Arranged/Forced Marriages: At the Intersection of Gender, Violence, and Sexuality

一个不公正的社会传统只有在被充分理解的情况下才能得到解决。这项比较和实证研究旨在调查伊拉克库尔德斯坦地区(KRI)的包办婚姻和强迫婚姻现象，并描绘其多方面的社会影响。通过实施不同领域的跨学科和理论框架，包括性别与和平研究，研究人员打算了解这种精心安排或非自愿的婚姻在库尔德妇女和男子的社区、文化和日常生活中所起的作用。这项研究还旨在探讨一系列切题，例如女性的性行为或滥交及其与家庭假定的“荣誉”的辩证联系，女性童贞的社会价值，以及可能导致针对女性的“荣誉杀戮”以报复被冒犯的家庭的道德侵犯行为。其他被审查的变量包括切割女性生殖器的社会文化功能、在KRI中复制的性别角色和关于男子气概的社区话语，以及当前妇女在公共领域更多机构的政治发展。通过运用定性和定量的研究方法，包括在KRI实地采访女性和男性，研究人员渴望填补已确定的关于强迫婚姻和包办婚姻及其周围问题生态系统的文献空白。通过这样做，这项研究将阐明日常生活和集体行动之间的重要联系，同时思考女性的存在，并展示她们生活中相互交织的复杂性。这些发现引起了学术界、人权组织、国际机构、散居国外的大量库尔德人的欧盟国家以及库尔德斯坦地区政府的兴趣，以便他们能够制定连贯一致的政策，防止基于性别的暴力，实现更大程度的平等。

An unjust social tradition can only be addressed when it is fully understood. This comparative and empirical research study aims to investigate the phenomenon of arranged and forced marriages in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) and diagram out its multifaceted societal implications. Through the implementation of interdisciplinary and theoretical frameworks from various fields, including gender and peace studies, the researcher intends to comprehend the role that such orchestrated or involuntary marriages serve in the community, culture, and daily lives of Kurdish women and men. This study also aims to examine a range of tangential topics, such as female sexuality or promiscuity and its dialectical connection to a family's presumed "honour", the social value of women's virginity, and perceived moral violations which can result in "honour killings" against women to avenge offended families. Additional examined variables include the socio-cultural function of female genital mutilation (FGM), reproduced gender roles and communal discourses on masculinity in the KRI, and current women's political developments for more agency in the public sphere. By deploying qualitative and quantitative research methods, including interviews with women and men on the ground in the KRI, the researcher aspires to fill in the identified literature gaps on forced and arranged marriages and its ecosystem of surrounding issues. In so doing, the research will illuminate the vital links between daily life and collective action, while meditating on women's existence, and displaying the intertwined complexities that characterize their lives. Such discoveries are of interest to academia, human rights organizations, international institutions, European Union states with sizeable Kurdish diaspora populations, and the Kurdistan Regional Government, so that they can formulate coherent policies to prevent gender-based violence and achieve greater equality.