In conjunction with the launch of the 16-day campaign to combat violence against women, the college of medicine at the University of Baghdad, has organized an awareness symposium on the effects of gender-based violence at Al-Kindy Hall. This event was sponsored by the deanship of the college and was presided over by Prof. Dr. Faris al-Lami, Head of the Family and Community Medicine Branch, in joint cooperation between the Women’s Empowerment Unit at the college and the Gender & Human Rights Division at the Public Health Department of the Ministry of Health, in coordination with the World Health Organization (WHO).
This event consisted of two lectures given by Dr. Ola Zuhair Abdul Hussein from the Ministry of Health and Dr. Rana Mohammed Ali from the World Health Organization, with the aim to educate and raise awareness about the types of violence to which different groups of society are exposed, including women, children, the elderly and the disabled. The lecturers also highlighted the importance and necessity of paying attention to the health care of people who have been subjected to violence, while keeping the secrets of the abused patients and not defaming his/her condition, and clarifying the mechanism for dealing with types of gender-based violence, whether being psychological, physical, economic or sexual. The symposium was attended by the dean of the college of medicine, Assist. Prof. Dr. Amin Abdul Hassan Manea al-Alwani, the representative of the Women’s Empowerment Unit in the college, Prof. Dr. Hadaf Dhafer al-Yassin, and a number of professors, employees and students.