to us powerless in his presence. Both men openly said that they were ‘dishonoured and lost face inside their community’. The team members asked for permission to talk to the mother separately and it was agreed, but not without resentment. The mother was very emotional, burst into tears, and, while constantly looking at the door to make sure no one could listen to her, and whispering, she said her husband was innocent. She said she did not know who had planned her daughter’s killing. On our way back to the police station, one of the police officers said: ‘the military man in question has power and protects alleged perpetrators’. According to the judge investigating the case: ‘there was no evidence against the parents and the police had not yet been able to arrest the alleged perpetrator. Hence, the file is temporarily closed as the accused is absent. If brought to the court, he will be judged under Article 406, which is about premeditated murder’. Nothing further has taken place. The Murder of an Alleged Rapist

This case concerns Zara, the details of whose experiences are described at the beginning of Chapter 4. She claims that her cousin (also the brother of her sister-in-law), had raped her and her pregnancy was caused by him. The family 116

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then asked the man, Bestun, to marry Zara. Following Zara’s testimony that Bestun had raped her, he denied the rape, and the two families attempted to negotiate the case through a ‘Namusana – a sum of money or traditionally a piece of land to be given as compensation to the girl’s family’. No agreement was reached. Bestun was shot and killed in November 2007, allegedly by Zara’s brother, in the Qushtapa area, Erbil. He was reportedly accompanied by Bestun’s elder brother. As of November 2009, the alleged perpetrator remained at large, with no attempt being made to continue with the case. Weaknesses and Implementation

These three cases demonstrate that, despite the existence of various laws and provisions, justice can be absent when it comes to honour killings. There are many challenges facing the implementation of the laws. The cases highlight shortcomings in the commitment of the police and judiciary to the cause of women and to the prosecution of honour-related crimes. In looking closely into the above three cases, we can conclude the following: 1. Failure of the police in intervening, identifying and enforcing procedures to protect the women as well as in identifying perpetrators of the honourmotivated killings involved. In the case of Begard Hussein, Amnesty International stated that: ‘the tragic case might have been avoided if the police had been more proactive in identifying and enforcing measure to protect her safety’ (Amnesty International, 2009). 2. Failure of the criminal and legal bodies to investigate promptly and thoroughly honour crimes and to prosecute perpetrators independently and in an impartial way, as in all three cases. 3. Weakness of monitoring mechanisms and follow-up procedures by shelters and government units after they facilitate the return of victims from women’s protection houses to their homes. In the case of Kurdistan Aziz, if prompt and rigorous – or, indeed, any – follow-up action had been taken as required by the provisions, the murder of the young girl might have been avoided. ‘While shelters’ procedures for victim follow-up stipulate repeated monitoring visits for the initial six months after the return of the victim, in practice this procedure is not always followed’(UNAMI, UNHR and ASUDA, 2009).

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4. The domination of military power, which in Kurdistan Aziz’s case, apparently led to, and uncovered, the powerlessness of government institutions, such as the police and judiciary. This situation leads to the compromise of legal representatives with military/political power, and enforces further silence over the whole community, in particular, women (for example, the mother in Kurdistan Aziz’s case). 5. The issue of the enforcement of honour codes by the judicial community through reference to the ‘virginity test’ in their legal procedures and in their verdicts. In the case of Kurdistan Aziz, the issue of virginity was of particular importance for the judge who decided her ‘innocence’ on these grounds and so ordered her return to the parental home; 6. The absence of a witness protection programme: ‘If the government secures strong protection measures for witnesses, more people inside families and in the community will turn up and speak the truth’.3 The Iraqi legal system is the foundation of law in Kurdistan Region, and, despite some reforms, remains in force. Honour and preserving family honour occupy a considerable place in the Iraqi criminal justice system. Apart from Articles 128, 130, 132, 377 that have been amended by the PUK and KDPled administrations with presenting alternative legal provisions, there are other Articles that are problematic and take a gendered approach to the assessment of crime and, in some circumstances, to the penalty imposed. For example, as we briefly discussed in Chapter 3, Article 409 relates to ‘adultery’ (zina), and provides that: ‘whosoever finds his wife or one of his female unlawfuls (mahrams) in an act of adultery (zina) or in the same bed with her partner, and immediately kills one or both of them, or assaults one or both of them in an attack that leads to death or permanent disability, shall be sentenced to imprisonment not exceeding three years’ (Begikhani, 2005). Article 41 allows for the ‘established right’ of a husband or father to ‘discipline’ (ta’dib) or punish his wife or children ‘within limits established by law or custom’. Article 393 refers to rape and treats is as a private offence. The Article fails to stipulate a minimum penalty and permits consideration of the victim’s sexual history as evidence against her (UNAMI, UNHR and ASUDA, 2009, p. 13). In addition to these provisions, the CDVL has not been fully implemented, and the overlapping with the common provisions such as those in the IPC, has produced a measure of confusion and made it even more difficult to protect women from HBV. 3  Quote from interview with a police officer involved in Kurdistan Aziz’s case, 18 November 2009 (name and location withheld by demand). 118

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Also, while the amended and alternative laws are not always implemented, according to Judge Rizgar Muhammad Amin, even in the amended form, these laws fall far short of protecting women adequately (Begikhani, 2005). Judge Amin referred to the PUK decree No 59, saying the word ‘pretext’ in the decree is ambiguous, adding that ‘a man can still kill a woman if she is perceived as dishonourable, for example by losing her virginity’.4 As the case of Kurdistan Aziz demonstrates, inspection of the hymen in cases where the victim of HBV is an unmarried woman is still practised, and relied upon in court decisions. ‘Referring to the broken hymen suggests that there is a ‘cause’ to justify the murder and the perpetrator may receive a reduced sentence’ (Begikhani, 2005, p. 218). In addition, the amendment is based on a decree by the General Secretary of the PUK and former Iraqi President, Jalal Talabani, and it does not have the force of law. ‘This gives the space for different interpretations’.5 With these legal reforms/amendments, according to our latest study and to past research (Welchman and Hussain, 2005; Begikhani, Gill and Hague, 2010), a change has been registered in the approach of the courts and the sentences pronounced on perpetrators of honour crimes. However, for many reasons, including institutional weaknesses, the existence of a parallel informal justice system and various political interventions, the implementation of the law has been heavily challenged. Also, the continued reference to law derived from Baghdad, at the expense of statute defined by the Kurdistan Parliament, including the CDVL, can be seen as a major problem. What is more, the contested history and legacy of divisive struggle between the PUK and KDP-led administrations, which we discussed in Chapter 3, have impeded the development of a rigorous, unified judicial system in Kurdistan Region. The legal amendments took place at the time when Kurdistan Region was divided between the PUK and KDP administrations and, under each administration, different sets of laws and decrees were put forward. Our study recommends that it would be beneficial for the Kurdish authorities to expedite the development of unified strategies and mechanisms for the practical implementation of the amended legal articles, as well as of the CDVL. This effort would need to include the allocation of a special budget to carry it through, and the formation of a task group to monitor, oversee and ensure its genuine and effective functioning. Another of our findings demonstrates that most of the killings of women in recent years have been treated under the Iraqi Penal Code, Article 405 and 406, which are about ‘premeditated murder’. This can be considered important progress. Perpetrators of the killings of women on the grounds of honour should officially no longer receive reduced sentences and, based on 4  Quote from interview with Judge Rizgar Muhammad Amin, Erbil, February 2009. 5  Quote from interview with the Head of the Legal Bureau of the Kurdistan Presidential Office, Dr Talib Kakayee, 22 April 2010. 119

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the two Articles mentioned, they are now subject to sentence with long-term imprisonment or the death penalty, as for any other murder. We have looked at three cases at the Duhok court involving the killing of women and all three perpetrators were charged on the basis of Article 405 and 406-1, which carry life imprisonment or the death penalty for those found guilty. We have observed that such legal treatment of honour killing cases carries another danger, notably when it comes to General Amnesty. Since 2007, the Kurdistan Parliament has issued two General Amnesty Laws, and in both of them there are clauses about ‘exceptional cases’ saying that the Law should not include perpetrators of ‘honour killings’ as well as ‘adultery, rape, sodomy and attempt to dishonour’. However, our research team witnessed that following the Law number 2 of June 2012, some perpetrators of ‘honour killing’ were released. Women’s rights activists and civil rights groups were outraged and protested against such a move. Some women’s and civil rights’ activists think that the act was intentional and tribal leaders were involved in the process However, perpetrators of honour killings who were released from life imprisonment were among those judged on the basis of 405 and 406 article of the Iraqi Penal Code. That means their crime was considered like any other murder, not honour-based murder, and hence the clause of the General Amnesty Law regarding ‘exceptional cases’ did allow their release from detention. Case 1. The Case of Suzan

Suzan was stabbed to death and her throat cut while she was asleep with her baby in a room on the night of 15 February 2007. The perpetrator confessed to the court that he had killed her because he had suspected her behaviour after he found a love letter (carrying no signature, name or date) and heard her talking on her mobile phone. He was sentenced to life imprisonment on 18 June 2007 on the basis of Article 406-1-J. The court added that this sentence was considered by taking into account Article 132-1, which is about reducing the death penalty to life imprisonment, ‘because of his youth and the fact that he has a family and no previous criminal record’. (Note that no death penalty has been carried out in Kurdistan Region since June 2007, as noted below.) Case 2. The Case of Gulizar

Gulizar was shot on 3 September 2007 by her ex-husband, after she had asked for separation and achieved the divorce. Prior to her death, she received threatening messages asking her to pay back the cost of his wedding to her. She was staying at her mother’s house in Duhok when, one evening, the perpetrator attacked her with a gun and shot her and injured her sister-in-law. Gulizar died 120

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immediately. The Duhok court issued a verdict on 8 July 2008 sentencing the perpetrator to death, according to Article 405-1 of the IPC.6 Case 3. The Case of Ghazal

Ghazal was strangled in a car on the morning of 17 August 2009 by her alleged lover ‘after he had sexual relations with her and broke her hymen’. On 11 November 2009, the perpetrator was sentenced to death on the basis of Article 406-1-J of the IPC. These cases show that reference to honour is no longer a defence in terms of murder, and cases are more likely to be considered in the same way as other killings. But it is also true that honour codes remain inscribed within crucial aspects of criminal justice law, with regard to the Articles we pointed out previously. Also, we have observed during our visits to courts that legal representatives, when talking about the Penal Code, frequently do not refer to the KRG’s amended and legislated laws. Almost all members of the legal community that we met and interviewed during the lifetime of our research read out and verified their judgment according to the Iraqi Penal Code, without considering the amended and legislated laws by the Kurdistan authorities. Such acts can undermine the legitimacy and authority of the KRG. Hence, it is imperative that the unified Kurdistan National Assembly reviews all the laws amended by the two administrations in 2000–2002, and ratifies them. Alternative legislation to the Iraqi Penal Code has been produced, and should be used and implemented by the judicial community in Kurdistan Region. Such Codes should also be studied at the law faculties in the Region. As we discussed earlier, another challenge facing the establishment of justice for women in relation to honour-based crimes relates to the General Amnesty Law. Law number 2 of year 2012 provides amnesty for all those who been sentenced and kept at the rehabilitation prison. Even if the Law is not a permanent legislation and Article 6 of the Law stipulates that it does not include ‘those who committed honour-based killings’, as well as adultery and sexual harassment, many high profile and convicted murderers sentenced for honour killings have, according to media reports and women’s rights groups, been released into the community (taken from a UNAMI and Women’s Rights 6 The verdict is sent to the Supreme Court for reviewing and then will be sent to the Presidential Office for approval. According to the Head of the Legal Bureau of the Presidential Office, Dr Talib Kakayee, ‘no death penalty has been carried out in Kurdistan Region since June 2007’. Quote from interview with Head of Legal Bureau of the Presidential Office, 22 April 2010. 121

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Monitoring Board round-table meeting, 13 October 2012). On 12 September 2012, the Women’s Rights Monitoring Board (WRMB), during its second formal meeting led by the PM, discussed the issue, highlighted its negative impact on women and decided to work against any proposition for such a Law in the future. (It should be noted that contention exists between the women’s organisations regarding the use of the death penalty, with many advocating against its use in any circumstances, as is the case in the UK.) The Informal Law

Alongside these problematic formal state-related judicial procedures, there is an informal justice system operating in Iraqi Kurdistan Region. This term denotes a non-state administered justice process with dispute-resolution mechanisms outside the scope of the formal justice system (UNDP, 2005). In Kurdistan, this informal system is called ‘Solhi Ashayri’, and is ‘a tribal-based procedure used to achieve reconciliation (masrati) between families and groups in dispute’ (Begikhani, 2005). Traditionally, ‘Solhi ashayri’ is activated through the intervention of tribal leaders, as well as religious and elderly members (‘Rishspi – white beards’) of the community, who are exclusively men, to resolve disputes over property, women and land. Honour-based violence, including honour killing, is one of the serious issues discussed and planned inside this circle (UNDP, 2005). At the level of the two Kurdish ruling political parties, the KDP and PUK, ‘Solhi ashayri’ is achieved through a designated bureau by the leadership of the party carrying the name Komalayeti. Komalayati is authorised by the party to assume responsibility for hearing disputes, passing judgement and enforcing sanctions and solutions. Our research findings demonstrate that, in contemporary Iraqi Kurdistan, ‘Solhi ashayri’ or mediation in relation to HBV is also used by the police and the General Directorate of Combating VAW, lawyers and judges as well as women’s organisations and shelters. While confirming that his office had been involved in ‘mesrati/Solhi’, former director of the Sulaimaniya DCVAW, Mr Nariman Adbulla Qadir, said that: ‘in some cases this is a more effective solution, helping to avoid deterioration of conflict and sometimes further bloodshed’.7 Mr Qadir recognised that this process weakens the formal justice system, but that it has deep roots in the structures, traditions and politics of Kurdish society. 7  Quote form Mr Nariman A Qadir. Mr Qadir has generously dedicated his time to the research team who conducted two semi-structured interviews with him, plus several complementary discussions over the phone. This quote is from a telephone discussion dated 17 August 2010. 122

