ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A teen girl was allegedly killed by her father early Friday morning in Erbil’s Soran district, officials confirm to Rudaw as gender-related killings of women and girls remain a grave issue across the Kurdistan Region.
Using a Kalashnikov rifle, a father allegedly emptied six bullets into his 15-year-old daughter’s body in Soran, the district’s Directorate of Combatting Violence against Women told Rudaw.
“The reason for killing his daughter is claimed to be that she went out with two people,” the directorate added without disclosing further details.
An investigation has been launched into the murder and the father has been arrested.
The recent murder comes less than two weeks after a 20-year-old woman was murdered in the Kurdish capital. Her brother and uncle were arrested in relation to her death.
Under the pretext of “honor” and “social dispute,” at least eleven women have been killed in Erbil, Sulaimani, Koya, and Duhok since the year began. The toll is expected to be much higher.
The Kurdistan Region suffers from high rates of gender-based violence, including sexual violence, domestic violence, so-called honor violence, child marriages, and female genital mutilation.
Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani, late February said it hurts to "live in a society where men think it is normal to threaten, torture and kill women," adding that what is more painful is "the shameless demeanor of our society."
Suspects in women killings are often arrested but investigations yield little or no result.
The concerning increase of murders comes despite the Kurdistan Region’s efforts to end gender-based violence and so-called honor killings.
In December, the Region launched an app to tackle violence against women. It also set up a support hotline for victims of violence in 2018, about seven years after the Kurdistan Regional Government passed its Combating Domestic Violence Law, criminalizing domestic violence and equipping the directorate to combat violence by investigating it.
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