WEST KURDISTAN (SYRIA) MESOP : PKK’S/PYD’S TYPE OF GENDER EQUALITY IN KOBANE

31 Aug 2015 – MESOP / ARA NEWS The new laws ban the practice of polygamy, with penalties of up to a year of jail time and fines for violators, Kurdish-owned BAS News reported on Saturday. Other sections stipulate the prosecution of so-called honor crimes on equal footing with other murders and include a ban on child marriages.There might be such a thing as too much equality, Shirin Hamou, a Kurdish activist in the city told ARA News on Saturday: “It would also be nice not to see this young girl who the law protects from marriage being thrown into the battlefield after being forcibly conscripted.”Some online commentators criticized the law as out of touch with Kobani residents’ needs on Sunday.“There are no longer problems in Kobani other than polygamy?…Trivial,” one commenter on Facebook said. “A failed decision in the wrong time. What is this farce? The world is in one place and they’re in another,” another wrote.