Exclusive Interview with the Vice President of Asuda Organization Jwan Rahim

Asuda was founded in 2000 and, in 2002, became the first Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) in Iraq to provide shelter for women facing threats. For ten years, we ran our own shelter where women received physical, mental, and legal support. When the government later established its own shelters, we reached an agreement to transfer women in need of protection there, allowing us to close our facility while continuing to offer legal aid and therapy services.

Our main office is based in Sulaymaniyah. In 2009, we launched the first hotline in Iraq for women who could not physically reach us. Since then, we've maintained three primary hotlines: the protection line, awareness line, and investigation line. Today, our protection line operates as a listening center in Erbil, Duhok, Sulaymaniyah, and Halabja. We also piloted it in Rania, Thiqar, and Nineveh for over a year, which revealed significant differences in the types of violence across regions.

Over the years, the nature of our cases has evolved. In the past, women often came to shelters because their families threatened them for wanting a divorce, saying it would bring shame. Now, families are more educated, and social attitudes are gradually shifting.

One of our key advocacy methods is awareness raising. We engage with communities through media campaigns, public gatherings, and workshops; often involving women, men, and even religious leaders. For over a decade, we've held educational sessions for men and boys, focusing on how they can help reduce violence, adopt healthier behaviors, and understand women’s legal rights during and after marriage. 

We work closely with the Yazidi community to raise awareness of their specific rights, including entitlements to compensation under the law. Beyond education, we offer direct legal, psychological, and financial support to survivors of sexual and gender-based violence covering transportation, doctor visits, and emergency needs. 

In addition to our hotlines, we provide free counseling at our centers. We have professional counselors and, when needed, refer individuals to psychiatrists at no cost. Mental health remains a stigma in our society, but we're seeing some progress. We educate people, especially in villages and schools, on basic mental health concepts, helping them recognize issues like phobias or obsessive behaviors as treatable. 

Our support extends to men and children as well. While we can't legally represent men in court, we do offer them counseling. Often, children accompany mothers to sessions. Our therapists observe them, sometimes analyzing their drawings to identify signs of trauma. When needed, we speak with the children directly and offer continued support. 

In many cases, we invite both the woman and her husband to counseling sessions. If a resolution is possible, we work toward it, always making it clear that the final decision is theirs. Sometimes, the husband also requires psychological support, and we offer it to the entire family. Minor issues, often magnified by stress or financial hardship, can be resolved when someone takes the time to listen. 

However, in serious cases such as severe abuse, unapproved divorce, or secret remarriage, our lawyers step in to file cases on behalf of the woman. If she can't afford legal representation, we cover the costs.

Unfortunately, there are negative perceptions of our work. In the past, women’s rights were often associated with a rigid, anti-men feminist image. While the field has shifted toward justice and equality for everyone, some still believe we encourage women to break up families or behave recklessly. This belief is completely unfounded. We don’t tell anyone to get divorced; we simply provide them with information, support, and options. 

We strive to build healthy families, free of violence, where both partners and children can thrive. However, some groups remain opposed to our mission, likely because an educated woman is harder to control. When she knows her rights, not only at home but also at work, she challenges traditional power structures.

Women's rights were improving, but things regressed after 2014 with the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and the spread of extremist ideologies. Before that, it was becoming more acceptable for women to work, travel, and live independently. Now, even prominent academics argue that women should stay home and are taking men’s jobs. 

Economic hardship, war, and migration have all stalled progress. One major setback was the push to amend Law No. 188, which governs personal status. The proposed changes would lower the legal marriage age and make polygamy easier, violating both children and human rights. Many of us campaigned against this, including traveling to Baghdad to protest.

Yes. We’ve worked on amendments to the Personal Status Law, compensation laws for survivors, action against domestic violence, and women’s rights during and after divorce, as well as laws related to the misuse of technology for online harassment. 

We're also part of the (My Name, My Mother’s Name) campaign led by People's Development Organization (PDO). This initiative aims to help Yazidi women whose children were fathered by ISIS members or whose fathers are unacknowledged, so the children can receive legal identities using their mothers’ surnames. It’s an incredibly complex and ongoing effort that began in 2018.

