Woman allegedly set on fire by husband in Sulaimani

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A man has reportedly set his wife ablaze in Sulaimani after pouring gasoline over her due to a domestic dispute, a family member told Rudaw on Sunday. The tragic incident comes less than a week after the Kurdistan Region reported its fifth femicide this month.

Shnyar Hunar, 21, and a mother of two was reportedly burnt by her husband early Saturday. She is currently in critical condition as 85 percent of her body has been severely burned.

“I received a phone call at 2:30 am [on Saturday], it was Shnyar’s [Hunar] mother-in-law. She asked me if we could come to Sulaimani. I asked why, she said Shnyar’s legs have been burnt slightly, it’s nothing. I want you to come,” Hunar’s mother told Rudaw’s Horvan Rafaat from Sulaimani’s Burn Hospital.

Hunar’s mother described that her daughter’s face and entire body, with the exception of her legs, had suffered burns. 

Hunar has accused her husband of setting her ablaze after he beat her up following a dispute between the couple.

“She [Hunar] told me we had a fight … he then hit me. He hit me a lot …he hit my head to the floor, and proceeded to beat me with a wiper’s stick. After the beating, he poured gasoline over me and burned me,” Hunar had told her mother regarding the details of the incident.

The husband, whose name and identity have not been disclosed to the public, has been arrested, according to Hunar’s mother.

Sulaimani police spokesperson Sarkawt Ahmad told Rudaw they are investigating the case after confirming the arrest of the suspect. 

In her statement to the police, Hunar said that her “husband took gasoline out of the heater and poured it on me, then set me on fire and ran away,” according to the police official.  

The husband, 25, had “fled to the borders for the purpose of fleeing and hiding,” Ahmad told Rudaw. 

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.

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.

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 recent incident comes four days after Maryam Yacoob was shot dead by her husband in Sulaimani, reportedly after asking her husband for a divorce.

The husband also died after he shot himself shortly afterward. They left one child behind.