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At the level of civil rights groups, ‘solhi’ can be explained as a form of advice or support using ‘the force of discourse’ to convince parties in dispute (wife and husband, daughter and parents etc.) to think deeply about their case, reconcile and not take their case to the court, because ‘once it reaches the court, the dispute takes on another dimension and might end in, for example, a divorce or complicated outcome’.8 Keeping the unity of the family is the ultimate aim of government units dealing with the issue of VAW, as well as some women’s activists, especially those affiliated to political parties. However, women’s rights groups, as well as members of the Komalayati bureau of the two parties, reaffirmed that they would not get involved in mediation if the dispute is related to murder. In the mediation process achieved by different branches of the General Directorate, women’s organisations, there is a written record of the case with a ‘Balennama’. This process involves the ‘written word’ of an influential and respected member of the community, whose word is valued within the community because, in the testimony of one women’s activist, ‘of his position, such as an MP or even a chieftain’.9 The activist added: ‘we do not impose our intervention/mediation; in most of these cases, the disputed parties want their problems to be resolved through mediation. We call both families, introduce ourselves and then go and visit them to talk to them’.10 As mentioned previously, the document stipulates monitoring mechanisms which are designed to guarantee the safety of the vulnerable. However, as we have also noted, these follow-up mechanisms are not always put into practice and alone cannot guarantee safety. Our findings show that in some cases, victims ask for ‘solhi ashayri’, thinking it is the only way to guarantee their safety. For example, a married woman, accused of having a love affair with a man, has been staying in a women’s shelter for 10 months. She told the research team: ‘I can’t trust my family and relatives. Even if they give their word that they will not hurt me, I cannot trust them. They will kill me. My uncles are furious. One of them told my father that, if you bring your daughter back, we’ll kill you with her [ … ] I feel that my life has stopped here. I even think of killing myself, because I am sure they will kill me one day. So it’s better for me to die here; at least if I die here, there will be someone to bury me. If they kill me, they will throw my body away and no one will care [ … ] The only solution is to involve tribal men and achieve a tribal reconciliation’. (Interview conducted at the shelter, name and location withheld, May 2009.) 8  Quote from interview with Asmar Salih, 21 June 2009. 9 Quote from interview with a women activist, name withheld by demand, Sulaimanya, November 2009. 10  The same source. 123

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Informal justice processes are incompatible with the principle of the equality of all citizens before the law, one of the foundation stones of any meaningful adherence to the ideal of universal human rights. They usually reinforce gender discrimination and inequality, and the violation of women’s rights can easily result. For example, in rape cases, a raped woman can be forced into marrying her attacker, with the aim of improving ties between families and/or clans. This process contributes to the reinforcement of tribal values and entrenches dominant power relations (Wojkowska, 2006). However, it must not be forgotten that the informal route to ‘justice’ can and has been known to save lives. Despite this sometimes positive role, the existence of parallel systems of rule-setting and dispute-resolution present considerable difficulties to the authorities in Kurdistan. While the government declares support for the principle of human rights, it is forced to recognise the facts on the ground, in that there are decentralised centres of power within society which carry out informal processes which can have greater impact on behaviour and attitudes than formal laws. Nevertheless, it is the duty of government, which has ‘judicial powers and can enact and implement criminal laws and procedure’11 to ensure the protection of the rights of all citizens without discrimination and to establish justice through written formal law. The government of Kurdistan is working within a transitional context. To realise the aim of the supremacy of the law requires the resolution of a whole number of geo-political as well as social transformations. In the context of the transition, and in so far as positive results predominate, the KRG might well work temporarily with traditional structures of mediation. In so doing, greater centralised monitoring of decisions and more precise record-keeping could be combined with the reduction of local injustice through centralised standardsetting and training in best practice for those involved in the informal processes. However, if the rule of law is to prevail, then there must be a clear commitment to seeing these structures become subordinate to the nation’s laws and to wither away. In strengthening the rule of formal law, it is necessary to recognise that the judiciary and police at times come under direct threat, and also that there can be inappropriate intervention from military personnel, when pursuing honour crime. This should not be tolerated. Part of the process of signalling the transition along an improved path will, of necessity, involve the reform of all legal provisions that embody the subjugation of women and the dictum that the law should be obeyed by all and at all levels of society, with implementation free from political and military intervention.

11 See the Iraqi Constitution. 124

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Policy and Practice

The process of building understanding within government institutions began to take shape with the establishment of the High Commission to Follow Up VAW in June 2007, as we discussed briefly in Chapter 1. The High Commission used to meet four times a year, chaired by the Prime Minister with the remit of tackling the issue of VAW in Kurdistan Region, including HBV and honour killing. At its first meeting, the High Commission decided to establish three Directorates to Follow Up Violence Against Women in the three Kurdish governorates under the supervision of the Ministry of Interior Affairs. The name and structure of this government institution changed to the General Directorate of Combating VAW in 2010, with four Sub-Directorates and 26 offices. We have referred to the work of these Directorates throughout. Since their formation, the Directorates have started to set up structures to collect data on violence against women, to record and classify them under different categories and to make them public, in the beginning, in their bi-annual reports and, later, in monthly reports, with a rounded up general annual report at the end of each year. The establishment of the government Directorates to follow up and combat VAW is a positive move. Their existence is a message to society as a whole, and men in particular, that the government is paying attention to women’s issues. At the same time, it gives women more confidence when they see that the government is serious in defending their rights. However, one cannot say that these Directorates are capable of eradicating this practice, nor can they secure full protection for women.12 Another major step by the KRG came in 2010 when the then PM, Mr Barham Salih decided to establish a High Council of Women’s Affairs headed by the PM himself. In addition to that, with concerns at the top layer of government and at wider societal levels over addressing women’s issues, the KRG created in 2012 a monitoring board called the Women’s Rights Monitoring Board (WRMB). In the image of the KRG Commission to Monitor Women’s Rights and VAW, the Board includes all related ministries as well as the Head of the General Directorate, and serves as a platform to discuss, tackle, develop and coordinate policies and action with the aim of achieving the best objectives and outcomes. The Board, which remains active, is led by the PM and meets once every two months. As Head of the High Council of Women’s Affairs, Mrs Zangana, has stated that: ‘the silence that existed around the issue of HBV in the past is broken

12  Quote from interview with Head of Women’s Empowerment Organisation, Suzan Arif, Erbil, 20 April 2009. 125

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and the issue is discussed at top government levels and in parliament’.13 For a long time, honour-based violence was not integrated into government political agendas not only in Iraqi Kurdistan Region, but around the world. In Iraqi Kurdistan Region, the continuing violence against women and the response of local and international NGOs and campaigns increased awareness inside the KRG, a process that started in 2000/2001, and has led to these positive developments. In regard to the High Council of Women’s Affairs, its objectives are to address government strategy in relation to women with the aim of establishing gender equality and advancing women’s issues in the Region. Civil rights’ groups have criticised the High Council for being more political and including representatives of all ruling and opposition parties, including the two Islamic groups, Kurdistan Islamic Union and Kurdistan Islamic Group. In the context of the divisive and regionalist-orientated politics of Kurdistan Region, this ‘political’ dimension made the High Council less popular that it should be. In addition to facing such an external challenge, the High Council has had to work hard within the government to make itself heard and to have a say in lawmaking and to obtain needed resources to implement its strategies. A project law for the Council has been drafted by the government legal committee and discussed within the Council of Ministers, but, by the time it was sent to the parliament for vote, the legislative parliament campaign was in the way and it was delayed until after the election, which took place on 21 September 2013. Among many initiatives towards advancing women’s issues and combating VAW in the Region, including launching and leading the 16-day campaign to combat VAW each year on 25 November, the High Council has drafted a National Strategy to Combat VAW in Kurdistan, to be implemented with the duration of the four year term (2012 – 2016). The text of the National Strategy was based on fieldwork over a year in cooperation with concerned ministries, UN agencies and women’s rights groups in the Region. It was presented to the Council of Ministers and endorsed in October 2012 as a National Strategy to Combat VAW in Kurdistan, ready for implementation by all concerned governments, local NGOs and international organisation working on the ground. Following its endorsement, the High Council of Women’s Affairs set up an Expert Group, working directly with all concerned government bodies to help in implementing the strategy and monitor its functioning. As we were finalising this book, the Strategy was ‘slowly’ getting under implementation. Now, the challenges women face in Kurdistan Region in taking work forward on VAW in general, and HBV in particular, include the development of a solid functioning system working on the implementation and follow-up of the Strategy and of 13  Quote form interview with former MP and head of High Council of Women’s Affairs Pakhshan Zangana, Erbil, 13 October 2008. 126

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good policies, and an addressing of professionalism issues and of capacitybuilding for women within all societal sectors. They will also include gender budgeting to provide enough resources to women’s rights groups, both within the government and NGOs, to put into practice the policies and strategies. Collection, Recording and Classification of Data

As we have discussed in various chapters and above, as a response to the increasing number of HBV and honour killings and after many years of official silence, both at home and inside Kurdish communities abroad, the KRG set up a High Commission to develop strategies and establish policies (Begikhani, 2008a). This move was a response by progressive members of the KRG to Kurdish women’s rights groups and international campaigners who had been actively involved in raising local and international public awareness about the issue. It led to the establishment of the three Directorates to Follow Up and Combat VAW (which we have discussed previously and above) with several offices across the Region, that have been involved in collecting data on VAW through the official records of police stations, health agencies and courts. The Directorates not only collect official data and inform the public opinion on the extent of VAW in the Region, they also classify and categorise them according to the nature of the crimes, with a briefing of the education background of the victims/survivors and their relationship to alleged perpetrators, as well as their location. Their regular monthly reports and general annual report at the end of each year, mention different categories of violence, including sexual violence, complaints, torture/beating, self-immolation, burning, suicide and killing. The statistics are presented both in diagrammatic form and in writing, with time series data, comparing figures from one year to the next. Further, the reports attempt to examine briefly the reasons behind crimes (without going into analysing the causes in detail). The Directorates also present their training and awareness-raising activities on VAW, as well as press communiqués released in relation to any particular cases. The data collected by the Directorates is about general violence against women, and there is no category on HBV. According to the former director of the Erbil Directorate, Mr Ari Rafiq, classifying cases according to the nature of the crimes and dynamics behind them: ‘requires experts capable of distinguishing direct and indirect reasons related to HBV, as data are collected from different institutional sources, which cannot provide the Directorates with the details required’.14 (We have discussed this issue and the scope of HBV in Chapter 4.) 14  Quote from email exchanges with former head of the Ebril DFVAW, Mr Ari Rafiq, dated 12 September 2010. 127

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Informing Public Opinion

The Kurdistan authorities have started to publicly talk about VAW through media debates, including radio, TV and the press. They have also addressed the issue at conferences, workshops and seminars. The most positive move consisted of the KRG agenda to dedicate two week-long campaign programme to combat VAW from 25 November, the International Day to Combat VAW. We have alluded positively to this campaign throughout this book. During the week, relevant government bodies, as well as civil rights and media groups, launch a public awareness programme on VAW, including TV and radio debates, seminars and conferences, posters, marches, and the conferring of awards on those who have been active in combating VAW. Certain TV channels, such as Kurdistan TV, carry the DCVAW guidelines several times a day with several telephone numbers, calling on those at risk of VAW to contact them. Senior figures in the authorities, including the PM and relevant ministers, intervene and discuss the issue publicly, notably through press conferences. According to our research findings, the two week-long activities are good interventions by the authorities to raise public awareness, and are well-received. However, human rights activists would like to see the government commit to the promotion of these programmes on a continuous basis. The authorities, through the DCVAW, have also intervened in the last five years in holding press conferences to release their bi-annual reports, informing the public of the latest government activities on the issue. The police and health agencies have been involved in announcing the ‘number of convicted cases of VAW’, as well as the number of women burnt/self-immolated. The Ministry of Endowment and Religious Affairs was also encouraged to become involved in raising awareness among Mullahs and faith leaders, through training and networking with women’s rights groups. (See the following section on faith leader’s role.) Protection and Advisory Services

A highly significant contribution of the KRG was the initiative to establish women’s protection centres/shelters and creating and publicising 14 emergency telephone lines for women to contact the police. There are currently three government shelters in the three governorates run by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, closely working with the Directorates.15 A decision to establish a shelter for temporary accommodation in the Garmiyan area was made in 15  The KRG had initiated a shelter in Erbil in 2002 called Mali Khanzad bo charasarkrdni kasha daruni u komalayatiyakan (Khanzad house for women’s social and psychological solution). The house was closed in 2007 following allegations that it was involved in women’s trafficking. 128

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summer 2013. It would provide immediate and temporary accommodation and protection to women at risk for the duration of 72 hours, while dealing with their cases and allocating them to the shelters run by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. In Erbil and Duhok, because of the lack of other women’s protection houses, the shelters provide support for a longer period of time ‘for women who are at risk of murder’. The Erbil shelter was opened in late 2008 and started taking cases in October 2009. It admits cases at any time and is open 24 hours. Apart from providing long- and short-term protection for women at risk, the shelters provide legal advice and support to women and also get involved in mediating with their families to settle cases. Part of the legal support offered consists of filing complaints in cases of murder when no-one from a victim’s family is prepared to do so. ‘In the past, when there was no one showing up and filing a complaint, the case could not reach the court and there was silence around the murder. With our new policy this has changed’.16 The process includes also hiring lawyers, accompanying women to court hearings and health centres, and coordinating with the crime investigation office. Awarding Women’s Activists for their Activities Against VAW

