Woman allegedly killed by husband in Erbil

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A young woman was gunned down inside her parents’ house in Erbil on Monday evening allegedly by her husband of four months, and the victim’s father is calling for justice to be served.

The man, 19, had opened fire on the house, emptying “nearly an entire magazine of bullets,” killing his wife, 20-year-old Aveen Ramadhan and heavily injuring her 16-year-old sister Dilvin, according to Ramadhan Aziz, the girls’ father.

“Dad, he will kill me. Don’t send me back,” Aziz quoted his daughter as saying days before the attack, saying the couple had continuous problems throughout their four-month marriage.

“He was jealous and hot-tempered,” said the victim’s father, adding that the suspect, who is a weapons dealer, had previously threatened to kill his daughter.

Dilvin was immediately hospitalized and received emergency care. One of her legs was amputated due to the severity of her wounds.

After nearly 24 hours in the hospital, Aveen’s younger sister Dilvin was pronounced dead on account of the wounds she had endured.

Aveen’s father-in-law has handed his son over to security forces since Monday evening, according to Aziz who called on authorities in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to bring justice to his family.

Erbil’s local security directorate (Asayish) said in a statement on Tuesday that the husband and an accomplice who had given him the assault rifle have been arrested and are currently under investigation.

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.

At least 44 women were killed in the Kurdistan Region in the 2022, according to statistics from the Directorate of Combatting Violence against Women, almost doubling the figure from 2021 in which 24 women were killed.

Femicides in the Region are often linked with the terms “social dispute” and “honor killings,” that perpetrators use to justify murdering their mothers, sisters, daughters, or wives.

Update (21/6/2023 8:19 AM): Dilvin is pronounced dead