Women's group fights for rights in the north

The opening of a new women's and children's hospital in Arbil, northern Iraq, is the latest victory for the region's main women's group. The Kurdistan Women's Union (KWU) has more than 52,000 members throughout Iraq and positions in the Kurdish government. General Secretary Shirin Ahmadi told IRIN in Arbil that whereas women still faced many problems, their situation was improving rapidly. "Men in the Middle East don't have an open mind - their minds are locked. But the situation of Kurdish women is much better than in the south and centre of Iraq. Year by year things are improving and we are trying to provide information to help this," she said. The hospital is the first to be established by the KWU and the first completely free facility in the city. It includes dental, eye and maternity treatment, as well as psychological help for women who have seen and suffered so much in the past. There will also be social workers to help women deal with the many problems they face in life other than medical concerns. Shirin said many doctors had already contacted her and offered to work at the hospital free of charge. Help will also come from the Kurdistan Regional Government and the American NGO Counterpart International, which provided all the equipment and medical supplies for the hospital. Counterpart's project manager, Shahla Muhammed, told IRIN that whereas the hospital's premises were quite small, by the New Year it will have been moved into those of a former hospital, where it would be possible to perform surgery. The existing hospital would then remain as a health centre for women and children. At the hospital's opening on Monday, Counterpart's Iraq Programme Manager, Sam Jones, described it as a "shining example" of cooperation between different groups. Another example of this is joint work by Counterpart and the KWU to establish a library for women and children. Using lateral thinking, six 14-metre containers initially used by Counterpart to bring aid to Iraq by air are being modified to form components of the library. Existing libraries were mainly full of textbooks, Shahla Muhammed told IRIN, and this was an effort to create a place where people could access other material and sit and discuss issues. The aim was to broaden access culture and also to help "unlock the community" by having a place where boys and girls could come together. The library will be called Rozh, or sunshine, and is being set up in an area where there are currently few facilities. Counterpart will provide books, furniture and technical assistance, while KWU will supply staff. This was important to the task of enabling women to find jobs, income and status, Shahla said, and would in itself encourage other women to come to the library. An important section of it would hold children's books - something none of the existing libraries in Arbil currently have. The plan is to open the library within two months. Shirin, herself studying for a law degree, said there was nowhere for women to study when they finished university, and the library would hopefully fill that gap. Educating women was vital, she said, and towards this end KWU had many programmes, including recently having opened a computer training centre in Mosul for young women.