Since November 2007, through the initiative of the then Ministry of Sport and Youth,17 an annual award was designated to the most active person (male or female) in the field of combating VAW. The award named ‘protection of women award’ aims ‘to encourage work towards equality and social justice’.18 The ceremony is held at a conference during the annual week-long campaign, with speeches, sketches and songs challenging traditional norms. The first award was given to Ms Khandan Muhammad Jaza, who wrote a book based on ‘a social study on the phenomenon of prostitution and women trafficking in Kurdistan society’ in cooperation with International Hawkari Organisation.19 Legal procedures started against the Director of the House, but have not been followed up. She left Kurdistan and the procedures stopped. 16  Quote from an interview with Minister of Interior Affairs, Mr Karim Sinjari, 7 March 2009. 17  The Ministry of Sport and Youth was created in May 2006, with the announcement of the unified Kurdish cabinet. As part of the KRG strategies to reduce the number of ministries, the Ministry of Sport and Youth was combined with the Ministry of Culture under the sixth cabinet, in 2009. The new Ministry is called the Ministry of Culture and Youth. 18  Quote from interview with then Minister of Sport and Youth, Mr Taha Barwari, October 2008. 19  The book and her author, who received several threats following the publication of her report, were recognised by the KRG as ‘an important study into the contemporary Kurdish society’. See Jaza Khandan Muhammad, ‘Oqyanusek la tawan: Twejinawayaki komalayatya sabarat 129

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Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani addressed the 2007 conference with a challenging speech, saying: ‘we must admit that many injustices are committed against women in the name of religion or with the excuse of cultural or traditional practices. We feel that everyone in society has a duty to combat violations against women. What we ask for is equality, justice and respect for all human beings. […] The one-week campaign of the Elimination of Violence against Women is a step we initiated in the Region because we know we have a problem. This problem has many facets: cultural, religious, political, health, educational and social. […] We do not call for abandoning our old traditions and customs. We do not call for abandoning our religion or our heritage, which is a source of pride. But we have to know that certain issues relevant to women’s rights must change, and we have to achieve this and make progress in order to find a place in the modern world.’20 Monitoring Measures

Although we have indicated on several occasions in this book that there is a need for effective and consistent monitoring system, we have noted that Kurdish authorities have been trying to at least some extent to integrate monitoring into their policy and action. The first monitoring body established within the KRG was the High Commission to Follow up VAW, summer 2007. The High Commission met quarterly to look at measures implemented, discuss new strategies and monitor the work of the related government bodies. All related ministers and heads of police and security bodies had to report to the PM their activities, their challenges and needs. A monitoring body was set up at the Ministry of Human Rights, bringing together heads of the Directorates, to discuss their actions and address their needs. Also, it was decided to form a legal body representing legal experts and judicial practitioners to monitor the court procedures in relation to VAW and HBV. This latter committee was set up, but, with the change in government in 2009, there has been a break in continuity, although with the promise to establish another body. In 2009, former Prime Ministe Barham Salih and the Board of the High Council of Women’s Affairs, including all members of the Council from the various ministries, started to deal with the monitoring measures and followup mechanisms. With the new change of the government in 2012 and the ba diyarday lashfroshi u bazrgani ba jastay ragzi meyinawa la komalgay Kurdistanda’ (‘An ocean of crime: A social study on the phenomenon of prostitution and women’s sex trafficking inside the Kurdish society’), published by Ministry of Culture, Sulaimaniya, 2007. 20  Quote from unpublished speech by Kurdistan Region’s PM Nechirvan Barzani, Erbil, 27 November 2007. 130

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establishment of the Women’s Rights Monitoring Board (WRMB) to address VAW and HBV issues at the very highest level of the government, as we have noted. The WRMB, as we said earlier, serves as a coordinated body with all related ministers, including Health, Justice, Education, Higher Education, Planning, Interior, Endowment and Religious Affairs, and Social Affairs, as well as the head of GDCVAW. The Board is led by the PM and meets every two months, and the Secretary General of the High Council of Women’s Affairs is invited to present its report. Despite all these bodies, our findings show that there is a need for a more robust and consistent monitoring work with effective measures aiming at a better implementation of government policies and of the amended and legislated Kurdish laws. Challenges/Shortcomings of Official Response to HBV

From the aforementioned account, it is possible to see that the KRG has integrated VAW and HBV issues into its agenda. However, our findings indicate that many challenges and shortcomings remain. According to PM Nechirvan Barzani, the KRG: ‘has already accomplished a great step forward. But there still remains a sizeable gap between our desire for change and what we see achieved on the ground’.21 Our findings indicate that the KRG interventions in amending the law and setting up government units to tackle and monitor VAW and HBV, as well as providing support to women at risk, have not been accompanied by serious interventions into formal education affecting public attitudes.22 Challenging HBV requires long-term preventive strategies and policies informed by a strong political will. Such strategies should be rooted in a human rights perspective, starting with formal education and awareness-raising programmes on equality, justice and human rights within all government bodies, as well as within civil society groups, including the judiciary, education, health services, the police and the media. There is no doubt that the work carried out by the General Directorate represents an important step by the KRG to act against VAW and HBV. However, our research shows that there are problems with the accuracy of the data collected. While difficulties in keeping records of HBV, including honour killings and unnatural death such as self-immolation and burning, have been 21  Quote from unpublished speech by PM Nechirvan Barzani, presented on the occasion of ‘protection of women award’, 27 November 2007. 22  The Kurdish curriculum has started addressing ‘civil rights’ courses at primary schools, but the course is very basic and does not address HBV or equality between girls and boys at home and school levels. 131

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recognised, our study recommends that the General Directorate of Combating VAW puts into place greater resources for development. Further, although the General Directorate has four Sub-Directorates and 26 offices across Kurdistan Region, including the Garmyan area near Kirkuk, our findings reveal that women in rural areas are very much isolated and left without official support. It is the duty of the government to ensure services covering all parts of the Region and reach those who are the most vulnerable. With regard to shelters, women’s rights activists believe that many existing shelters lack professionalism in supporting women’s lives and providing ‘meaningful protection for women at risk’ (UNAMI, UNHR and ASUDA, 2009, p. 47). According to our findings, staff working in these government shelters, as well as those run by NGOs, have not yet received appropriate training in how to deal with HBV cases. Victims reported to us that they are often: ‘treated as someone who did something wrong. They made me feel guilty and in need of punishment. I have been even treated as a bad woman’.23 There is no doubt, that opening women’s protection houses is a positive move in Kurdistan Region, where until recently in cities, like Erbil, women at risk of murder used to be put in Junior Detention Centres for their protection. However, according to a senior director of one of these government units, the shelters in Kurdistan are ‘another form of prison’ as they do not provide rehabilitation needs, employment, training or psychological support, so that the women in question could be enabled by ‘rebuild confidence in themselves and face life again’.24 Rebuilding confidence and facing life again are important strategies as part of the rehabilitation and reintegration of women into society that require more attention and work. Here we would like to highlight two positive cases which merit recognition and duplication, the case of Zara. Zara, whose story was showcased in our previous section on the nature of HBV and in Chapter 4, has been provided with psychological and legal support that helped her to rebuild her confidence and make her strong enough to take a job at the shelter itself as a guard. When we met her, she was on duty and kept her telephone on ‘for emergency calls’. During the interview, she received an emergency call to take a pregnant woman kept in the shelter to hospital to give birth. She left with a great sense of responsibility and we had to reschedule the interview date. Also, Azeema Baboli, whose case was mentioned in Chapter 4, received support from her family and various actors on the ground. She is now an MP, leads the Women’s Protection Committee at the Kurdistan Parliament, and is involved in defending women’s rights with great enthusiasm. 23  Quote from an interview with a victim who lived in a shelter and now lives in Sweden, identity withheld. 24 Quote from an interview with the Head of Nawa Centre in Erbil, Ms Namam, 12 November 2009. 132

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There is no doubt that shelters require long-term security and protection strategies, adequate resources for training and awareness-raising programmes, along with employment and vocational training for victims. Above all, the shelters need professionally trained women to run and work in them, sensitive to the needs of abused women and women at risk. Such staff would not only provide physical protection to women, but also give them another chance to rebuild their future. Women, who are in need of long-term protection, or cannot return to their family/community, need special help, such as rehabilitation programmes, long-term and transitional housing, as well as job opportunities. In some cases, women need to be relocated to a different city with a different identity, which requires anonymity and confidentiality measures. We recommend that KRGrelated authorities should engage more willingly, and with more commitment, to work on HBV. They need to receive training based on positive models to ensure long-term and effective protection policies as well as actions. The Role of Faith Leaders

Women in our society are subjected to a great deal of violence and cruelty. What bothers us is that … Islam is accused of being behind this violence. This is wrong; it is the misinterpretation of Islam which leads to that kind of belief. Amongst faith leaders inside the Union of Kurdistan Islamic Scholars, there are people who may think ‘differently’; this is true also amongst women’s groups. But Islam is against FGM, against child marriage (shirbayee), against exchange of women (jn ba jn), against forced marriage, against honour killing. No murder is honourable. There is no such thing in Islam. In Islam individuals (fathers) do not have the right to kill …. To combat such violence against women, we, as Union of Kurdistan Islamic Scholars, are ready to cooperate with women’s NGOs and intervene anywhere in Kurdistan to resolve disputes and save lives.25

The above quotes are from the Head of the Media Office at the Union of Kurdistan Islamic Scholars. He was joined during part of the interview by the President of the Union who signalled approval of his statements. Faith leaders in Iraqi Kurdistan have a considerable influence on public opinion. Their discourse is perceived as an expression of a true Islam, different from the Islam 25  These quotes are from an interview with faith leader and Head of Media Section at the Union of Kurdistan Islamic Scholars, Mr Mamosta Ja’far Gwani, Erbil, 19 July 2010. The interview was conducted at the headquarter of the Union, during the visit of a member of the research team, and President of the Union of Kurdistan Islamic Scholars, Mr Mamosta Abdulla Sa’eed also participated in answering some of the questions. 133

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represented by the Islamist organisations which can often be misinterpreted and misunderstood by the public. During our field research we interviewed a number of faith leaders, visited the headquarters of the UKIS, attended some of their seminars and observed Friday preaches and public speeches. We have noticed their deep concerns about the misinterpretation of Islam and the tendency to rectify this impression by saying that true ‘Islam is against the violation of women’s rights and is the religion of peace’. We also note that faith leaders admit that extremist religious belief and fundamentalist Islamist ideology often pave the way towards the violation of women’s rights and can generate violence. However, according to our fieldwork interviews, the mobilisation of faith leaders against honour crimes has neither been extensive nor strong enough to make a difference in society. According to some media reports, the majority of people are unsatisfied with the role played by clerics, saying that: ‘there is a lack of religious support to combat violence against women in Kurdistan Region’ (Bahadin, 2010). Faith leaders can play a ‘reforming role’ in society; they are represented in the parliament, and present ideas within the mosques, and also through media channels. According to recent statistics, one million people in Kurdistan Region attend mosques on Fridays and listen to Friday prayers,26 so that the influence of faith leaders cannot be underestimated. Following the creation of the High Commission on VAW, PM Nechirvan Barzani called on faith leaders to mobilise their power to speak out against the practice of gender and honour-based violence. After the first meeting of the High Commission on Monitoring VAW, the then Minister of Endowment and Religious Affairs convened several weekly meetings and also urged preachers of Friday prayers to address VAW in their speeches. They were asked to urge men to respect their wives, ‘treat them kindly and protect them from violence’. In March 2009, members of the research team observed several Friday prayers and preaching, and noted that much of the focus was upon ‘unjust’ violence against women, the ‘important’ role of women ‘inside the family’ and in the modern Kurdish world, the increasing level of divorce and ‘improper behaviour’, which have left the door open to violence, separation and disintegration of ‘family and Islamic values’. Kurdish satellite TV channels were criticised for their ‘unwelcome coverage’, diverting members of the community from their ‘religious duty’. Nevertheless, according to the ordinary people leaving the mosque that we talked to, the faith leaders’ words made them more aware of women’s vulnerability to abuse in modern Kurdish society. Some added that it was ‘women’s responsibility to protect herself ’ and not give 26  Based on the interview with Mulla Abduall Sa’eed and Mulla Ja’far Gwani, Erbil, 19 July 2010. 134

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up to ‘passion and desire’. It was clear that the discourse of clerics, while of great impact on popular consciousness, can be interpreted in a way to restrict women’s freedom within a religious set of ideas, ‘making her the centre point of a backward male and extreme ideology’ (We also discussed Islamist ideology in Chapter 3). The limited intervention of clerics in the field of VAW covered also the issue of FGM, and we include some information here due to the inter-relationship between forms of FGM and honour-based violence issues. In September/ October 2009, Friday preachers in the Garmiyan district, focused for several weeks on FGM, disassociating it from Islam (Zhyanawa, 2009). Separating FGM from Islam was the main concern of clerics. Following the publication of the Human Rights Watch report on FGM, in June 2010, faith leaders intervened and made a statement in the form of a Fatwa. The Fatwa explains the stand of Islam on FGM, referring to the historical roots of the practice, but saying that it has no roots in Islam. While the Fatwa is most welcome in terms of combating VAW and FGM, it has also met with criticism by women’s rights activists, who created pressure on the clerics, and, following the pressure, the Union of Kurdistan Islamic Scholars issued a clarification saying: ‘no clear text in the Qur’an stipulates (khatanakrdn) (FGM) as a duty’. However, according to the women’s organisations, the Fatwa does not proscribe FGM (Asuda, July 2010). HRW researcher, Nadia Khalifa, who conducted research on FGM in Iraqi Kurdistan, said, in an article on 18 September 2010, that the Fatwa by the Union of Kurdistan Islamic Scholars, ‘did not add anything new’ (Khalifa, 2010a). In relation to the intervention of faith leaders on VAW, Rebin Rasul from KWRW, who contributed to the research throughout its lifetime, suggests that: ‘if the role of Mullahs has to be recognised in any domain, it has to be in the area of combating VAW’. According to Mr Rasul: ‘the discourse that influences Kurdish society is a socio-religious discourse, and not a rational and academic one. This is why the intervention of the Mullahs in this area is very important. I think the best arm that has been used by the government to combat VAW has been the Mullahs’. With regard to their influence, Mullahs and religious leaders have also been mobilised to mediate and resolve disputes between families. In this regard, they all reiterate that their role is to resolve problems and achieve peaceful solutions, and that they ‘never get involved when a case is related to murder’. Here, they have said that, when situations become complicated and reach bloodshed, ‘we leave it to the Komelayati bureau’. It is worth noting that faith leaders generally try to argue that the responsibility for the practice of HBV is to be found in Kurdish tribal structures as well as customs ‘urf u adat’

