Gender-orientation workshop

Erbil and Suleimenyah/ Iraqi Kurdistan July 2000

Iraqi Al Amal Association (IAAA) and the Gender Linking and Information Project Machreq / Maghreb (MACMAG GLIP) joined efforts in organizing two gender orientation workshops in Kurdistan in July 2000. The two four-day workshops were held in the towns of Suleimenyah and Erbil. These were the first ever gender training events to be undertaken in this area.

Approximately fifty representatives from various local and international NGOs, women's organizations, government departments, mass media, and independent individuals working in different fields were brought together to actively discuss the issue of "initiating change from a gender perspective," as both workshops were run along the same lines. Participants revealed much interest in the topic, and were all committed to promoting women's rights and women's empowerment in all aspects of life. Violence and suppression practiced against women were regarded as key areas where change is to be induced.

Participatory methods were carried out throughout the workshops, including role-plays which were discovered and tested by participants for the first time with a high level of energy and enthusiasm. Both workshops focused on the following concepts and objectives:

• Introducing experience of participative techniques (as key for working with women's empowerment);
• The concept of empowerment and different forms of power; and examining gender as social relations of power; and
• The basic concepts of gender and development (gender as social relations, 
  the gender division of labour, access and control, practical and strategic gender needs, transformatory potential) and the need to always ask: Who does what? Who has what? Who decides? How? Which men? Which women?

Additional key issues and strategies for change were identified on the last day of both workshops, and recommendations were made with regards to effective means of collaboration with the different concerned parties, including GLIP. Periodic meetings, documents, newspacks and consolidating networks were considered to be starting points for such essential follow-up and collaboration.