In 2010, after conducting field research in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq , Begikhani, a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Bristol , raised funds from the British Council to strengthen KRG’s academic institutions by focusing on gender equality principles. The KRG matched the funds, establishing the Region’s first gender-studies center at the University of Sulaimaniya.
Kurdish women’s advocacy has, since early 1990s, resulted in legal reforms and new policies to prevent GBV, protect survivors, and establish gender studies centers at local universities. Iraqi government’s recent counter-Kurdish strategy has reduced KRG’s budget, splintered vulnerable Kurdish groups, while the pandemic brought “another layer of economic vulnerability,” says Begikhani.
“Poetry helps to lift that narrow self to a more inclusive and higher self, helping to better relate to others and to the outside world. In loneliness and pain, poetry helps express intimate feelings; through poetic imagery and language, you dig deep into your intuition and emotion and produce something truthfully human.”