Racism in Erbil + working as woman

Forgot to mention about your wife. I am a woman here and I find the behavior of the men to be troubling. They stare at me and sometimes harass me with their crude gestures and asking me for sex. This happens a lot when I go to the market areas around the Citadel or even from taxi drivers. I do not go out at night and try to go places with groups of women.

I am careful with my clothing and cover everything except for my hands and feet. I do not act friendly. I am not a beautiful woman  so this behavior surprises me.

After living here for a while I have established a network of taxi drivers I know well so that stopped the harassment from using random drivers. I have also invented a husband and started wearing a "wedding ring" when out in public. This helps slow down the problems also.

In this culture men and women do not talk to each other unless in the same family. In the workplace men and women keep their distance. I am not sure about setting up a business and how that would work. Maybe it could work ok if she had a lot of expat clients? I really don't know. Women in this culture let men go first in lines, while driving, etc. There is a woman only line at local bakeries which is nice. At social events men and women socialize in separate rooms like at funerals, etc. Weddings seem to be together for whole group dancing.

A black woman, who used to work with me, reported that at an official company event a high ranking local person cornered them after asking to be shown to the event room and said, "Show me yours" while pointing at her breasts. She told the man, "No" and was very scared as he blocked her way out of the room. Luckily she got away fast. I know the man in question and he has never acted in this way with white female employees. So I would certainly caution your wife to set up her office so that her office area is very public and there are always other people around when she meets with clients and that she should never meet with clients alone. Things like this are not reported to the police here because it would be ineffective and everyone is interconnected so it could have serious repercussions if the person doing the bad stuff is embarrassed and high ranking. I was shocked by this. Men are kings here.

I see lots of men here having business meetings in various coffee shops but rarely see a woman unless she is an arm ornament for a man. Another woman I know who is Turkish and light skinned flew in for a convention/expo at the Erbil Convention Center representing her company. She brought some male coworkers too. While she was at her company  booth at the expo a constant stream of local men gave her their room numbers and phone numbers because they assumed she was a prostitute hired by the company to entertain them in exchange for their consideration of doing business with that company. She was totally outraged by this continuous behavior on the part of the men and said she would never return here to do business again.

I like living here but there isn't much to do. I love hot, dry weather and Erbil is growing fast. Now we have a few malls to choose from. Good luck with your decision.