ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — A key national forum to empower women and minorities opened Monday at the Erbil International Hotel at a particularly challenging time for the Kurdistan region, which has been combating terrorism for more than a year.
The two-day event, under the title “National Conference on Empowering Women to Address the Impact of Terrorism,” features senior Iraqi and Kurdish politicians, leading academics, women activists, local and foreign researchers and experts.
The event, which coincides with the first anniversary of the fall of Shingal to ISIS, began with a moment of silence for Kurdish Peshmerga and the people of Shingal who lost their lives in the extremists’ campaign.
Among the foreign attendees are Helen Hughes from UNHCHR-UNAMI, William Warda and Boriana Jonsson, the executive director of the Euromed Feminist Initiative.
Women and children have been the major victims of the ISIS war in Iraq and Kurdistan since 2014. Thousands of Kurdish Yezidi women are still in ISIS captivity being used as sex slaves one year after the brutal attack against the Yezidi heartland of Shingal.
Speaking at the conference Monday morning, Iraqi Minister for Women’s Affairs Bayan Nouri emphasized the role of women in combating terrorism. “Our women have participated in the fight against the terrorists and have been defending their lands,” she said.
For her part, Pakhshan Zangana, the secretary-general of the High Council for Women’s Affairs in the KRG, discussed the situation of women from minority groups since the start of the ISIS war. She called for more support from the state, local government and the international community to rescue women in the conflict.
“Terrorists have allowed themselves to use Yezidi women as sex slaves because they are different and are in minority,” Zangana said.
The conference also has the stated goal of enhancing the role of Iraqi and Kurdish women, whose role in the political system has grown significantly in national debates for the Iraqi and Kurdish governments since 2003’s US invasion.
Guests at the conference also attended a photo exhibition prior to its opening Monday by Kurdish photographer Ranj Abdullah, which shed light on the life of refugee families from Shingal.
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