According to a compilation by RojNews agency, at least 9 women were murdered, and 3 others died under suspicious circumstances in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq in August.

The femicides in question, as well as other cases of violence against women, were recorded in the cities of Sulaymaniyah, Kirkuk, Halabja, Germiyan, Qeladiz, Raperin and Behdînan. 

There has been a significant increase in femicides in South Kurdistan in recent years as perpetrators are granted impunity for the killing of dozens of women every year.

According to the Kurdistan Region Organization for Legal Support for Women, 13,584 women were killed in 2021 and 15,897 in 2022.

In a statement drawing attention to the increasing violence and sexual assaults against women in southern Kurdistan, the Kurdistan Free Women's Movement (RJAK) said: “The situation of women in South Kurdistan has grown worse and worse after Raperin (popular uprising against the Baath regime on 5 March 1991). Subjected to violence or killed under various pretexts, women are drawn into psychological pressure while male perpetrators are protected. On some occasions, perpetrators are released after a short period of imprisonment. Laws are not respected and are replaced by tribal domination and mediation by parties and families.”

RJAK pointed out that sexual assault, breach of human dignity and countless cases of torture and murder are covered up by legal centers, human rights and civil society organizations. This is one of the reasons for the increase in violence, which is largely justified by various motives such as honor and religion.

Calling on women to get organized against untransparent and insufficient solutions and to stop this repressive system, RJAK demanded that perpetrators of femicide be sentenced in accordance with law to ensure that women are not tyrannized or treated as second-class citizens.