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and has nothing to do with Islam. ‘Honour killing is as an “urif ” – a habit/ norm, a wicked tradition and a cultural issue. It is not religious’.27 According to women rights’ activists, the intervention of faith leaders may be perceived as controversial and contradictory, for they are more loyal to ‘God’s word’ and the Shar’ia code than to human rights and ‘they give space for discrimination and gender inequality, such as the limitation on property inheritance rights that are approved of by Mullahs’.28 However, Doctor of Shar’ia at the University of Salahaddin, Mullah Bashir Haddad states: ‘Honour crime concerns us as a human right issue and as a religious issue. It is against principles of human rights and is also against Islamic principles. This is my belief as a religious man. I consider myself responsible in spreading awareness of human rights, but within the boundaries of Islamic religion. If I do not perform this duty, this means that I am betraying my religion’.29 There is no doubt that religious leaders can have an important role in changing people’s attitude and perception on HBV. However, when it comes to their intervention, their main role, the research study suggests, should be in awareness-raising inside the community, with interventions monitored by women’s rights groups and government to produce a positive impact on people’s attitudes. Government reliance of faith leaders needs to be tempered in terms of women’s rights and in the face of other progressive sectors of society. Above all, religion should not be left to become a primary means of communication and liaison between the political authority and citizens. In the context of the transitional status of contemporary Kurdistan, as we discussed above with traditional mediation structures, there need to be explicit commitments to free faith leaders from responsibility for social affairs and to broaden and deepen the respect for formal secular law. Finally, as this study recommends a multi-faceted strategy at government and agency level, it is essential that religious, faith and cultural leaders are also involved in building an integrated response. Their response should be coordinated by the Ministry of Endowment and Religious Affairs and monitored by the Women’s Rights Monitoring Board. Within that framework, the Ministry of Endowment and Religious Affairs needs to provide training to clerics and the religious community in consultation with experts and women’s rights groups. The idea of such training would be to:

27  Quote from interview with MP and Dr Bashir Haddad, Erbil, 25 March 2009. 28  Quote from interview with an activist, November 2009, name and location withheld on request. 29  Quote from interview with Iraqi Dr of Shari’a Mulla Sirwan Ahmad Qadir, Sulaimaniya, 17 April 2010. 136

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• Address the misinterpretation and misuse of Islam/Qur’an in relation to HBV. • Raise public awareness about gender equality and social justice inside the religious community. • Enable the gradual erosion over time of harmful religious views and behaviour, which damage and disadvantage women.

These proposals would help to ameliorate the backward-looking role that religious leaders can sometimes adopt and to develop further good practice in combating violence in the name of honour which progressive elements within both Islam and other religions practised in Kurdistan can put into place. Overall, our study confirmed that, in general, religion as a spiritual belief system is not to blame for HBV, and this is especially the case in terms of Islam. However, fundamentalist ideologies such as conservative political Islam, triggered by many factors, including the political turmoil in the Middle East, have been working in recent years on the reactivation of traditional norms and values leading often to violations of women’s rights, furthering inequality and violence. (We noted some of these difficulties in Chapter 3). Importantly, though, our study shows that HBV occurs in all the various religious groupings in the Region, including Yezidis and Christians, as well as Muslims. We discussed some of the contentious issues around culture and religion in respect to how honour crime is understood in Chapters 1 and 2. Our findings reflect those discussions, at a general level, in that patriarchal social relations and traditions could be seen to be strongly correlated with HBV in Iraqi Kurdistan Region and are the overriding issues – not the practices of any specific cultures or religious beliefs. However, there is also a strong connection with extremist, fundamentalist religious ideologies. Although religion as such is not to blame for the practice of HBV, our study indicates that Muslim and other clerics can play a significant role in tackling the issue and contributing to existing efforts to combat HBV, including challenging fundamentalist views and actions on violence against women at the more extreme end of the religious spectrum. In conclusion, it is clear that, while the advances have not yet gone nearly far enough, positive moves forward have started in Iraqi Kurdistan on HBV, in terms of government initiatives, legal processes, policy and strategy development. Joint work with faith leaders is an important step forward. However, religious leaders who are involved in such issues need to have enlightened ideas in terms of the 21st century, so that they can understand the needs and requirements of younger generations and step out from entrenched conservative attitudes towards women and families in their community. What is more, setting up bodies and organisations with clear implementation mechanisms to take the issue forward, both at government and grassroot level, can be of significant 137

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help in facing the multiple challenges involved. The challenge now is to build on these beginnings to make a safer future for women in Kurdistan Region. The discussions in this book are part of this process – part of building something new.

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Chapter 8

Conclusions: Moving Forward A father brought his daughter to our centre and told us, here is my daughter. She is at risk of murder from my family. They want to kill her. I have heard about your work and brought her to you so that you can protect her. I love my daughter and I don’t want her killed.1

This statement tells us about a father, whose daughter was the victim of sexual abuse. He stood up against his family and relatives and against honour-based violence. He refused to participate in, or to stand by, while others executed a killing. The expectation that he would support the honour code was rejected in favour of life and love. Here, we have both hope and the indication that different futures might beckon. In this book, we have documented accounts of terrible abuse and suffering. We have noted the considerable obstacles to progress and yet celebrated the positive developments initiated by different official and grassroots agencies at work. In this final section, we return to the understanding of honour and highlight the fact that this is an increasingly contested ‘ideal’, to show that, in Kurdistan, there is a considerable body of support for the redefinition of honour along more ‘virtuous’ lines where violence against women can be rejected, and also understood as not honourable, but rather its opposite, dishonourable in the extreme. Deconstructing Honour

Iraqi Kurdistan is in many ways undergoing transformation. It is a transition society, albeit subject to the forces of rapid, combined but uneven development. It is not a homogenised entity, in which all share the same vision. Neither is it the case that culture (in the broad sense) and ways in which people view the world are static. There are differences of experience, values and attitudes. In our research, we have recorded that attitudes towards honour and its representation are in the process of transformation and contestation. As an MP put it to us:

1  Quote from the late Runak Rauf from the Women’s Information and Media Centre, Rêwan. 8 March 2009.

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‘the definition of honour changes not only from one community to another but from one person to another’. The prevailing notion of honour in Kurdistan is that it is embodied in women’s bodies and sexuality (Begikhani, Gill and Hague, 2010). While research interviewees confirmed this understanding to be the central theme of the dominant discourse on honour, the majority of our respondents have also displayed a strong desire to distance themselves from such a belief system and to redefine honour, in contradistinction to received wisdom – to, in effect, deconstruct ‘honour’. The society is on the cusp of change in regard to HBV. In the statements below, we provide space to some of the many voices of dissent: Honour is Virtue, Honesty and Truthfulness, Knowledge and Wisdom Honour is a shared value between men and women. It is about being true and honest. (Young female TV presenter) Honour is knowledge/wisdom. (Faith leader and MP) Honour is the most precious thing for people and it indicates many meanings such as loyalty, faithfulness and commitment to his or her words; it is not always linked to women. (Senior KDP official) Honour is wisdom and good deeds. (Faith leader) Honour is Loyalty to Homeland and Nation Honour is my homeland, my flag, Kurdish national sovereignty. (Former PUK peshmerga) Honour is not a piece of meat inside women’s legs. It is truthfulness and loyalty to the nation. Betraying the homeland is dishonour not love. (Head of a women’s centre) Honour is No Longer a Publically Shared Notion

There is no doubt that the tendency to destabilise the prevailing notion of honour, and to articulate an alternative meaning, is due to the increasing awareness of the issue of violence against women and human rights in Iraqi Kurdistan Region. Activities by civil society groups, including women’s organisation and media outlets, as well as recently established government units to combat violence against women, have played a role in affecting people’s perception of honour. As one of our interviewees put it: 140

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Look at the change that has taken place since 1991. Were you able to raise the issue of honour crimes in 1991 as you do now? Did people dare not kill women in 1991? The answer is no, because faith leaders and general opinion supported and approved the killings as a norm. In 1991, you could not find any research studying honour killing. While now, you can do it. (Progressive faith leader) Beyond Contemplation: Critical Debate and Towards More Action

While we agree that ‘philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is to change it’ (Marx, 1845), and we recommend practical initiatives for change, the process of confronting HBV at the level of ideas is crucial. Thus far, the latter effort tends very much to be confined to the ‘private sphere’, in our experience from our interviewees. The potential of placing the challenge to the dominant conception of honour in the ‘public sphere’ is yet to be fully realised. But change has begun. The views expressed above, in particular the accent upon difference and the value attached to loyalty, fidelity and defence of Kurdistan as primary indicators of honour, might very well serve to provide an alternative register of virtue. To articulate publicly alternative understandings of honour could play a vital role in eroding the foundations of the dominant understanding which are used to justify HBV. To take on board the responsibility of pursuing and developing these debates and bringing the public onto the terrain of critical engagement is well within the grasp of all concerned actors and agencies. How the discussion of honour and its consequences is conducted in the future is of vital importance. There needs to be clarity about what kind of society people want to live in. Kurdistan is undergoing a period of rapid and dramatic transformation. In some ways the spectre of HBV is a product of previous social formations and symptomatic of the tensions and anxieties arising as society is confronted by the consequences of engagement with the modern world (Giddens, 1992). To break free from unwanted conventions and the compulsion to conform and to perform acts in the name of honour, it might be important to explore the contours of intimacy. As with the example retold at the outset of this section of the man who privileged his love for his daughter above the performance expectations of honour codes, perhaps a new set of standards for social interaction require examination. Of course, these debates are not an end in themselves. Addressing VAW in general and HBV in particular, requires challenging male privilege in sexual matters and social norms of male domination (Oxfam, 2013). Action is required. And this necessitates both new policies and leadership with strong political will. Leaders not only govern society, they provide direction, and leadership makes a difference. It is exemplified by the statement of one interviewee, an illiterate 141

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man from an isolated village in the Duhok governorate, who repeated the words of President Masoud Barzani condemning HBV in one of his speeches in 2007, and said: ‘Honour crime is a crime, because President Barzani said so’. While the words of the leadership can remain stronger than the law, those who are concerned should lobby through civil and civilised acts to call upon the nation’s leaders to intensify the battle against HBV. Our study found that grassroots as well as some official organizations are to be congratulated on what they have achieved so far in generating social knowledge about women’s position in Kurdish society and in addressing honour-based violence in the Region. However, because of the lack of an effective functioning system combined with unfocussed political and socially accepted will, new policies and legislation have not been properly implemented. The study concludes that with the pressure from, as well as the contribution of, women’s rights activists, the government and the Kurdish law-makers have made several notable legal amendments to reduce violence against women and crimes in the name of honour, amending various Articles in the IPC between 2000–2002, in attempts to remove undue leniency in the treatment of offenders. The CDVL is another positive step by Kurdistan Region’s authority. These actions have set a good precedent although, unfortunately, there is evidence from this study and from the recent United Nations report that the improvements are not always being reliably implemented (UNAMI, UNHR and ASUDA, 2009). Both policies and legislation require focussed strategy and an effective operating system that could transform the reality of women’s experiences in the Region. Overall, however, there is a political will among progressive members of the government and law-makers to address issues of honour-based violence in Iraqi Kurdistan, as part both of the modernisation and democratisation project locally, and of the wider global effort on the issue. We have developed an Action Plan for combating HBV in Iraqi Kurdistan to assist the Kurdistan Regional Government, Kurdistan National Assembly, criminal justice systems, women’s organisations and communities to work together to address the issue effectively. There is currently some commitment in the Region to implementing the Action Plan. This Plan will assist in altering and strengthening the existing political will, and in putting into place multi-stranded, coordinated action between all official and grassroots actors involved in the process, which will, if implemented, place Iraqi Kurdistan at the forefront in the global region in challenging honour crimes. In the UK too, women’s organisations have led the way but much remain to be done. HBV manifests in broadly similar ways in the UK as in Iraqi Kurdistan, though, of course, with context-specific dynamics in terms of the different experiences of both first and second generation immigrants and of settled long-term Kurdish communities. Positive developments and pioneering, sometimes world-leading, initiatives by senior officers in the criminal justice 142

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system are accompanied by often poor practice on the ground and a lack of sufficient shelters and support (Gill, 2009; Hague, Gill and Begikhani, 2013). We have also produced a series of Recommendations for the UK to assist the UK government and agencies to take the next step. Both the Kurdistan Action Plan and the UK Recommendations are laid out in detail below, at the end of this Conclusion, in the two important following Appendices, to assist governments, agencies, practitioners, activists, and survivors of HBV and their families, in moving forward together. In Conclusion

In conclusion, it is important to always remember that HBV is not only a manifestation of gender inequality. It actively works to reinforce it. States across the world have duties under international law to respect, protect and support women’s rights, including by taking steps to not only tackle violence against women and HBV, but also to challenge the privileged and dominant male position in society, culturally, politically and economically. Although abuses that occur in the private sphere, such as honour killings, are crimes under the domestic laws of most countries, many States around the world continue to fail to demonstrate due diligence in this regard. Even now in the 21st century, they still frequently fail to prevent or investigate such crimes, or to hold perpetrators to account. Thus, although legislation often exists to protect women in theory, social tolerance of violence, cultural values and norms, as well as a lack of full political commitment and will often combine to nullify these laws in practice. Further, social practices and gender stereotypes that have the effect of rendering women ‘invisible’ and ‘weak’ create the conditions in which they suffer ‘invisible violence’, and may allow violators to act with impunity. It is vital, then, that honour killings remain on the international human rights agenda. There are political considerations that get put in place where … often I think the discussion of women’s rights and violence against women is used to please the international community and to save itself from embarrassment and we don’t want to be seen as ‘savages’, but whether or not there is a real commitment to women’s rights is a different question. There is a religious element in some parts of it and there is also an historical element in other parts of it. If there is a real commitment – a real commitment would mean resources – it wouldn’t mean just naming it. (Interviewee from the Kurdish Human Rights Project)

This interviewee states that ‘it wouldn’t mean just naming it’. Rather, addressing HBV meaningfully and effectively means, as we have discussed in the previous 143

