The Kurdistan Women Union-Europe (KWU-E) organised a visit on Thursday 15 May to the First and Second Chamber. The group was headed by the KWU-Europe head Mrs. Shilan Dosky, whose brother Serdar Dosky used to be a member of the Socialist party (SP), but is now active in the Kurdish region of Iraq. Shilan Dosky said that the problems of women emancipation were created by men, but that still men should be included in a solution.
Socialist senators Tiny Kox and Anja Meulenbelt spoke with the group of Kurdish women and men about women’s rights and showed the First Chamber. Both Anja Meulenbelt and Tiny Cox emphasised that also in the Netherlands emancipation was a slow process and that the issue of woman rights should be solved by both women and men. “35 years ago the law said woman couldn’t act on their own and were considered the same status as handicapped people,” said Cox. But now this changed. Although there is still violence against women in Holland.
Anja Meulenbelt also warned that more violence against women will take place if women emancipation grows, because then men feel trespassed. “If you don’t solve the roots of the problem, nothing is going to get solved.”
Later the Dutch MP Harry van Bommel showed the Second Chamber and discussed his political views with the group. He also emphasised that men and women should both fight for women rights. “Women rights cannot be achieved, without the participation of men.”
The Dutch socialist party (SP) has good relations with Kurds and Kurdish political parties. For instance Van Bommel revealed that he is trying to get support for a full functioning Dutch consulate in Iraqi Kurdistan.