We’ve had good support from the government, especially from the High Council of Women’s Affairs, Asayish, and violence prevention departments. The biggest resistance we face comes from social media attacks. Some individuals, who simply don’t believe in women’s rights, publicly criticize and misrepresent our work. Even if we were just giving food to the poor, they’d oppose it because our name includes the word “women”.

Culture plays a major role. Often, decisions aren't based on what a person wants but on what society expects. For example, a mother may want her daughter to stay in school, but societal pressure pushes her toward early marriage. It’s accepted for young men to go abroad to study but frowned upon for women. 

This mindset even affects our own staff. Some parents discourage their children from working at our organization, claiming it's dangerous. But we do this work because it saves lives. Every week, we support two or three individuals with suicidal thoughts. Helping them recover is what keeps us going. 

Unfortunately, our work also comes with risks. Our lawyers have been threatened, especially if they were seen as responsible for a woman’s ability to divorce. We receive online harassment, personal threats, and sometimes even hostility in public.

Our funding is mostly project-based. Still, we’ve always kept our doors open, even when we didn’t have active projects or funding. There were times when we went five months without funds, and the long-term staff made personal sacrifices to keep Asuda running. Some worked without pay and took turns staffing the office so that someone was always available if a woman needed help. 

We also have designated rooms at the maternity hospital, where we provide services for postpartum depression, something we see in alarming numbers. We also work on severe burn cases, with some women suffering burns over 80% of their bodies. We partner with hospitals like Shorsh Hospital, which offer free treatment in exchange for fulfilling tax-related agreements. These partnerships allow us to support survivors with the medical care they desperately need.

Every small victory is a success for us. We often deal with critical cases, for example, a woman locked in her house without food or support, or a toddler injured in domestic violence. When we intervene and help, it means we’ve saved a life. Each of these cases is a success.

Of course, we have long-term dreams we’re still working toward, like changing laws and ensuring they’re fully implemented. Our vision is to turn this region into a calmer, more peaceful place for everyone.

We take things step by step. So far, we’ve raised awareness among different community groups with support from the Ministry of Interior. There has also been progress in the departments working against violence, and we’ve seen the opening of government shelters for women, shelters that have gained a positive reputation. Now, if someone knows a woman is in a shelter, they feel relief knowing she’s safe, not homeless or at risk of being exploited. 

We have decent laws in place for women, but the problem is enforcement. One of our major achievements is the shift in how the legal system addresses honor killings. In the past, crimes like a man killing his wife, daughter, or sister “for honor” were often dismissed or lightly punished - just a few years in prison, if any. Now, such crimes are excluded from general amnesty. This legal shift is one of our biggest successes.

It’s critical that women’s rights NGOs and the government work together to support women and girls across the region. 

Another urgent issue is ensuring that the KRI’s laws remain distinct and progressive compared to federal Iraqi laws. For instance, we’ve abolished certain practices here, like the ease of taking a second wife, but such laws still exist and are practiced in Iraq under Baghdad’s legal system. There have even been efforts to make us follow their laws. We must not let that happen. For example, the family violence law has been passed and implemented in KRI, but it hasn’t even been passed at the federal level in Iraq. We have clear, safe shelters here in KRI, where women can stay with access to food, clothing, and a place to sleep. In Iraq, there are no public shelters, only a few hidden ones run by NGOs, which are dangerous to operate openly. 

Spreading awareness is also essential; not just to women, but to all of society. At Asuda, we hold seminars for both men and women. Education plays a huge role. If we want a mentally and physically healthier generation in 15 years, we need to start now by embedding awareness into the school system. Everyone gets the same books and lessons in school, that’s how we can reach people equally, even in remote villages where other forms of advocacy might not reach. 

It’s also important that women’s rights organizations align in their messaging and efforts. Thankfully, most of us do. For example, if we organize an activity on March 8th for International Women’s Day here in Sulaymaniyah, we know similar events are happening in Duhok, Erbil, and other places. Unfortunately, Kirkuk remains a challenge. Since it follows Iraqi federal law, we can’t legally offer our services or advocacy there. We’ve tried several times, but it’s a difficult situation to navigate.