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chapters, having the political commitment and the socially accepted will to move on beyond basic awareness of the issue, to engage in concrete action, provide resources and nurture social change in a principled way. This is what our research was commissioned to do, and what the Action Plan and Recommendations seek to achieve. In sum, then, we have addressed these various levels in terms of local, national and international attention to honour-based violence. Overall, all these policies and initiatives need to be grounded in the reality of the experiences of victims/survivors. Policy-makers need also to recognise that acts of HBV occur within a general framework of the abuse of women, and so need to be conceptualised as part of a broader effort to end gender-based violence. This is what frontline Kurdish women’s groups have been campaigning for over the past decade in both Iraqi Kurdistan and the UK. Finally, we recommend that there is an improved international response. Globally, all States must ensure that victims/survivors of attempted ‘honour’ killings, family members and friends of victims of killings, and those who have been threatened with or experienced HBV, receive immediate, confidential and comprehensive assistance, including legal help, and psychological and social support. It is important to create structures for prevention and damage control across the global organisations. The most urgent requirement is to establish specialist refuges, shelters and support services for girls and women who are at risk of HBV and other forms of VAW in the countries and communities most concerned, as an issue of basic human rights. We really need international standards – not just Iraqi Kurdistan, but I would like to see other countries sign up set of minimum standards. I think one way of doing that would be … it would be a multinational collective, so saying that this is clear and placing it clearly within a human rights framework. (NGO Activist, UK)

If the world takes on the issue as a human rights violation in a principled way, building on the existing helpful work of women’s activists across the globe, of the United Nations and of some national and regional governments, honourbased violence could finally be made a thing of the past. Progress may be slow but a beginning has been made in Kurdistan Region, the UK and elsewhere. Iraqi Kurdistan, with its active women’s rights groups and progressive official members, is taking the lead within the wider world region, and across much of the Near/Middle East, by taking concrete steps to address honour-based violence and killings. Thus, the Kurdistan Regional Government and Kurdish women’s rights organisations are to be hugely commended for forging the way, and hopefully building in the future on this research and the Action Plan proposed, as well as on the initiatives already in place. Similarly, those who have pioneered improvements in the UK deserve commendation. 144

Conclusions: Moving Forward

Some of these UK developments are at the forefront of world attention to the issue and of local, national and global attempts to go forward in achieving the long-term aim of eradicating HBV, killings and violence directed towards women. The world has moved, in terms of no longer tolerating this shocking abuse of women in the name of ‘honour’. Even if painfully slow and full of conflicts, change is here to stay. There can be no turning back now.

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Appendix 1

The Action Plan for Iraqi Kurdistan Action plans are designed to be achievable within realistic time limits. However, cultural change is lengthy and complex. This Action Plan is therefore designed as a beginning and a pointer towards future development. The Action Plan: Overall Issues • This Action Plan is centred on the: –– Prevention of honour-based violence –– Provision of relevant services, and –– Protection of families/victims.

These categories have been successfully used in some other countries including the UK. • The primary recommendation of the research, reinforcing the few other reports on the issue so far (Mojab and Hassanpour, 2002; Begikhani, 2005; UNAMI, UNHR and ASUDA, 2009), is that there is a need for: –– A multi-pronged approach to tackling honour-based violence.

Coordinated work on multiple levels would be expected to include, in general, more effective protection systems and mechanisms, an improvement in how cases are dealt with and investigated in the criminal justice system and the courts, improved training for agencies and professionals, and programmes of awareness-raising and education in communities. • The first requirement is for the further building and strengthening of: –– Political commitment by the Kurdistan Regional Government, by relevant agencies and by communities to working against honour-based violence. –– Such political commitment needs to be embedded in the work of the relevant ministries and agencies and to be adequately resourced, if social development and change on honour violence are to be achieved.

Honour-Based Violence

• This will require the leadership in Iraqi Kurdistan to move forward, using this commissioned research and to further act on its stated commitment to address gender, honour and violence issues, in order to build on the good work already conducted by the Kurdistan Regional Government. • An important underlying issue is the need for a wide-ranging addressing of gender equality, and the development of a gender equality scheme, as a strong government modernising commitment. On a general government level, this includes the promotion of women to senior posts (based on their qualification and skills, and not only on their allegiance to political parties), strengthening all related departments dealing with the social well-being of women and the integration of gender equality issues within the work of relevant departments and agencies.

It also means reforming laws relating to women, both in the Iraqi Penal Code and the Iraqi Personal Status Code to remove provisions which may disadvantage women, and the issuing of alternative progressive laws promoting gender equality and combating honour crimes. The Action Plan: The Kurdistan Regional Government • Re-endorsement of legal remedies. The helpful legal reforms noted above (including, for example, the amendments of Articles 128, 130, 132, 377 of the IPC, which were adopted at different times under different administrations) now need to be effectively endorsed and put into service. • Enforcing legal implementation. An essential step to improve the policing and treatment of honour-based violence is to enforce and standardise the currently inconsistent implementation of the Combating DV Law and all other relevant articles of legislation on violence against women.

In order to be effective, laws, of course, need to have ‘teeth’, to be properly enforced and to be operated with commitment and will. Until now, this has not been the case for honour crimes, and this Action Plan provides an opportunity to address this difficulty. • Monitoring and advocacy. To achieve more consistent legal implementation in the courts in this way, monitoring mechanisms need to be urgently established. Independent advocacy for victims and independent monitoring of improvements would be of assistance in this process. 148

The Action Plan for Iraqi Kurdistan

• Specialised training and support of the criminal justice and legal professionals involved. Further measures need to be put into place to improve the functioning and implementation of these laws. Importantly, this needs to entail training for the criminal justice system, lawyers and the judiciary to enable them to deal with crimes on the grounds of honour more consistently and effectively than at present. • Improved systems of investigation. The police and prosecutors need improved systems of investigation and evidence collection. This would entail training, the development of more expertise and improvements in attitudes of officers to women’s issues and to gender and honour violence, and a modernising the methods used for investigation (e.g. the introduction of modern techniques such as DNA analysis etc.). • Arms regulation. The widespread presence of firearms, prevailing in many homes, makes a key tool of violence readily available to use against women. The regulation of the use and circulation of firearms needs to be considered. For example, some forms of registration and safe centralised deposit of guns is necessary to expel the gun from domestic space. • Witness protection programmes. It is essential that witnesses are better protected, if prosecution of honour crime is to be improved, with the introduction of sympathetic witness protection programmes and wider protections and welfare measures for victims and their families. • Legislation and implementation of the national strategy. Further, the development of new legislation and implementation of the national strategy on VAW in the future would assist in the building of a coordinated response across Iraqi Kurdistan. • Customary law versus formal law. The issue of customary law versus formal law is an important one in the context of honour crime. There is a pressing need for clear commitments that customary and traditional mechanisms and parallel legal systems are subordinate and secondary to the official legislature and formal law of Iraqi Kurdistan Region. • Training and awareness-raising for those involved in customary law and justice. Those who deal with informal customary law, cultural systems and tribal justice need to be trained on women’s rights, honour-based violence and gender equality. The idea of such training would be to:

149

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–– E nable the gradual erosion over time of harmful cultural views and behaviour (e.g. in terms of upholding family honour) which damage and disadvantage women and other family members. –– Ensure that women victims are provided with appropriate and sustainable remedies, while according respect to traditional non-harmful cultural practices. –– Have in place systematic and rigorous recording and monitoring procedures and processes to ensure that ‘informal justice’ conforms with human rights principles and formal law. • High Council of Women’s Affairs. Kurdish authorities are encouraged to pass the law on the High Council of Women’s Affairs in Kurdistan. The High Council needs also to be less political and more professional in its representation, functioning, planning and orientation. It also needs to address its legal framework, its institutional structures and to outreach isolated areas with more grass root activities. • Specialist courts. Building on the CDV Law, the government is encouraged to consider working towards the wider establishment of specialist ‘Violence Against Women Courts’ (as in many other countries including the UK and Canada), with specialised training of judges and prosecutors and the monitoring of these courts as a longer term goal. • Reconciliation committees. The Judiciary Council is encouraged as a matter of urgency to form mediation committees as stipulated in the CDV Law. Such committees should only be used in appropriate cases and should be made up of experts specialising in family, women and children protection laws, and knowledge of women’s issues and violence against women. • Training and professional education more widely. In order to combat honour-based violence, wider training of relevant professionals is essential. Such training needs to: –– Take place at all levels of government and the education, health, criminal justice judicial systems –– Be culturally sensitive and to be conducted with care and sensitivity –– Be secular in approach –– Include contextual understandings that honour-based violence is usually a form of gender-based violence and is deeply damaging to women and girls –– Avoid blaming women and children for honour crime or condoning their ‘punishment’ on ground of honour –– Lead to better understandings of HBV within the judicial system, the police and the wider society. 150

The Action Plan for Iraqi Kurdistan

• Women’s support services, shelters and NGOs. Victims and survivors of HBV and their families need support and services and to be reassured that the government takes their needs seriously. As well as general welfare and health facilities, this will include facilitating women’s support services, shelters and NGOs so that such services are reliably available for victims. This would need to include providing better security and support for shelters. • Programme of public awareness and education. To achieve new understandings and to challenge traditional views of honour violence requires a sensitive programme of public awareness and education. Such a programme could be rolled out across communities, towns and rural areas. It would need to: –– Be culturally sensitive at all levels –– Be based on a community sensitisation model in which the local population is involved. (Precedents exist for this model around the world) –– Include men in all stages –– Be conducted with care, knowledge and sensitivity –– Be aware of safety issues in some situations –– Such an awareness-raising programme would be expected to take place in villages and to use popular culture in the form of songs and drama (learning from similar programmes developed in other countries). • Reforming the education system. Reforming the education curriculum is essential. Such reform should start from the schooling of children onwards and contribute to a coordinated effort taking on issues of HBV and genderbased violence. Such reforms would be expected to include the development of gender equality education, sex education and citizenship education, but in a culturally and socially sensitive context. Again, precedents exist in some other countries on which to draw. • Multi-stranded strategies. More widely, the government should encourage multi-agency strategies on HBV and an improved system of cooperation and forum- building between women’s community projects and the government, the police, and other agencies to enable more effective joint working. The Action Plan: The Kurdistan National Assembly • Improving the legal context. New legislation will be needed as modernisation proceeds in Iraqi Kurdistan region to enable gender equality and to address more fully gender-based violence, honour-based violence and female genital mutilation, as also noted above. Controversial Articles in the Iraqi Penal Status 151

Honour-Based Violence

Law and the IPC need to be amended, including Article 409 related to ‘adultery’ (zina) Article 41 related to ‘disciplining’ (ta’dib) a wife or children, and Article 393 in relation to rape. • Regulation of mobile phones/cyber abuse. A particular issue of concern, highlighted by this research, is the widespread abuse and violence conducted using mobile phones and cyberspace and aiming to damage the reputation and, therefore, the honour of women. Women are also being targeted by anonymous actors, who use images of women, real or fabricated, to undermine individual reputations and publicly question the victim’s honour. The Law number 6 of 2008 regarding regulation of modern means of communication need to be effectively and fully implemented with monitoring measures and new policy control. • Regulation of arms. There is a need for the Kurdistan National Assembly to ratify Law number 16 in relation to arms’ regulation in Iraqi Kurdistan, which was introduced and discussed in the parliament in October 1993. This law need to be reviewed and ratified. • Regulation of the courts. As noted above, the prosecution of honour-based violence needs to be regulated and monitored for effectiveness. The Kurdistan National Assembly will need to put in place mechanisms to achieve these outcomes. • Communication mechanisms with courts. All new legislated and amended laws and Articles of laws ratified by the KNA should reach the courts. In addition to their publication in the Waqa’y’i Kurdistan journal, there is a need for the KNA to communicate them to professionals and the public alike, throughout Kurdistan Region. The Action Plan: Women’s Support Projects, NGOs and Human Rights Groups • Resourced services. The women’s NGOs and human rights organisations in Iraqi Kurdistan provide an essential and humane service supporting victims, but are critically over-stretched and under-resourced. This sector needs to be strengthened with additional resourcing to enable it to respond more adequately. Such resourcing would lead to more embedded sustainable provision and to increased services.

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The Action Plan for Iraqi Kurdistan

• Specialist training and the further development of expertise and professionalisation. Specialist training, expertise and professionalisation of these services is required and would be facilitated by increased resourcing and support. • Solidarity and support mechanism. Women’s organisations and activists’ work will be more effective if liaison and coordination mechanisms as well as support programmes are available and put into practice. • Awareness-raising programmes. Women’s and human rights projects will be able to assist in putting in place awareness-raising programmes and new programmes of support put in place as a result of the Action Plan. These would need to: –– Be proactive in involving and supporting victims and families, rather than adopting a more passive role –– Reach out, in particular, to marginalised, isolated and rural women and families –– Target both women and men victims and also male perpetrators in terms of services and projects to address HBV. The Action Plan: The Media and Social Attitudes Recommendations for the Media • The role of the media in awareness-raising. The research found evidence that the media play a crucial role in raising public awareness about gender-based violence and in changing people’s attitude. Further, media outlets play a role in perpetrating traditional attitudes about women and family honour. Our research recommended that the media take a more careful and consistent role in raising public awareness more actively about HBV and its consequences for Kurdish society. • Media ethics. Media outlets need to observe international media ethics and avoid stigmatising women and playing into the honour/dishonour equation. • Gender strategy. There is a need for the setting up a gender strategy inside media groups, integrating more women into media circles, as well as a special need for trained and specialist reporters on gender violence issues and HBV, in terms of reporting atrocities, following cases, attending court and so on. Such a gender strategy should also integrate programmes for women leaders on how to use the media to advance their issues and promote their profile during elections. 153

Honour-Based Violence

• Avoiding sensational reporting. In general, media reporting needs to avoid sensational or patriarchal approaches and rather to promote gender equality and social justice in cases of honour based violence. • A progressive role. There is an avant-garde and progressive role for the forward-looking media in Iraqi Kurdistan Region, in terms of facilitating changes in attitudes and social development. This requires a broad understanding of gender and honour-based violence, dialogue and political participation of women, as well as a non-prejudicial communications approach with government institutions and NGOs dealing with HBV and women’s issues, along with careful analysis and rational debate. • Regulation of mobile phones/cyber abuse. A particular issue of concern, highlighted by the research, is the widespread abuse and violence conducted using mobile phones and cyberspace and aiming to damage the reputation and, therefore, the honour of women. Media outlets and journalists need to abide by the Law, code of conduct and the ethical principles of their profession.

