Peregraf
Khayal Sadiq Haji has heard many inappropriate words hurled at her since she became a candidate. But none of them have dampened her enthusiasm for running for a seat in the Kurdistan Parliament.
“I have not paid any attention to these things and, on the contrary, I will take further steps towards success,” Haji, who is running on the Kurdistan Socialist Democratic Party (KSDP) list, told Peregraf.
According to monitoring by Peregraf, the campaign signs of woman candidates are frequently vandalized, while the replies to their social media posts are filled with derogatory comments.
Sidra Fazel Doski, another women who is running on the People's Front list in Duhok, told Peregraf that “whenever a woman takes steps towards her success, society looks at her with different eyes.”
“I have nominated myself and I believe in my abilities. After being elected, we will prove that we are no different from men in terms of serving the people,” she continued, adding that her family has also been targeted.
“Women must endure complaints and problems as they move towards success,” Doski said.
There are 1,191 candidates running in the election, including 368 women. The largest number is in Sulaimani, where 162 women are running for office. There are another 118 women running in Erbil, 66 in Duhok, and 22 in Halabja.
By law, women must make up 30 percent of all women in the Kurdistan Parliament. This quota system means that, at the very least, eleven women will be elected in Sulaimani, ten in Erbil, eight in Duhok, and one in Halabja.
“Individual attitudes and the closed nature of society are the two of the main reasons why women candidates face inappropriate comments and harassment,” Peri Barwari, a women's rightsactivist, told Peregraf.
She added: “When it is said that there are no differencesbetween men and women, why is it that only women, and notmen, face inappropriate speech?”
Many of the women who are running have turned to their families for support in the face of the abuse they face online and out on the campaign trail.
“When I started running, there were various problems for me, but as long as my family supports me, that's everything for me,”Haji said.
She argued that some women candidates mistakenly believe that if they fail to get elected that it will be interpreted as an indication that society does not accept women. “But this is a democratic process and, in the end, some will pass and some will not," she said.
Moreover, this attitude underestimates the power of the nearly one and half million women who are eligible to vote On October 20.
“Our people still don't know the value of their vote. I have seen comments saying that this woman looks like someone else, so I will vote for her, but they do not think about what the candidate can do for him or what his experience, qualifications, and abilities are,” Haji said.
While men still outnumber women in parliament, their number has increasing over the past three decades, in part due to the quota. In the first Kurdish legislature in 1992, only six MPs were women out of a total of 105, according to a report by the Pay Institute for Education and Development. Its analysis wasprepared and published with the assistance of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).
The third Kurdistan Parliament had the highest number of women, with 40 MPs. This has fallen back slightly in more recent elections, but remains around a third of the total.
“Now the role of women in Badinan is better than ever. We have dozens of talented, intelligent, and expert women who are doing very important work for society,” Doski said, who is running in that area.
“If a man takes one step to his success, I am sure women will take two steps. But, in society, the opinion of women in general is still not like men. I hope this is enough and women are treated fairly and helped,” she added.
The Independent High Election Commission (IHEC) has procedures and guidelines for receiving complaints from women candidates in order to punish those who harass them, including by imposing financial penalties.
Sagvan Hassan, a representative of the Duhok branch of the Election Commission, told Peregraf that no female candidate has filed a complaint, despite the widespread vandalism, but encouraged candidates to do so.
“Political and religious reasons play a role in harassing women candidates, especially extremists who may not think or agree that a woman should post her picture, when by law both men and women have the right to run,” said Barwari.
“We need more appreciation and understanding about the position of women in society,” she said.