2000 - Special Washington & New-York

Kurdistan is not actually a state; we are rather considered as an ethnic minority living on the territory of several States: Iraq of course, but also Turkey, Iran and Syria. Kurdistan was divided up after the Second World War. Kurdish women, however, experience the same hardships wherever we are.

Since 1991, the situation of Kurdistan in Iraq is particularly noteworthy. After the Gulf War, the UN set up a zone called "Safe Haven." Contrary to its name, it is not safe for anyone-not the Kurds, and certainly not Kurdish women. In every part of Kurdistan, the Kurdish population suffers from the denial of fundamental human rights. Women experience all kinds of violence in addition to poverty.

We must distinguish between two forms of violence: State violence and social and domestic violence.

By State violence, I mean what the four States that share Kurdistan enact against the Kurdish population: military intervention, genocide, forced migration and assimilation, deportation, massive destruction of cities and villages, imprisonment, rape and sexual abuse and the consequences of all this on social and economic structures.

By domestic and social violence, I mean that every day, even within the bounds of the family, men target women for honour crimes, sexual and other forms of mutilation (often, the nose), forced marriage, early marriage, etc.

Kurdish women are acting together to demand an end to all this violence. We work under very difficult circumstances to combat violence and poverty. The price we pay is not simply the destruction of our homes, to be refugees on our own territory, and placed in concentration camps created by the Iraqi régime. Women, by the way, are the principal victims. More, when we defend our fundamental rights and identity-as soon as we resist as Kurds and as Kurdish women-they respond with military attacks. There is a war being waged against the Kurds and women are the primary victims of their dirty wars.

When Leyla Zana was elected as a Kurdish member of parliament in Turkey, she was charged with terrorism because she spoke Kurdish and wore Kurdish dress during her swearing in ceremony. Without the international solidarity movement that mobilized in her defence, she would have been executed. All she wanted was peace and respect for the political and cultural rights of Kurds in Turkey, and for this she was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

When as Kurdish women we are denied our fundamental rights, prohibited from wearing traditional clothing or celebrating the new year because these things signify our "Kurdishness," it becomes hard to express our feminist convictions.

This is a very sensitive and controversial subject. When there is a national cause to defend, the people often give priority to the national liberation struggle, and the struggle for women's liberation is subordinated to it. Women have different approaches and concepts of women's emancipation, but the majority believe that our freedom as women comes after national independence. Our task is more difficult than that of male politicians. We have the political responsibility to feminize politics, to insist on an ethical and carefully considered process. We must resist all forms of oppression, State and patriarchal.

Our message is broader, more humane. We want all the people to be free and we want Kurdish men who are fighting Turkish, Iranian and Iraqi aggression and fundamentalism not to reproduce the system of patriarchal oppression on their wives, sisters and daughters. We want justice, freedom, democracy and above all, peace.

In our demands, assembled by groups in different parts of Kurdistan, we call on the UN and its member States to bring an end to the repression and violence exercised by States against the Kurds, and assure justice, democracy and peace.

Earlier I mentioned genocide and massive destruction. Here are some examples. Women are not only the first victims; they also suffer long-term harm. In Iraqi Kurdistan, thousands of people were victims of chemical warfare. Poison and chemical products are transmitted from generation to generation. Many children are born into illness and suffer birth defects. The UN and the international community has not responded. They have not taken any actions or established development programs. Even today, nothing has been done.

Today I am thinking of all the women and children who are victims of the "ANFAL" genocide campaign committed by the regime of Sadam Hussein between 1988 and 1990. During this campaign, 182,000 people were arrested. They have disappeared since that day. We know nothing of their fate. The women I am thinking of are known as ANFAL widows.

They were left with nothing. They have no villages and they live in abject poverty. Together with women activists, they implored me to demand that the UN take action to find out what happened to the disappeared and set up urgent action plans to address the situation of the ANFAL widows.

The Iranian regime exercises repression on the Kurdish population. In this part of Kurdistan, Kurds also suffer religious discrimination. The Iranian regime is Shi'ite, while the Kurds are Sunnites. Fundamentalism reinforces patriarchal traditions and values that take numerous forms and are oppressive to women.

I carry all this inside me as a Kurdish woman. I am the only Kurd here, and I have a great responsibility. I want the international community and the UN to give Kurds and especially Kurdish women more voice; we want to be formally represented so that a feminist approach to the Kurdish question may be heard. In the name of all Kurdish women, I bring this message of peace, justice and respect of our rights. I want to express my solidarity with all the women of the world who are fighting against violence, racial, ethnic and gender discrimination, poverty and injustice.