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Nawa Center
For Women in Distress The first shelter for women in distress in Iraqi Kurdistan
Already in the first 6 months of its work, Nawa Centre assisted 47 women. 29 of the women were successfully reintegrated into their families. To date, the centre has assisted more than 1000 women in Suleymaniah, Arbil and Dohuk governorates. The need for the women's shelter is indeed great, and the assistance provided to women in Nawa Centre is often a matter of life and death. As in other patriarchal societies, women in Iraqi Kurdistan are subjected to strict rules of control. Women do not have the status of independent persons in their society. Instead, they are considered the property of their fathers, uncles or bothers, and of their husbands, once they are married. This means that if women violate the wishes of their male relatives, they may be ex-communicated, repudiated and even murdered. Once a woman is repudiated by her husband and her family, she would often have no chance to survive, let alone to lead a decent life. In cases of divorce, a right saved to men only, the woman in often held responsible for the failure of the marriage. Sometimes her family would consider the divorce harmful to the honour of the family, in which case the woman will be threatened by “honour killing”. Iraqi law fails to give effective protection for women whose lives are in danger.
In other cases, women suffer severe psychological problems, following years of domestic violence and oppression. Nawa Centre provides socio-psychological help and therapy. The centre also operates literacy courses – as many girls are deprived of schooling, vocational training courses and awareness programs. Wadi's team offers legal advice for women at the centre, and organises talks on women's rights and gender specific issues. The centre also keeps an open line, to which women in need can call 24 hours a day. NAWA Centre is part of a network of organizations that work for women's rights and include WADI´s women centres and mobile teams, KHANZAD centre as well as with Kurdish women's organizations, and women shelters built after 2003, such as Lani Aram (Suleymaniah) and Centeri Penar (Chamachamal).
The cooperation between civil society organizations has been successful in Nawa center. The mobile teams of Wadi (link) continue to assist the centre in consultancy on legal and social issues, and in participating in the “follow up” program that supervises women who has returned to their homes. Beyond the crucial help and saving the lives of individual women, the activities of Nawa centre have been part of the effort to change the status of women in Iraqi society to equal citizens.
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WADI:
UPDATE: The NAWA Center For Women in Distress has been handed over to the government (Ministry of Social Affairs) as a successful project in 2006. Due to security reasons, for permanent operation it is recommendable to run such shelters under government auspices.WADI maintains an ongoing partnership with NAWA.
WADI
- Association for Crisis Assistance and Development Co-operation
WADI
Branches in Iraq:
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