-Nazand Bagixani
We worked for equality in rights, not for conflict and opposition to men

According to several international reports, including those of the Jean-Jacques Institute in Paris, and according to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on March 6, women’s rights in the world have recently declined. This retreat does not only affect Kurdistan and Muslim countries, but also Western countries.

According to reports, the reasons for this decline are many, including those specific to Western countries, highlighting the development of racist right-wing and religious extremist ideologies and the rise of some of them to power. The roots of this recession go back to centuries of masculinity that became more widespread around the world with Donald Trump coming to power in 2017 and his extremist policies. In African and Middle Eastern countries, the dominance of masculine mentality, lack of proper gender knowledge and the growth of political Islam, along with the restraint of political power against this excitement, are the main reasons for this decline. These are inseparable from the major crises of modern technology, environmental pollution, global warming and natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods and hurricanes.
In light of the reports, international experts and we call on governments, the UN and the European Union to consider the issue of equality and women’s rights as a political and diplomatic issue and not remain silent against the misrepresentations of Islamic, Catholic, racist and masculine extremists. The political leadership in all countries must have a say and raise the issue within the framework of a knowledge-based discourse, taking into account the historical and cultural characteristics of each society, and formulate appropriate strategies to resolve it.

This trend is clearly evident in countries that have seen war and face the forces of terrorism, such as Kurdistan; In Kurdistan, after decades of implementing an appropriate gender equality policy, the situation has recently become complicated and dangerous.

Social Policy and Gender Equality After the merger of the two administrations of Erbil and Sulaimani in 2005 and the formation of the unified Kurdistan Regional Government, it has included a number of legal and strategic reforms, institutionalization, gender education and development of academic and scientific research in universities It embodied Kurdish culture. Although there have been many shortcomings and challenges in terms of implementation, the political will has been active and serious work has been done with the cooperation of academics and mass forces to include it in the agenda of successive cabinets. This continues today, but unfortunately, due to misunderstanding and misrepresentation of the issue of gender both as a concept and as a tool for interpretation and deep understanding of the root causes of problems, efforts have been jeopardized. In addition to the geopolitics of the region, the rise of ISIS and the war on terrorism, internal political problems, lack of unity between parties and their negative impact on the system of governance, have further paved the way for extremism and violence in society.

Misunderstanding and misdirection of gender issues in public space and social media has attracted the attention of most people, so that the main issues and the root causes of problems have been neglected in this simplistic space. The carrier of this forgetful and deceptive trend is a conservative force that opposes all efforts and policies of equality and progress in the name of religion and tradition. In the face of this force, the lack of broad-based knowledge about gender concepts, authoritarianism, self-imposition and groupism have destroyed unity and become another major factor in this retreat. This includes not only political and extremist Islamic forces, but also some so-called organizations and parties, which in the absence of gender knowledge and the policy of denial to blacken each other and past attempts, has led to confrontation and interpretation . . . .

Experts around the world and we have made several recommendations to the political leadership and call for new work on this issue as a current need. The main point of these recommendations is that the authorities and political leadership should not fall under the burden of this dangerous situation and continue to dialogue with all parties and develop a progressive social policy that takes into account women’s rights and equality as human rights. In this regard, the government and political leadership must put women’s rights on the political agenda and develop them diplomatically, support women’s rights and gender equality advocates, and provide the necessary resources to address this issue properly and cognitively for the public benefit Forward and become a source of peace, security and peace in society and family.

Feminism means working to fight oppression and provide equality of rights, not to interpret and oppose men. We have worked towards this goal in collaboration with various parties and have used the concept of gender as a tool for understanding and interpretation. It is not too late and all parties, including political leadership, civil society, religious scholars and different classes, should strive for proper social education n; Redefine gender correctly, taking into account the historical and cultural characteristics of Kurdish society, and work together to build a new public awareness in which no one is harmed. The main goal, as always, is to provide rights, social justice, peace and tranquility for the individual and society in general. Rights and culture are two sides of the same coin, in constant motion and must be reconciled. Competition in the name of each of these violates our human values.