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Women and men are equal in all their civil and individual rights!

Equality of Women and Men Act

(An alternative to the Iraqi Personal Code)

Introduction:

Women systematically face political, legal, social and economic discrimination under the rule of the bourgeois Kurdish nationalist parties. They are not looked upon as equal citizens or mature and independent neither within families nor society. Their existence, personality and their civil and individual freedom are daily under attack. Even the right of life is taken from them. Thousands of honour-based killings, obliging thousands of women to set themselves on fire, disfiguring women, compelling women into prostitution and many other disgusting phenomena are just a part of the tragic life imposed on women under the rule of the bourgeois Kurdish nationalist parties. All these have been made an inseparable part of the legal and executive system in Kurdistan.

Women in Kurdistan are denied equal citizenship, civil and individual rights. Furthermore, Sharia law and the worse the Baath regime personal code are used as a means to make women slaves in the legal system and society in general. Enacting the polygamy act by the Parliament of Kurdistan is not only making women into sex properties, but is also a humiliation to the whole society of Kurdistan.

 Equality of Women and Men Act is a legal document that was approved by The Independent Women Organisation on 20th. October 1999. It is one of the achievements of the struggle and fight of egalitarian men and women and the women egalitarian movement led by worker-communism. It was simultaneously a response to the undesired circumstances faced women in Kurdistan. The idea behind this law was to repeal the Iraqi personal code implemented also by the Kurdish ruling parties, and to guarantee the civil and individual rights of women legally instead.

Putting this legal document in use could have resulted in great changes and reforms in favour of women in family and society. But, the ruling parties and in particular the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan responded to the document and the demands of egalitarian movement by killing communists, attacking the Independent Women Organisation and forbidding their political activities. This was more evidence of the nationalist parties’ hostility towards the civil and individual rights of women.

Worker-communist Party of Kurdistan (WPK) endorsed this document in its fourth congress on two grounds. Firstly, we believe that fighting for embedding civil, individual rights and freedom of women in the legal system is a way to obtain the complete equality of women and men in all aspects of personal and societal life. Secondly, applying this document, or a part of it, is practically a step to restoring the dignity and rights of women in society. It has been about a decade and a half now when this document was first published but the condition of women’s life and their freedom and rights has not been better despite authorities’ daily propaganda on that. On the contrary, the statistics about violence, killing, discriminating and suppressing women is a stigma on the reputation of the patriarchal bourgeois society of Kurdistan.

Endorsing this document by the fourth congress of WPK coincides the resistance of women and men freedom fighters in Kobani against ISIS and the reactionary political Islam. This resistance resulted in the decree of women rights in Al-Jazeera Canton in Syrian Kurdistan. And this can be a factor to widen a regional front against nationalist and Islamist reactionaries and to restore the personality and rights to women. At the same time it helps Kurdish society be a place where humanity and egalitarianism combat the reactionary and patriarchal ruling.

The fourth congress of WPK calls on all freedom-loving women and men and the activists in the egalitarian movement to use this document in their struggle for establishing a secular society. We call them to work to put this law in use as an alternative to the existing personal code.

Equality of Women and Men Act

(An alternative to the Iraqi Personal Code)

General rules:

1.    The Iraqi Personal Code, which is inspired by Sharia, is based on oppression and considering women as second-rate humans. To achieve equality between women and men and the human rights of women, this code must be repealed. The state and the related authorities must launch a combat against the effects of those old laws on society.

2.    Equality of Women and Men Act (EWMA) treats both men and women equally. Complete equality between women and men is a formal law of the country and all the other paragraphs rely on this law.

3.    The state must found committees and bodies, and at the same time encourage the NGOs, to watch equality between women and men and interrogate anyone who breaks the paragraphs of EWMA or who treats women and men unequally.

4.    The paragraphs of this act are applied over any citizens who live in Kurdistan.

Note: any change or adding any paragraph and article to this act should be based on complete equality of women and men and should not conflict with it.

