ROJ HOZAN

Qamishlo – Cizre Region Women's Committee plays an important role in supporting women within the Autonomous Administration system. It develops economic projects for women and children. It implemented all decisions made in 2021.  Zeyneb Mihemed, the chair of the committee spoke to our news agency about their works.

The committee members hold meetings at the beginning of every year and prepare their program according to the decisions they make at the meetings. “We had three main programs for 2021. One of them was to develop projects to empower women’s economy. Our second program was to protect children. We decided to increase the number of children’s shelters. Violence against women was in our third program. We supported women to earn their living in 2021. The majority of civil servants in the Autonomous Administration are women,” Zeyneb Mihemed said.

They opened new centers

Stating that there was a children’s shelter only in Rimelan, Zeyneb Mihemed continued to talk as follows: “Since the number of children who lost their parents in the war is so high, we opened a Children's Protection House in Hesekê. We couldn’t complete all our projects because we allocated all our resources to the Health Committee due to the pandemic. Our project to open a tailor shop in Tirbesiyê is about to come to an end. We opened new centers to support children and their mothers. We, as the committee, wanted to support working women, who have to leave their children. So we opened daycare centers. On the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, we organized an activity for children with disabilities. We also worked with non-governmental organizations working for immigrants. We visited refugee camps and helped women and children living in the camps.”

Training program for male co-chairs

Indicating that they decided to open three centers in Qamishlo and Tirbesipiyê, Zeyneb Mihemed said, “The people who will teach the children are currently undergoing a training program t to learn how to communicate with the children. The Women’s Committee has organized training programs for both its members and civil servants working for the Autonomous Administration. We have an intellectual education academy in Til Maruf village of Qamishlo. This academy has organized the training programs. We also organized a training program for male co-chairs.”

Cizre Region Women's Committee has held workshops for women to learn their rights. Speaking about the Women's Voice Committees, Zeyneb Mihemed said, “All women can take part in these committees. Members of these committees discuss solving the problems faced by women. We have a Women's Voice Committee in Cizre Region and we want to expand such committees across NE Syria. Protecting women from violence is one of our main works. We direct the victims of violence to our psychology centers. We support them to be integrated into society and we provide job opportunities to them so that they do not need anyone to live. We also held seminars in 2021. We conducted many projects with political parties and organizations.”

Projects for next year

Speaking about their projects for next year, Zeyneb Mihemed said, “Some women want to work but they don’t know what they can do. For this reason, we will open centers in 2022 to organize job training programs for them. One of these centers will be in Qamishlo while the other will be in Hesekê. After women participate in the programs, we will provide employment opportunities for them. We already talked to the members of NE Syria’s Women’s Council about the implementation of women’s laws and we will implement these laws in the Arab regions next year. We believe that we will develop more comprehensive and successful projects next year.”