WORLD_ SYRIA_ Syrian Kurds give women equal rights, snubbing jihadists

The Japan Times

Syrian Kurds give women equal rights, snubbing jihadists

AFP-JIJI Nov 10, 2014 Article history

BEIRUT – The local government in a majority Kurdish area of Syria has passed a decree granting women equal rights in what a monitoring group called “an affront” to discriminatory jihadist moves.

Published on the local government’s official Facebook page on Wednesday, the decree states that women and men should enjoy “equality… in all walks of public and private life.”

Last year, Syria’s Kurds created autonomous governments in the three regions where they are a majority, establishing self-proclaimed rule.

Arabs also hold office, and the decrees apply to all ethnicities living in the self-governing areas.

The decree, passed by the leaders of the Al-Jazira canton — officially Hasakeh province — stipulates that women have the right to equal labor rights, including pay.

Women must be 18 years old to marry, and they cannot be married off without their consent.

“Polygamy is forbidden,” the decree states, adding that women have the same right to bear witness in court as men, and that they have full inheritance rights.

In Islam, men are allowed four wives on condition that they can afford it, while women have limited inheritance rights and fewer rights before a law court.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Syrian Kurds have not so far allowed women to inherit at all.

The decree bans “honor killings” and “violence and discrimination” against women and says women must get paid maternity leave for their first three children.

According to the Britain-based Observatory, the decree is an “affront to laws being passed by the Islamic State, which are highly discriminatory against women”.

Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP: “While fighting the jihadists, the Kurds also want to send a message to the international community, to say that they want to espouse a culture of democracy and civil rights.”

Backed by rebels, the Iraqi peshmerga and a U.S.-led coalition, Syria’s Kurds are fighting a fierce battle against the Islamic State jihadists in the flashpoint town of Kobani on Syria’s border with Turkey.

More than 1,000 people, mostly Islamic State fighters, have been killed there in less than two months, most of Kobani’s residents have fled. The town has become a symbol of resistance against the jihadists.

Abdel Rahman called the Kurdish decree “a major step for the region, whose tribal society has long been ruled by conservative social mores.”

Damascus does not recognize the self-proclaimed governments established by the Kurds in 2013.

***

Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc . 
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị . 



conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
10112014
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là ĐỒNG LÕA với TỘI ÁC