ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Dozens of Kurdish artists are preparing artwork illustrating the issue of women's rights in the Kurdistan Region for an exhibition on March 8, International Women's Day.

A three-day conference has been organized in Erbil to train and prepare the group of artists, consisting of 10 male artists and seven female ones from different cities across the Region.

The exhibition is part of the Helan Art Exhibition arranged by the German Goethe Institute in Iraq in partnership with the Framing Photojournalism School. It focuses on cultural and artistic activities and presenting works by young and talented artists. 

"We have brought together several Kurdish artists on the project. This time we chose the topic to be on women’s issues in society since we are close to March 8, and several paintings will be exhibited during that day," Safin Hamid, director of the Framing School, told Rudaw.

The director of the school said that during the three days of the conference, artists will exchange their views on their work, exchange critiques, which is "a good step for the development of art.”

The Kurdistan Region suffers from high rates of gender-based violence, including sexual violence, domestic violence, so-called honor violence, child marriages, and female genital mutilation.

The Erbil-based NGO SEED Foundation, in 2022, called on the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to “investigate & prosecute, & develop a clear strategy to respond to honor killings.”

Femicides in the Region are often linked with the terms “social dispute” and “honor killings,” which perpetrators use to justify murdering their mothers, sisters, daughters, or wives.