WUNRN
IRAQ-KURDISTAN – SWEDISH PARTNERSHIP FOR OPENING FIRST
MIDDLE EAST FOLK HIGH SCHOOL FOR GIRLS
Maram
Saeed and Awaz Daleni from Iraqi Kurdistan recently visited Sweden to learn
more about the adult education model known as the folk high school. Photo:
Kvinna till Kvinna/Filippa Rogvall.
Opening the first
so called folk high school for women in the Middle East – that is the goal for
women’s rights organisation Amez. And if everything goes as planned, the
classes will commence in Halabja, Iraqi Kurdistan, in January 2016.
By Filippa
Rogvall – April 22, 2015
Awaz Daleni,
founder of The Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation’s partner organisation Amez, got inspired by the Swedish folk
high school model – a form of adult education – when she herself was
living in Sweden. She fled here from Iraqi Kurdistan in 1981, together with her
husband and one-year old son.
In 2004, Awaz
Daleni decided to move back to Kurdistan. But the Halabja she came back to was
heavily scarred by war and just a remnant of the town she once had left. She
saw a great need for improving the situation for women.
“Women in Halabja
has almost no freedom. There are few public spaces exclusively for women, where
they are able to talk freely,” says Awaz Daleni.
Important
meeting-place for women
Amez Center opened
in Sulemania in 2005 and two years later also in Halabja, where the center
quickly became an important meeting-place for the city’s women. The center
offers training in reading and writing, sewing and crafts, English and drama,
as well as driving lessons and sports and swimming lessons for young women
living in Halabja and the surrounding villages. Last year, over 750 women
participated in Amez’s courses and activities.
“We want to get
women to talk more about gender equality, democracy, human rights and women’s
health,” says Awaz Daleni.
By offering a
place where women are listened to and can feel safe, Amez tries to improve the
conditions for women in the region, despite the armed conflicts taking place
nearby.
Halabja, a small
town near the border between Iraq and Iran, is one of Kurdistan’s most
war-affected cities. 16 March 1988 it was attacked with chemical weapons and
more than 5000 people, many of them children, were killed and tens of thousands
were injured. All of Halabja’s residents were forced to flee and large parts of
the city were demolished.
Halabja’s
inhabitants were also subjected to mass arrests during Saddam Hussein’s rule
and when the city received some autonomy in the 1990s, local Islamists took
power. Today, Halabja has become an autonomous province with a secular
governing. Still, the city is one of the poorest and most conservative towns in
Iraqi Kurdistan, which especially affects women and restricts their freedom.
More women
employed
The idea of
opening the first folk high school for women in the Middle East came to Awaz
Daleni when she was pondering different ways for more women to get a job.
“By making a child
care study program available, we can be part of changing Kurdistan from
scratch. More and more women in Kurdistan are starting to work away from home
and there is a growing need for child care to be provided,” says Awaz Daleni.
Together with
other employees from Amez, Awaz Daleni was recently in Stockholm, Sweden, to
make a study visit at Skeppsholmen’s folk high school. The aim was to further
develop the plan for a folk high school for women in Halabja.
“We learned a lot!
I knew a little about folk high schools since before, but it was a very good
visit both for me and my colleagues. Now, my colleagues understand what the
folk high school model really entails and why this format is important for us,”
says Awaz Daleni.
Positive reactions
Back in Kurdistan,
Amez will now negotiate with the government and the mayor about how to realize
their plans. Among other things, Amez needs to get a permit from the Kurdish
government to open the school, the curricula must be set and teachers employed
and trained.
The folk high
school is planned to open in 2016 and a lot still remains to be done. But Awaz
Daleni is enthusiastic. When asked how the project has been received in
Halabja, she replies proudly: “The reactions have been very positive. The folk
high school will become a symbol of a Kurdistan in change.”