Woman killed by husband, raising weekly toll of Kurdistan Region's female killings

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A woman was shot dead by her husband in Sulaimani province late Wednesday night, a security official told Rudaw as the Kurdistan Region adds another brutal murder of a woman to its never-ending list of honor killings and gender-based violence deaths.

Maryam Yacoob, 40, was gunned down by her husband, Sulaimani police spokesperson Sarkawt Ahmad told Rudaw.

The husband was also reported dead after he shot himself shortly afterwards, the official added.

The details of the incident and the reason behind the murder remain unknown for the public, but crimes of this kind are very common in the Kurdistan Region.

This week alone, four women were killed in different circumstances in a series of gender-based killings across the Kurdistan Region. 

Yacoob was a lecturer at Sulaimani’s Komar University of Science and Technology and a postgraduate student at the University of Sulaimani.

Social media in the Kurdistan Region has been overcome with anger and grief as a result of the recent increase in female killings. 

Yacoob’s death comes one day after a mother and a father allegedly killed their nine-year-old daughter in the Kurdish capital.

Another woman was shot dead by unknown assailants in Koya town last week. The perpetrators are still on the run as the details of the incident remain a mystery.

The Kurdistan Region suffers from high rates gender-based violence, including sexual violence, domestic violence, so-called honor violence, child marriages and female genital mutilation. Twenty-four women were killed in the Region in the past year, according to statistics from the Directorate of Combatting Violence against Women.

The term “social dispute” is often used as justification for violence against women.

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in 2011 passed the Combating Domestic Violence Law, criminalizing domestic violence and equipping the directorate to combat violence by investigating it, yet the practice of domestic abuse and the so-called honor killings is still seen across the Region.

The recent murders come as Iraqi and Kurdish political parties are in negotiations to form the next government in Iraq following October’s early election.

This year, women were guaranteed 25 percent of the legislature’s 329 seats in the vote, a move set to give them more rights and power, but Iraq is yet to pass its Anti-Domestic Violence Law, which has put forward by lawmakers for almost three years now.

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