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Appendix 2

Recommendations for Action in the UK General Recommendations and the Gaps

The overall recommendations identified in the UK section of this research are: 1. The continued need for pro-active policies on HBV in the UK (including ones that require the arrest of perpetrators of violence regardless of the wishes of victims), improved investigations and risk assessment, and the spreading of existing good practice more consistently through the criminal justice system. 2. The provision and resourcing of specialist support agencies, especially those based within relevant communities, safe havens (refuges) and the referral of victims to these services. 3. The need for a holistic coordinated approach which recognises the complexity of the issue and the need for a broad social, community and justice response.

In summary, according to the majority of interviewees who participated in this study, addressing the following issues will be the key in the future to improving the policing of HBV in the UK, and to providing services to those affected: • The lack of focussed services, safe shelter for victims and resourcing for HBV support provision and BME services more generally. • The lack of awareness about the issue among both agencies and the public. • The lack of knowledge about HBV across all the lower ranks of the police force. • The gap between policy and practice in the criminal justice system as a whole, despite recent leaps forward.

Honour-Based Violence

• The lack of efficient information systems and failures to record sufficient data accurately and in the right places. • The need for better working relationships between the police and specialist violence against women services in Kurdish and other BME communities. • The need to improve the training of all police officers to counteract postcode lottery effects.

In relation to these issues, for example, in London, it is clear that, despite both a major shift in policy since the murder of Heshu Yones and the sterling work done by the HBV working group led by senior police commanders, the police response to HBV remains variable. The main gripe I have, with all of this awareness that is there, is that it is only there amongst a certain level and it is not filtering down. Even in the police force, ACPO can come out with what is a great strategy – it has and so can the Met police – but the front-line officer often hasn’t got a clue. (Southall Black Sisters representatives) I don’t think the British system still understands the depth of these, and we have seen like, for example in Banaz’s case, where the police were not very active in pursuing her calls where she claimed that her dad was threatening her and they did not take her word seriously. I think it needs a great understanding how the deep rooted these cultures. (Kurdish Women’s Rights Watch, UK, interviewee)

A senior police interviewee explained that: Nationally I think we have got gaps … When we look at how many police officers are there in England, Wales and Northern Ireland – I think there something in the regional of 170,000 – when we look at the ACPO guidelines, when we look at the 43 forces and their separate policies and guidelines, we will all have very good policies around the subject area. The challenge is for those policies to manifest themselves in the action at the frontline. Fine words are all well and good but they have to manifest themselves into action at the frontline. (UK Police Officer 4)

Our study and this book make strong recommendations that the UK agencies continue to build on recent good practice to improve criminal justice and other responses and to increase the provision of shelter, support and safety to victims and survivors of honour-based violence. 156

Appendix 3

Aims and Methods Aims

This book is based on an international study conducted in both Iraqi Kurdistan and the UK. The study employed multiple qualitative research techniques and methods. Drawing on cross-national studies involving similar challenges and objectives, the research team was particularly influenced by action research that emphasises the need for social development and change (e.g. Naples, 2002). Many of our key collaborators were activists in the field of women’s rights who agreed to assist with the study at least in part because one of our core goals was to aid women’s rights organisations and activist groups combating HBV. Another of our core goals was to contribute to the development of research methods and action- and policy-oriented research agendas. To this end, we sought to avoid ethnocentrism by conforming to current best practice guidelines in transnational research generally and feminist transnational research specifically (Naples, 2002). The study involved: • the gathering and analysis of in-depth interviews with policy-makers, government officers, service providers, and the police and criminal justice system in both Iraqi Kurdistan and the UK, • a review of both the literature and government policy in both Iraqi Kurdistan and the UK, • the gathering and analysis of interviews with women’s rights organisations in Kurdistan and the UK, • an examination of high-profile cases of HBV, including honour killings, via documentary analysis and in-depth interviews with survivors and the families of victims, and • a textual analysis of Kurdish media coverage of HBV cases.

Honour-Based Violence

Methods Ethical Considerations

The majority of cases of HBV are linked to traditional cultural and family practices. Such intimate environments are characterised by strong feelings and the potential for aggression and danger. Moreover, HBV is often hidden, with family and community members afraid to reveal what they know for fear both of reprisals and of the authorities. Acknowledging these fears, we recognised that a particularly sensitive approach based on respect for cultural traditions was necessary in relation to collecting data, interacting with subjects, and presenting policy recommendations. The study conducted in conformity with the professional ethics guidelines of the British Sociological Association and the BASW Code of Practice (Research). Safety and security matters took priority over all other issues in the study, especially in the context of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region where men dominate all spheres of life and many own and carry fire-arms. While the Region is, in general terms, both semi-autonomous and at peace, vigilance was needed to care for, protect, and insure the safety and well-being of both team-members and research subjects: trusted drivers provided transport and venues known to be safe and secure were used whenever possible. All participants were approached with caution, attention to safety and cultural appropriateness. Detailed security policies, risk assessments and other insurance procedures were required by both Universities, including by their Ethics Committees. A lengthy, comprehensive risk assessment procedure was developed, agreed upon and followed throughout. Regular reports were also made to the relevant security and insurance departments and a comprehensive ethics report was made to the Ethics Committees of both Universities. Ethical agreement was granted after protracted negotiations: the pioneering nature of the project, and the fact that part of the study was to take place in Iraq, necessarily entailed both major challenges and specific ethical issues. The Ethics Committees, as well as granting initial approval, also provided on-going ethical oversight. This helped to ensure that the principles of equity, safety, social justice and confidentiality were applied consistently and that research participants were given appropriate protection and support throughout their involvement. In order to aid this process, detailed quarterly reports to the project leader were made by the research team in both Kurdistan and the UK. This permitted for continuous monitoring and, thus, enhanced the project’s transparency. Additionally, a detailed Interim Project Report was made to the Kurdistan Regional Government halfway through the project (i.e. after one year).

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Aims and Methods

Project Management

Contracts governing this research were agreed between the Kurdistan Regional Government and the Universities of Bristol and Roehampton. Agreements were also made between the University of Bristol and both Roehampton University and Kurdish Women’s Rights Watch. Systems for financial management were put in place and administered by the Finance Department at the University of Bristol. The three main investigators then created a management and reporting system, a work plan, a protocol for joint work, and an email protocol to govern the team’s work. In addition, Kurdish Women’s Rights Watch employed a research assistant to conduct fieldwork in Iraqi Kurdistan. The selection process for this position was lengthy given that the financial administration of the employment contract had to be established across two countries and also various institutions, including banks and routing banks. The employment specifications and job description were collaboratively developed and international advertising then took place. A shortlist was compiled and interviews were held in Kurdistan in October 2008. The research officer started training for the post in early 2009 and completed her work on the project in June 2010. Weekly supervision was put into place to ensure the researcher’s security and safety and to provide the support necessary to work effectively on such a sensitive topic in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region. Consultations and Publicity

The team publicised the study through information leaflets and posters produced in both Kurdish and English, and through networking and conducting meetings and consultations. This allowed the researchers to involve key stakeholders and to embed the project in the work of many different players in the Region. Team members regularly attended and presented information at national and international forums, including all major conferences and seminars on the issue including the 2010 international conference of the Human Rights Office in Geneva. The team also participated in (i) monthly workshops run by the Gender-based Violence Task Force in Kurdistan, which is part of the American Regional Reconstruction Team programme, (ii) the round-table on honour crime coordinated by Amnesty International, and (iii) a training course organised by the Arab Women Leaders Training Institute. These activities helped to establish and reinforce trust between participants and the research team, facilitating the exchange of ideas and information. A broad consultation exercise involving women’s groups and service providers was also carried out in both countries in order to garner advice regarding the scope of the project. In both the UK and Kurdistan a mapping exercise was then conducted to identify the key agencies providing support to 159

Honour-Based Violence

victims of violence against women and HBV; the map was then annotated with contact details and information about each agency’s services. Literature and Policy Review

The project was informed by extensive literature and policy reviews that drew and expanded upon previous work, including that of members of the research team (Begikhani, 2005; Gill, 2008). Kurdish, Arabic, English and French sources on HBV were collected and analysed. Policy and implementation-focused documents from all relevant government agencies and women’s organisations in both countries were also scrutinised. This allowed the research team to explore: • key theories about HBV, • policy developments already underway in the UK, including those led by both the specialist unit on HBV in the Metropolitan Police Service and the Forced Marriage Unit of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and • policy responses in Kurdistan. Media Monitoring

The team also monitored both British and Kurdish media coverage of HBV, paying particular attention to the attitudes to HBV that the coverage revealed. Twenty-eight media outlets and broadcasting stations were monitored, including eight women’s journals/publications, nine mainstream media outlets, and eleven websites, radio and TV stations. Brief descriptions of each entity’s status and political affiliation were produced to allow for a consideration of contextual factors. International media coverage on HBV, and its impact on local media reporting, were also examined. Interviews

In-depth interviews were used to obtain rich, complex data on HBV, with a focus on victims’ experiences, public attitudes and policy responses. Given the great difficulty in accessing interviewees, and the sensitivity needed during the interview process, we paid particular attention to ethical issues concerned with the need to ‘do no harm’. Lengthy interview schedules were constructed to gather qualitative data from government agencies, professionals, and victims of HBV and their families. The schedules were piloted and then adapted. Special confidentiality agreements and consent forms were prepared for interviews with victims and 160

Aims and Methods

victims’ family members: consent could be given in writing, by thumb mark or orally with written verification by the researchers when participants did not feel comfortable providing consent in either of the other two ways. All interviewees were given an information sheet and a full explanation of the project and the nature of their participation. Interviews with staff from government agencies and NGOs examined (i) the extent and nature of HBV and honour killings in the relevant country, (ii) participants’ professional views on and understandings of HBV and how it is currently addressed in the relevant country, (iii) the work participants and their organisations had performed on the issue, (iv) the outcome of efforts to combat the problem that they had contributed to, (v) their views on current responses by the Government, legislature, courts, police, criminal justice system and other agencies in their country, and (vi) the role played by women’s rights agencies, activists and women’s organisations in developing responses to HBV. Interviewees were also offered the opportunity to give advice on the development of policy and practical measures for combating the problem. The interview schedule included the following key questions: i.

What are the current legal and policy provisions in your country?

ii.

How does the court interpret and apply these provisions?

iii.

How is the law implemented?

iv.

What are the roles of the police and other law enforcement officers?

v.

What legal reforms have been carried out? What further reforms are required?

vi.

Is there disagreement with and/or resistance to reform within the Government and/or statutory agencies?

vii.

Is there a conflict of opinion between government institutions and the judiciary?

viii.

Who were recent key reforms initiated by?

ix.

What reforms are needed in terms of education, training and awareness-raising?

x.

What wider cultural, historical and societal issues impact on the development of policies to combat HBV? 161

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xi.

What changes are required to protect those at risk of HBV?

xii.

What new measures need to be put in place to ensure that new policies are implemented effectively?

Survivors and family members were asked what their views on HBV were and what advice they would give policy-makers, practitioners and women’s NGOs. Safety and confidentiality were prioritised: interviews were conducted in safe, and in some cases secret, venues. Attention was paid to the emotional wellbeing of interviewees before, during and after interviews. While the researchers did not take on a therapeutic role, they were able to provide support when required as well as information on support services and helpful contacts when interviewees desired them. Survivors and victims’ family members were guaranteed anonymity, so all identifying geographical, community and family details were redacted from published interview extracts and transcripts. Participants were also offered the opportunity to remove any details that they felt might identify them within their community. As interviews were recorded on digital recorders, secure storage of these files was arranged. Digital recordings were transferred in locked cases and stored in locked premises. Notes produced during interviews, and summaries of the data, were also securely preserved. The storage and processing of the data was carried out in accordance with the UK Data Protection Act as data was stored, wherever possible, in the UK. All data was kept in locked offices and access to computers used by project members was restricted. Interviews and Consultations in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region

One hundred and twenty in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted in the three main Kurdish governorates of Duhok, Erbil and Sulaimaniya. The majority of these interviews and consultations had to be translated from Kurdish to English before they could be transcribed. All participants were initially approached via telephone. In most cases, an informal meeting was then held to give participants the project information sheet and then to discuss the aims and objectives of the research. In some cases, multiple pre-interview meetings were held to establish trust before formal interviews were scheduled.

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Table 1: Interviews in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region Category

Number

Police officers and staff from government units dealing with violence against women and HBV

14

Lawyers/ prosecutors

15

Staff and volunteers from women’s groups, human rights groups and local NGOs

26

Staff from international NGOs (including UNAMI)

4

Staff and volunteers at shelters/ women’s protection centres

9

Media representatives

8

Health agency workers

6

Faith leaders

4

Perpetrators of HBV

2

Decision-makers and officials (including members of parliament, governors and ministers)

15

Victims of HBV

12

Victims’ family members

5

Sub Total

120 + 9 statements/ informal interviews with injured women at special burning units in hospitals and 2 detainees at the Erbil detention centre

Total

131

Interviews and Consultations in the UK

The majority of the interviews were carried out in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, though 34 comparative interviews were conducted in the UK. Four detailed case studies were also carried out: in all four of the high-profile cases selected, the victim had been killed. The case of Surjit Athwal was used for comparative purposes: Surjit was a young woman of Punjabi Sikh heritage, while the victims in the other three cases were Kurdish. Family members and professionals involved in each case were interviewed: where possible, the team conducted 163

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several interviews with family members in each case. The research team also monitored the progress of each court case on a daily basis; this monitoring amounted to more than 125 hours of work. The team also arranged access to official case transcripts. Table 2: Interviews in the UK Category

Number

Police officers

8

Lawyers/prosecutors

6

Staff and volunteers from national grassroots organisations

10

Independent Police Complaints Commissioners

2

Foreign and Commonwealth Office officers

3

Teachers

1*

Family members of Banaz Mahmod, Tulay Goren, Heshu Yones, and Surjit Athwal

4

Total

34

* The teacher interviewed for the study was involved with the Yones case.

Analysis

All the interviews were subjected to a thematic analysis using NVivo software and manual analysis in combination with the framework approach advanced by Ritchie, Spencer and O’Connor (2003). Using a subset of the transcripts, the research team developed an index of key themes that was then sub-divided. After transcripts had been read, re-read and summarised, they were coded to identify emerging themes. The data was then summarised in a series of thematic charts to draw out key themes. This ensured that the themes behind our recommendations for good practice were grounded in the evidence. Finally, a framework of key issues and themes was developed. This framework allowed participants’ circumstances, experiences and views to be compared so that patterns could be identified and explored further. In analysing the section of the study concerned with media coverage, textual analysis was applied to extract and compare data concerning attitudes to HBV: the analysis focused on identifying patterns in approaches to HBV, the words 164

Aims and Methods

used, the perceptions represented, and the concepts and cultural understandings employed. Triangulating across the different data-sets allowed us to adopt a multistranded approach that enabled us to draw reliable and generalisable conclusions about best practice. Dissemination

Our evidence-based recommendations for both the Iraqi Kurdistan Region and the UK included an Action Plan for effectively combating HBV in Iraqi Kurdistan. In 2010, the Kurdistan Regional Government made a commitment to implement the Plan as far as possible. The Plan, together with our reports in Kurdish and English, were presented at high-profile events in Erbil and Sulaimaniya (the main cities in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region). Meetings were also carried out with British and Kurdistan Regional Government Ministers. The project attracted a great deal of international media attention due to its promotion by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the UK Consul General in the Kurdistan Region, the Kurdistan Regional Government, and national and international agencies and NGOs. We also launched a website about the research and made presentations at a number of national and international conferences. Two academic papers on the study have now been published, both of which have been translated into Kurdish. Dissemination of the research continues through national and international conferences, policy meetings, scholarly papers and training initiatives for criminal justice agencies and other professionals in Iraqi Kurdistan.

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Index abandonment 5, 56 abortion 51 forced 5, 16, 30, 57 abuse 2, 5, 6, 8, 9, 16, 26, 31, 54 see also HBV; VAW; women cyber 16, 22, 56, 68, 88–90, 152, 154 human rights, of 19 see also human rights (main entry) justifying 33, 38, 82, 84, 119, 141 mental 16, 27, 72 physical 5, 6, 16, 25, 27, 56, 111 victims, blaming 31, 38 see also blame self-blame 30 Action Plan for combating HBV 14, 18, 142, 144, 147 see also Iraqi Kurdistan Region issues 147–8 Kurdistan National Assembly involvement 151–2 Kurdistan Regional Government involvement 148–51 media recommendations 153–4 women’s support mechanisms 152–3 UK, recommendations for 155–6 see also UK arranged marriage 48, 58, 77, 84, 100 see also marriage Association for the Development of Kurdish Women 63 Asuda Organisation to Combat Violence Against Women 17, 66, 72 Heli Garmi Asuda 71 asylum seeking 3–4, 94 gendered persecution, and 37–8

Balennama 58, 116, 123 beating 58, 59, 127 blame 31, 38 see also victims self- 30 BMER communities 96, 103, 106–107 burning 16, 34, 56, 59, 60–61, 62, 83–4, 127, 128, 131 see also killing dominant form of HBV 60 self-immolation 34, 56, 59, 60–61, 128, 131 see also coerced suicide; suicide cases 57–9, 83–4, 85–6, 87 Azeema Baboli 68, 88, 89, 132–3 Banaz Mahmood 84, 100–102, 105–6, 156 Begard Hussein (Qalati) 81, 82, 115, 117 Du’a Khalil 12, 65, 69 Ghazal 121 Gulizar 120–21 Hawreen 79 Heshu Yones 36, 96, 98–9, 156 Kurdistan Aziz 115–16, 117, 118, 119 Lana 58 Niga Rahim 58–9, 65 Payman Khalil 85–6 Surjit Athwal 102–3 Suzan 120 Tulay Goren 103–5, 106 Zara 57, 116–17, 132 coerced suicide 4, 16, 56, 111 see also killing; suicide self-immolation 34, 56, 59, 60–61, 128, 131

HONOUR-BASED VIOLENCE

code of silence 4, 12, 84, 88, 118 breaking 65, 77, 87, 95, 109, 125–6 codes of honour 4, 7–8, 37, 44, 55, 88, 118, 140 challenging 141 collective violence 1, 4, 9, 62 confinement 16, 56 see also imprisonment cultural relativism 36, 38 curtailment of rights 5, 16 cyber abuse 16, 22, 56, 68, 152, 154 see also abuse challenging 89–90

early pregnancy 30 education 49–50 deprivation of 5, 16, 56, 57, 111 levels 62 professionals, of 150 public 15, 22, 131, 147, 151 women’s 50, 53, 62 emotional abuse 16, 27, 72 exile from home 56, 57

death 1, 16, 51, 60, 65, 99, 131, 132 see also killing penalty 109, 120, 122 unnatural 62 deprivation of education 5, 16, 56, 57, 111 disappearances 33, 42, 85, 100, 102–3, 104 disfigurement 16, 56 see also mutilation dishonour 2, 29, 32, 44, 48, 55, 56, 88, 101, 116 see also honour killing as response to 35, 101, 119 public dishonouring 56, 58, 68, 88–90 see also cyber abuse redefining 139 divorce 47, 100, 123, 134 see also marriage compensation 58 forced 16, 57, 111 domestic violence 25, 30, 34, 36, 39, 65, 95, 111, 114 see also VAW Combating Domestic violence Law (IKR 2011) 16, 49, 90, 110–14 see also Iraqi Kurdistan Region HBV, and 4, 9, 30 see also HBV early marriage 33, 49, 50, 58, 65, 77, 111 see also marriage 180

female genital mutilation (FGM) 5, 16, 25, 29–30, 51, 65, 95, 135 campaigns against 68, 82 Islam on 133, 135 proscription of 111 feminism, Kurdish 63–5, 66–7 see also women’s organisations forced marriage 4–5, 16, 20, 25, 30, 33, 37, 38, 48, 56, 57, 65, 111 see also marriage gender inequality 11, 25–6, 29, 35, 38, 39 see also patriarchal societies HBV reinforcing 28, 39, 124, 143 see also HBV Iraqi Kurdistan, in 16, 21, 48, 54 see also Iraqi Kurdistan Region gendered norms 7, 28 see also patriarchal societies gendered violence 1, 2, 6–8, 9, 25, 27 see also VAW asylum seeking, and 37–8 HBV distinguished 4, 30 see also HBV ‘honour killings’, being 31–2 see also honour; killing patriarchal social relations and 25, 30, 137 see also patriarchal societies HBV 20, 21, 22–3, 65 see also VAW acceptable, seen as 1, 37 blaming victims 30, 38, 98, 150 see also blame; victims

INDEX

media representation 22, 75 see also media, the men, against 6, 27, 56, 57, 104, 117 monitoring 12, 97, 112–13, 117, 119, 123, 124, 125, 130–31, 148 murder see killing non-fatal 14, 27, 51, 59, 60 official shortcomings regarding 101, 102–3, 104, 105, 143 ostracisation 6, 10 patriarchal societies, correlation between 137 see also patriarchal societies raising awareness of 65–8 see also women’s organisations social contexts 9, 38 stereotyping 5–6, 7, 27, 99, 106 challenging 5, 6–7, 106–7 survivors of 14, 72, 84, 144, 151, 156, 162 tackling 2, 10–11, 15, 21, 36, 37, 125 see also Iraqi Kurdistan Region; UK UK, in 18–20, 33–4, 35, 96, 142–143 see also Kurdish diaspora; UK official shortcomings 37–9, 103 responses to 35–7, 101 un-Islamic, being 136 see also Islam VAW, as 9, 19, 20, 21, 26, 27, 28, 30, 31–2, 38, 144 see also VAW widespread nature of 5–6, 7, 13, 16, 26–7, 57, 137 honour 7, 9–10, 27, 30, 44, 140–41 see also dishonour alternative register of virtue 141 challenging concept of 28, 31, 141 codes of 4, 7–8, 37, 44, 55, 88, 118, 140 contested term, being 2, 31, 139

HBV (cont.) cases see cases (main entry) causal factors 8, 9–10, 15, 27, 30, 38, 55, 83, 106–7 challenging 11, 28, 63, 66–8, 69, 141, 142, 143, 151 see also women’s organisations men and 69–70 changing perceptions of 1–2, 7, 10, 20, 39, 96, 107, 119, 136, 141, 153 communities affected by 5–6, 7 culture and gender in 28–31 definition 4–5, 27 historical 30 degrading nature of 2 dis-honourable, characterisation as 1, 2, 139 domestic violence, distinguishing 4 see also domestic violence dominant form of 60 see also burning exoticising 19, 35 expected 1, 35, 56, 106–7 family complicity in 100, 104 fundamentalist religion and 7, 29, 32, 44, 134, 137 gender inequality, reinforcing 28, 39, 124, 143 see also gender inequality female complicity in 6, 30 framework surrounding 4, 30, 144 hidden nature of 1 see also code of silence human rights violation, as 31, 32, 143, 144 see also human rights Iraqi Kurdistan, in 16, 21–22, 34, 55, 56, 59–63 see also Iraqi Kurdistan Region justifying 30, 32–3, 82–3, 84, 101 killing see killing (main entry) Kurdish diaspora, among 93 see also Kurdish diaspora

181

HONOUR-BASED VIOLENCE

honour (cont.) crimes 7, 16 culture, and 8–9 deconstructing 139–41 ephemeral nature of 9 female 8, 29, 30 groups 9 killings 6, 7–8, 9–10, 11, 12, 31–3, 38, 55, 56, 62, 79, 80, 143 see also HBV; killing cleansing‘, as 32, 57 cultural defence 36–7 gendered violence, being 31 see also gendered violence; HBV; VAW justifying 32–3, 84, 101, 121 urif, being 135–6 VAW, as see VAW widespread 31, 32–5 Iraqi Kurdistan, in 140–41 see also Iraqi Kurdistan Region male 7, 8, 27, problematic term, being 2, 6–7, 28, 139 see also dis-honourable religion, and 8–9 social control, and 28, 44, 52 virginity tests 62, 115, 118, 119 ‘honour’-based violence see HBV human rights 36, 41, 82, 112, 124, 131, 136, 152 FGM as abuse of 51, 135 see also female genital mutilation growing awareness of 17, 64, 140 HBV as abuse of 19, 31, 32, 51, 74, 143, 144 see also HBV; VAW UN Commission on 5 hymen repair, forced 5, 30, 56, 84 see also virginity tests imprisonment, women, of 5, 16, 56, 57 inter-personal violence 1 intersectionality, gender oppression, and 25–6 182

Iran 3, 5, 32, 41, 43 –Iraq War 42 KDPI 63–4 Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Rights Organisation (IKWRO) 20, 33, 69, 95, 96 Iraq 3, 5, 18, 41, 43 Anfal 21, 42, 47, 64, 68 Iraqi Penal Code (IPC) 119, 121, 142 private/public offences differentiation 49, 90, 113, 114 Kurdistan Region of 3–4, 15, 21, 22, 41, 43 see also Iraqi Kurdistan Region legal system 45, 48–9 War 17, 42 Iraqi Kurdistan Region 3–4, 15, 21, 22, 41, 43 Action Plan for combating HBV 14, 18, 142, 144, 147 see also Action Plan Anfal 21, 42, 47, 64, 68 Arabisation of 21, 42 Association for the Development of Kurdish Women 63 Combating Domestic Violence Law (2011) (CDVL) 16, 49, 53, 90, 110–14, 118, 119, 142 see also legal reform below domestic violence, defining 111 implementing 111–12, 119 overriding powers of 114 reconciliation committee, proposing 112 shortcomings 113–14, 119 criminal justice 90, 118, 119 CDVL see above conviction rates 18 HBV, sentences for 49, 62, 109–110, 119, 120 see also sentencing honour codes in 119–21 shortcomings of 114, 117–18

INDEX

Iraqi Kurdistan Region (cont.) culture of 44, 94 Defamation Law (2008) 90, 114 Department of Forensic Medicine 87 virginity tests 62, 115, 118, 119 diaspora from see Kurdish diaspora faith leaders 133–8 awareness training for 136–7 FGM, Fatwa on 135 mobilisation on VAW, lacking 134 public opinion, influence on 134, 135, 136 socio-religious discourse and 135–6 Union of Kurdistan Islamic Scholars 133, 135 feminism in 63–5, 110 see also women’s organisations FGM in 29 see also female genital mutilation gender inequality in 16, 21, 48, 49, 52, 53–4 General Amnesty Law (No2) (2012) 120, 121–2 General Directorate of Combating Violence Against Women (GDCVAW) 12, 18, 34, 58, 59, 125, 131 guidelines 128 High Commission to Combat VAW 90, 125 Government (KRG) 12, 43, 44, 45–6, 64, 110, 121, 125, 128, 131 GDCVAW 12, 18, 34, 58, 59, 125, 131 High Commission to Follow Up VAW 125, 130 High Commission to Monitor Violence Against Women 12, 127

Ministry of Human Rights 130 transitional context of 18, 124, 139 HBV in 16, 21–2, 34, 53 see also HBV challenging 63, 69, 131, 142 policy on 125–7 see also GDCVAW above extent of 59–63, 61–2 official responses to, shortcomings of 131–3 under-recording of 59–60 VAW, hard to distinguish 127 health system 50–51 High Commission to Follow Up VAW 125, 130 High Commission to Monitor Violence Against Women 12, 127 see also General Directorate above Directorates to Follow Up and Combat VAW 12, 18, 125, 127, 130 High Council of Women’s Affairs 113, 125–7, 130 annual campaign 126 National Strategy to Combat VAW 126 objectives 126 history 41–2 Ottoman Empire 41 Safavid Empire 41 honour in 140–41 see also honour ‘Honour’-based Violence Monitoring Commission 12 informal justice system (Solhi Ashayri) 122–4 Iraqi dominance, resisting 17, 41–2 Iraqi Penal Code (IPC) 119, 121, 142 judicial system 45, 119 Komalayati 66, 67, 122, 123 Solhi Ashayri 122–4 183

