Dr. Andrea Zittlau who is a teacher at the University of Rostock, Germany. Mr. Rezhyar Fakhir, an advocate for peace who has held several workshops through the Christian Peacemaker Team. Dr. Lynn Rose, who is a professor of the Social Sciences at AUIS and Deputy Director at CGDS. Mr. Shko Shwan who began as CGDS’ co-ordinator and is currently the project manager for the EU project.
Funded by the EU, CGDS is producing podcasts, in Kurdish, Arabic and English to promote understanding of gender issues in the region. The following is one of the podcasts produced for the project.
The main theme of this podcast is feminism. The definition of what feminism is, its misconceptions, and how it is initially perceived within society. The guests on the podcast are as follows. Dr. Andrea Zittlau who is a teacher at the University of Rostock, Germany. Mr. Rezhyar Fakhir, an advocate for peace who has held several workshops through the Christian Peacemaker Team. Dr. Lynn Rose, who is a professor of the Social Sciences at AUIS and Deputy Director at CGDS. Mr. Shko Shwan who began as CGDS’ co-ordinator and is currently the project manager for the EU project.
The first topic of the interview discusses the true definition of feminism as it gets highly misunderstood by the majority of females and males within society. Dr. Lynn Rose argues that feminism could be defined in several ways, thus there is not a singular definition that one can refer back to. Kosha Hussein mentions that there are a lot of privileges that males have in Kurdistan which females do not. Unfortunately, these privileges are not appreciated by males, as they fail to perceive the situation from a female’s perspective.
Mr. Shko Shwan explains that misconceptions about feminism are common in a lot of cultures. Some of these misconceptions include people believing that feminism is specifically a female’s concern. As a result, in certain cultures when males actually speak up for women’s rights, they are ostracized. They are also thought of as individuals who help women in overruling men. Mr. Rezhyar Fakhir, a social activist, says that when talking about feminism there should be no regard to where its ideas originate. Feminism should be looked at as a global ideology where there are unified goals & no distinctions. He adds that the process of supporting women should be based on a partnership where women & men collaborate to dispose of male dominance. Dr. Andrea Zittaleu specifies how feminism is perceived as an idea that is no longer relevant to the 21st century. She elaborates on how her students have told her that in this era everyone is actually equal. Dr. Zittaleu specifies how there is a lack of understanding of what equality means. In this lack of understanding and awareness of what feminism is, various misconceptions tend to arise.
The second topic covered in the interview is the relationship between men and feminism. Mr. Shko says that the equality feminism fights for can be expressed in various ways. For instance, a man splitting the lunch or dinner bill between him and his date, is one of the ways of expressing equality. Drawing from the Iraqi culture, men are pressured to pay for their wives’, fiances’, or girlfriends’ expenses. Society would consider these men inadequate were they to do otherwise. The behaviors & beliefs of both genders arise mainly from the culture that they are in. In order to change this mindset one needs to gradually amend the culture. Mr. Shko says that change comes progressively and with time. We as individuals have the power to shape culture rather than letting culture shape us.
Summarized and Translated by: Lubna Ghazi