Chapter one: marriage

Section one: definition of marriage

Article 1

Marriage is a free agreement between women and men aiming at forming a relationship of a common life.

Article 2

Registering marriage in an official state bureau (solicitor) or signing a paper to verify the marriage is enough to recognise the marriage of any two persons.

Article 3

No man can marry more than a woman at one time.

Article 4

Any interference in and/or pressure on the marriage of two persons is forbidden.

Article 5

The legal age for marriage is 16. Any marriage under this age is forbidden.

Article 6

Religion, ethnicity, sex, language, skin colour and affiliation must not obstruct any voluntary marriage between two persons.

Section two: marriage annulment

Article 7

Any marriage done by force (forced marriage) is invalidated. No one can interfere in others’ marriage process or force them to marry.

Article 8

If a man has a wife, he cannot marry another woman. This kind of marriage is invalidated and is unlawful.

Article 9

Marriage of any who violates the terms in paragraphs 2, 3, 4 and 5 is invalidated. Anyone who accomplishes that will face law punishment.

Chapter Two: duties and rights in marriage

Article 10

Setting any form of transaction in marriage is forbidden.

Article 11

Since marriage is a relationship for a common life, its running should be done by both of the married couple.

Article 12

Both women and men take the responsibility of guardianship.

Article 13

Any financial and household properties belong to women and men equally.

Article 14

Beating women by men is forbidden.

Chapter Three: Divorce

Article 15

Women and men are free and equal in divorce.

Article 16

To carry out divorce, women and men can consult social counsellor for two months.

Article 17

A woman who has divorced or whose husband has died is free to immediately remarry.

Chapter Four: the relation of child to mother and father

Section One: parentage of children

Article 18

Parents are free to name their children after either the mothers’ or fathers’ names.

Article 19

Parents must agree on limiting the parentage of a child. In case of disagreement, the baby will be named after the mother’s name.

Article 20

The children whose parentage is missing, others can adopt them and name them after their names.

Article 21

The children whose parentage is missing and no one would adopt them are considered as children of society and are named only by their own names.

Section Two: guardianship of children

Article 22

In case of marriage, both women and men are in charge of equally raising child.

Article 23

In case of separation (or divorce) and after a year of age, if the child is still at breastfeeding time, the raising is determined by the agreement of the pair according to their potentials.

Article 24

Anyone of the parent who does not keep the child has the right to meet him/her constantly.

Article 25

In case of separation (or divorce) and when the conditions of raising do not exist, the social counsellor can decide about guardianship.

Article 26

The women who become mothers out of marriage have the maternity right and their children have all the children rights.

Article 27

The right of abortion rests on woman only.

Section Three: child allowance

Article 28

The allowance for a child, until age 16, must be provided by the state.

Chapter Five: inheritance

Article 29

The state will give the inheritance to the included persons equally. The quantities will be decided according to the living condition of the families.

Article 30

There is no discrimination between women and men concerning inheritance and both have the same right.

Article 31 persons included in inheritance:

Part 1: marital affair

Part 2: child

Part 3: a person whose parentage is endorsed

Article 32

Inheritance will be given after paying back loans.

Chapter Six: punishments

Article 33

Anyone who interferes in article 8 of chapter one will be punished.

Article 34

There is no punishment for a sexual relation if the pair agrees about it.

Article 35

Only in case of rape, the man will be punished.

Article 36

Women and men will face the same punishment for any crime (including killing).

Article 37

Sexual relation of adults with persons under age of 16, even if he/she agrees, is forbidden. Anyone who commits that will be punished.

Article 38

Having sex with a woman without her consent is forbidden even if no violence is used. Committing that by a man is considered as rape and he will be punished.

Article 39

Men, who beat, humiliate or disgrace women will be strongly punished.

Article 40

Women are free to wear clothes or wear make-up. There is punishment for anyone who violates this right.

Article 41

Any objection against mixing of women and men in schools and public places is liable to punishment.

Fourth Congress of Worker-communist Party of Kurdistan

21st. December 2014