HONOUR-BASED VIOLENCE

Iraqi Kurdistan Region (cont.) Kurdish Women’s Rights Watch 13, 20 Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) 41–2, 64, 66, 81, 110, 118, 119 Kurdistan Women’s Union 64 see also women’s organisations of Iran (KDPI) 63–4 –PUK war 43, 44, 119 Kurdistan National Assembly 17, 43, 48–9, 110, 121, 151 Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) 43–4, 64 see also Government above legal reform in 109–10, 142 Combating Domestic Violence Law (2011) 16, 49, 110–14 marriage in 48–9 see also marriage adultery (zina) 49, 118 discipline in (ta’dib) 49, 118 polygamy 49 patriarchal values, reinforcing 124 Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) 41, 42, 64, 66, 67, 81, 109, 118, 119 –KDP war 43, 44, 119 Peshmerga 45, 64, 116 radical political Islam 44–5 recent stability in 45–6 religious groups in 41, 44, 137 societal changes 109–10, 139 Solhi Ashayri 122–24 Sunni Muslim, predominantly 41 unified judicial system, lacking 119 VAW in 127 see also VAW HBV, hard to distinguish 127 informing public opinion on 128 monitoring 130–31 protection centres/shelters 128–9, 132 see also victims, support women in 47–53 184

divorced/separated 47 see also marriage education of 49–50, 53, 62 see also education employment 16, 51–2, 53 FGM see female genital mutilation health 50–51 isolation of, rural areas, in 132 legal status 48–9 marriage 48, 49 see also marriage (main entry) political representation 52–3 qayra kich 47 talaqdraw 47 violence against 56–7 see also VAW widows 47 za’eefa 48 women’s NGOs in 17, 52, 63, 64 see also women’s organisations Women’s Rights Monitoring Board (WRMB) 90, 112, 125, 131 Yezidi Kurds 41, 137 Islam 32, 45, 103, 134, 136 FGM, on 135 fundamentalist 44, 134, 137 HBV, and 5, 35, 67, 133, 136–7 Islamophobia 19 radical political 44–5 stereotyping 32, 81 Islamic State/Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (IS/ISIS) 17, 18, 46 killing 6, 7–8, 9–10, 11, 12, 31–3, 38, 55, 58, 61–2, 99, 79, 80, 100, 120, 143 see also HBV; murder; VAW ‘cleansing‘, as 32, 57 coerced suicide 4, 16, 56, 111 see also suicide immolation 16, 56, 59 see also burning self- 56, 60–61, 84

INDEX

killing (cont.) justifying 32–3, 84, 101, 121 premeditation 4, 30, 31, 55 prosecution of 14, 99, 100 sentences for 36, 59, 99, 100–101, 102, 104–5, 119–20 urif, being 135–6 widespread 5, 31, 32–5, 137 Kurdish diaspora (UK) 3–4, 5–6, 15, 22, 93 see also UK discrimination against 19 ethnic identity 94 HBV among 93, 95, 142–3 see also HBV case histories see cases criminal justice and 96–8, 105–7 policing 105–7 working definition 97 honour among 9 see also honour intergenerational conflict among 94–5 marriage, and 10 nationalism among 94 perceptions of 94 romance, and 10 symbolic capital 9–10 women’s campaigns among 68–9, 73, 95, 102 see also women’s organisations women’s organisations 95–6 see also women’s organisations (main entry) Kurdistan see Iraqi Kurdistan Region Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) 63–4

discipline in (ta’dib) 49, 118 divorce 47, 100, 123, 134 compensation 58 forced 16, 57, 111 early 33, 48, 58, 65, 111 forced 4–5, 16, 20, 25, 30, 33, 37, 38, 48, 56, 57, 65, 111 jn ba jn 58 Kurdish diaspora, among 48–9 see also Kurdish diaspora polygamy 49, 95, 110 media, the 75, 80–87 crucial role of 90–91 cyber 76, 87–91 abuse, on 88–9 see also abuse dual effects of 87–8 representation of HBV 22, 81–2, 85–6, 87 independent newspapers, in 76, 81, 82, 84 party-political 86 mainstream 81, 82, 84–7 TV and radio 76, 84 women’s 80 women’s publications 75–6, 77–80, 82–3 archives, as 78 gender sensitivity, lacking 83 professionalism, lacking 78–80 VAW, on 77–8 murder 4, 30, 31, 55 see also killing coerced suicide 4, 16, 56, 111 see also suicide justifying 32–3, 84, 101, 121 premeditation 4, 30, 31, 55 prosecution of 14, 99, 100 sentences for 36, 59, 99, 100–101, 102, 104–5, 119–20 see also sentencing widespread 5, 31, 32–5, 137 mutilation 6, 16, 56, 57 see also disfigurement female genital see female genital mutilation

male domination 19, 27, 30–31, 52, 53–4 see also patriarchal societies; women, men controlling challenging 141 marriage 48–9 adultery (zina) 49, 118 arranged 48, 58, 77, 84, 100 185

HONOUR-BASED VIOLENCE

ostracisation 6, 10 patriarchal societies 28, 36, 38, 53–4 female socialisation in 30–31 gender inequality in 11, 25–6, 38, 39 see also gender inequality HBV, correlation between 137 see also HBV honour in 27, 28 see also honour Iraqi Kurdistan Region, in 48 see also Iraqi Kurdistan Region male domination in 19, 27, 30–31, 52, 53–4 male socialisation in 35 negative power of women in 29 norms of 7, 8, 9–10, 15, 25, 101 see also socio-cultural norms gender-specific, being 9–10, 27 resisting 21, 35 women’s identities within 30–31 power in 27, 35 VAW, and see VAW women, controlling, in 4–5, 25–6, 28–9, 30–31, 35, 37, 44, 47, 83, 88, 104 see also women, men controlling persecution 6 gender-based 37–8 Peshmerga 45, 64, 116 physical abuse 16, 27, 30, 56 see also abuse polygamy 49, 95, 110 see also marriage poisoning 4 premeditation 4, 30, 31, 55 see also killing; murder prostitution, forced 57 public shaming 9, 16, 56, 68, 88–9 see also shame rape 4–5, 56, 57, 58, 65 as punishment 16, 100 removal of children 5, 58 research 11–15, 157 186

aims 157 analysis 164–5 consultation 159–60, 162, 163 dissemination 165 ethics 158 findings 15 interviews 160–62 IKR, in 162–3 UK, in 163–4 management 159 methodology 14, 158–64 opposition to 1 resistance to change 1 revenge 5 self-immolation 34, 56, 59, 60–61, 128, 131 see also burning; suicide sentencing, HBV for 49, 62, 120, 36, 59, 99, 100–101, 102, 104–5, 119–120 reduced 36, 49, 104, 109–10, 119 sexual harassment 25, 34, 65 sexual mutilation see female genital mutilation shame 9–10, 44, 55, 104 public shaming 9, 16, 56, 68, 88–9 sanction, as 28 socio-cultural norms 6, 8, 9–10, 29–30 see also patriarchal societies challenging 35, 63 male-dominated 8 men and 69–70 women’s identities within 30–31 Solhi Ashayri 122–4 Southall Black Sisters 20, 36, 108 starvation 4 stereotyping HBV 5–6, 7, 27, 99, 106 see also HBV challenging 5, 6–7, 106–7 Stockholm Declaration to Combat ‘Honour’-Related Violence in Europe 11 stoning 12, 65 see also killing; murder

INDEX

subordination of women 7, 30 any means, by 37 reinforcing 39 suicide 34, 47, 56, 59, 60, 61–62, 88, 127 coerced/forced 4, 16, 56, 111 self-immolation 34, 56, 59, 60–61, 128, 131 see also burning survivors, HBV, of 14, 72, 84, 144, 151, 156, 162 see also HBV; victims blaming 30, 35, 38, 82, 98, 110, 132, 150 see also blame protecting 17, 19, 32, 51, 64–5, 70–71, 89, 90, 101, 105, 108, 111, 117 sexual history, courts considering 49, 118 support for 11, 15, 17, 20, 21, 38, 107, 108, 144, 151, 152 see also women’s organisations Balennama 58, 116, 123 empowerment programmes 70 failure of official 32, 37–39, 102–3, 105 hotlines 70–71 legal services 70, 129 mediation 72–3, 123, 136 rehabilitation 132 shelters/refuges 57, 58, 71, 128–9, 132 therapy 72 symbolic capital 9–10

ACPO Strategies on ‘Honour’Based Violence and Forced Marriage (2008) 20, 36, 37, 97, 107 cultural relativism in 36, 38 see also cultural relativism Forced Marriage Unit (FCO) 105 HBV in 15, 18–20, 33–4, 142–3 see also HBV criminal justice and 96–8, 105–7, 108 cultural defence, acceptance of 35–6 killings 98 see also killing media portrayal of 5, 7 national database on 37 official failings regarding 101, 102–3, 104, 105, 155–6 paternalistic police attitudes to 38–9, 101 policing 99, 107 preventing 36–7 prosecuting 99, 100 protecting victims of 102 response to 35–9, 101 risk assessments 97 sentences for 36, 59, 99, 100–101, 102, 104–5 victim support 20, 105, 108 see also victims Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Rights Organisation (IKWRO) 20, 33, 69, 95, 96 Kurdish diaspora in 3–4, 5–6, 15, 19, 93 see also Kurdish diaspora patriarchal communities in 36 see also patriarchal societies Project on Strategies to Address Crimes of ‘Honour’ 20, 96 recommendations for action in 155–6 Southall Black Sisters 20, 36, 108 Strategic Homicide Prevention Working Group on Honour Killings for London 36, 96

tackling HBV 10–11, 15, 21, 34 see also HBV torture 16, 59, 79, 127 sexual 95 unequal power relations 6, 19, 30, 38, 39 see also patriarchal societies UK 18, 35–9 187

HONOUR-BASED VIOLENCE

UN policies on HBV 1, 10 UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women (1993) 6 VAW 1, 6–8, 9–10, 11, 15, 20, 22–3, 25, 27 see also gendered violence; HBV blaming victims for 38, 98 see also blame; victims cases see cases (main entry) challenging 63, 64–5, 69 men and 69–70 cultural relativism, and 36, 38 see also cultural relativism distinguishing HBV 34–5, 36 FGM 5, 16, 25, 29–30, 51, 65, 95, 135 see also female genital mutilation gender sensitive response to, need for 38 HBV as 9, 19, 20, 21, 30, 31–32, 38, 39, 144 see also HBV ‘honour’ in 27, 28, 30 International Day to Combat 128 Iraqi Kurdistan, in 56–7, 128 see also Iraqi Kurdistan Region justifying 30, 32–3, 82–3, 84, 101 raising awareness of 10, 11, 12, 15, 20, 35, 64, 65–8, 73, 91, 111, 127, 128, 149, 151, 153 UN Declaration on 6 unequal power relations and 6, 19, 30, 38, 39 see also patriarchal societies victims, HBV, of 2, 8, 10, 16, 27, 28, 30, 33, 84, 96, 105 see also survivors blaming 30, 35, 38, 82, 98, 110, 132, 150 see also blame male 6 protecting 17, 19, 32, 51, 64–5, 70–71, 89, 90, 101, 105, 108, 111, 117

188

sexual history, courts considering 49, 118 support for 11, 15, 17, 20, 21, 38, 107, 108, 144, 151, 152 see also women’s organisations Balennama 58, 116, 123 empowerment programmes 70 failure of official 32, 37–9, 102–3, 105 hotlines 70–71 legal services 70, 129 long-term 133 mediation 72–3, 123, 136 rehabilitation 132 shelters/refuges 57, 58, 71, 128–9, 132 therapy 72 violence against women see VAW virginity, forced 5, 30 virginity tests 62, 115, 118, 119 women, exchanging 111 women, men controlling 4–5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 19, 25–6, 28–9, 30–31, 35, 37, 44, 47, 55, 83, 88, 104 see also HBV; patriarchal societies; VAW honour killings and 32 see also gendered violence; HBV; honour; killing; VAW resisting 55 subordination see subordination of women women’s organisations 17, 52, 63, 64, 73–4, 107–8, 129 Association for the Development of Kurdish Women 63 Asuda Organisation to Combat Violence Against Women 17, 66, 72 Heli Garmi Asuda 71 attacks on 72–3 campaigning 68–70, 73, 126 challenges faced 73–4

INDEX

women’s organisations (cont.) challenging VAW 63, 64–5, 69 see also VAW divisions between 66–7, 72–3 empowerment programmes 70 see also victims, support Harikar 66 Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Rights Organisation (IKWRO) 20, 33, 69, 95, 96 Khatuzin 66 Khushkan 66 Kurdish diaspora, in 95–6 see also Kurdish diaspora Kurdish Women Action Against Honour Killing 69 Kurdish Women’s Rights Watch 13, 20 Kurdistan Women’s Union 64, 66 Hevi Phone 71 see also victims, support legal services 70, 129 see also victims, support mediation 72–3, 123 see also victims, support Nawandi Hawbashi Zhnan (Women’s Joint Cooperative Centre) 65

189

Newham Asian Women’s Project 103–104 raising awareness, VAW, of 65–8 publications 68 radio stations 68, 80 Rasan 66 shelters/refuges 57, 58, 71, 128–9, 132 see also victims, support Southall Black Sisters 20, 36, 108 Start Social Development Organisation 66, 69 UK, in 95–6 see also Kurdish diaspora; UK Women’s Aid 96–7 Women’s Empowerment Organisation 66 Women’s Media and Information Centre 65, 68 Women’s Network 65 Yaya organisation 63–4 Zhnan Kurdistan Women’s Union 64, 66, 67, 70 Zhiyan 65, 68, 69 see also women’s organisations