The article below was originally published by Kurdish Question News Desk on October 28th, 2015.

The Kobane Canton Women’s Assembly declared a set of women’s laws last week. According to the laws, underage marriages, arranged marriages (berdel) and polygamy have all been banned in Kobane.

Promoting Gender Equality

According to the report by Zêrîn Kurtay and Rabîa Eto for the female-operated JINHA news agency, the laws in the Kobane Canton — one of three cantons in Rojava (the Kurdish region in northern Syria) — will be spread through education and through neighbourhood assemblies.

Emine Bekir from the Rojava’s Canton Administration said they were continuing to build the democratic autonomous society based on the principle of women’s laws. Ruken Ehmet, also from the Canton Administration said,

We need to provide more education for the laws to be [implemented] well. It is only through education that we can change a society created with 5,000 years of male-dominated, patriarchal mentality.

Ehmet also addressed the role of war in harming women and women’s issues.

Migration due to the war has affected our work. But this doesn’t mean our work has stopped. According to the decisions we have made we will continue education in all sections of society.

Ehmet espoused the role of government in solving women’s issues, starting with neighborhood assemblies: