Women suffering from war, poverty, economic dependency, domestic violence and rape, patriarchal violence under the name of religion or choice of the free market, tradition or progress have become a subject of international agendas through women’s struggles for equality. Women from war and conflict areas are even stronger disadvantaged or disguised. Nevertheless these women have also started to seek for solutions. Among others, women organizing themselves under the umbrella of the IFWF are an example.

EXAMPLE

Being a woman and being a Kurd
With Kurdish women being women of a stateless nation, they have always been subsumed under the categories of the dominant state authorities. This situation appears for Kurdish women living in their homeland as well as for Kurdish migrant and refugee women. Therefore figures on Kurdish women's health and their access to healthcare are hardly available. Although there are differences in the situations of Kurdish women living within the state borders of Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria, they have a great deal in common: As a result of discriminative state policies towards the Kurds the state authorities did not show any interest to invest in the infrastructure development of the Kurdish region including health services. Besides restricted mobility in the rural areas, the lack of healthcare facilities and personal or missing financial sources to pay for a doctor Kurdish women’s access to health is also constrained due to the lingual and cultural discrimination. During the last 30 years especially Kurds living on Turkish and Iraqi state territory have encountered a permanent warfare with changing intensities.

Only in Turkey more than 30,000 people lost their lives and about 4.5 million Kurds have been forced to seek refuge inside and outside the country. Health check-ups carried out by a sub-commission of the Human Rights Association IHD among Kurdish refugees in the Turkish city of Mersin showed malnutrition and missing vaccination as the main cause of diseases. 90 % of the examined persons had no health insurance and therefore limited access to health services.

Along with difficulties to receive appropriate medication for common diseases, Kurdish women face even more sever problems in finding treatment for disorders resulting from violence, displacement, war and torture. In the past years the existence of Kurdish women has been remembered in the media by reporting on cases of so-called .honour killings and high suicide rates. But so far, neither these events nor the systematic violence against Kurdish women carried out by state forces have been subject of a substantial scientific survey. NGOs engaged to provide the necessary support and treatment for women with mental and physical disorders resulting from rape, sexual torture, enforced prostitution and sterilizations, encounter great difficulties.

The improvement of women’s access to health in the Kurdish region will be closely related to a change of the political climate in the region. Without a sustainable peace process including democratization of political, social, economical structures and an indiscriminative implementation of human rights it will not be likely for Kurdish women to gain appropriate access to health care in their homeland. Peace is a precondition for health. Kurdish women living in the Diaspora

A high number of Kurdish migrant and refugee women in Europe suffers from psychological and physical health problems created by the experiences of violence, war and migration; often leading to Post Traumatic Stress Disorders (PTSD). Being isolated and a foreigner, many women cannot confide to anybody what they have been living through. This especially appears for women who are in fear of sanctions either by state authorities or by their own community. The permanent fear of deportation and uncertainty even worsen the situation. Thousands of Kurds being traumatized due to war and torture still have not been recognized as political asylum seekers. Just to give an example: A mother with two children, whose husband was killed by so called .unknown forces. while she was raped by Turkish soldiers, now has been waiting for 10 years for the Dutch authorities decision on her asylum application.

Women who have been exposed to sexual torture or behave inconsistent with the patriarchal traditions of their society often get stuck in a cycle that can continue up to addiction, depression or even suicide. The need to provide adequate education on PTSD and migrants women.s health issues as well as to create access to treatment options is obviously acute.

Difficulties in Access to Healthcare:

Migrant and refugee women face multiple problems in getting access to required health care and counselling due to restrictive immigration laws, communication problems and insufficient educated healthcare professionals. This situation even got worse with privatization of public services and cuts in the European social security systems during the last 10 years.

The above is the story of one group of women. Unfortunately, this story is repeated for every woman that is in exile or just living in a strange country.

Mission: What we need to understand is that ALL women need access to decent health care. At this moment we are not talking about sophisticated health care for unusual illnesses, but we are talking about normal health care. Women, in way to many instances, are the only ones to help their children get ahead. If they are sick, obviously they can be as productive as needed. This lack of productivity hurts not only the family but the state, too. Each country needs to look at the women that are living there. Look hard and long at the problems they have, and then sit down and work out a plan to solve these problems. Since the women with the most problems are the ones that are foreigners. The delegates of the UN must look at what they need and how we can help them and how we expect them to be helped.

Questions:

1. Are there refugees in your country? How are they treated?
2. What are the minority groups in your country and how are the women treated?
3. How are women treated normally in your country-especially when it comes to healthcare?
4. What steps has your country taken to improve the healthcare of women and to be sure that all women have it?
5. What can the UN do to improve the health care of women?