Prioritizing women welfare could curb femicides in Kurdistan Region

Last week a man was arrested for slitting his wife’s throat in the capital of the Kurdistan Region. Kwestan Pirot Khidr, whose body was dumped outside Erbil’s emergency hospital, was a 35-year-old mother of four.  A month before, a 20-year-old social media influencer was killed. Her name was Eman Sami Maghdid. These are only two of the tragic killings targeting women across the Region.

When a woman or girl is killed in the Kurdistan Region, the first question people ask is “What did she do?” suggesting there is a form of conduct that warrants or justifies the killing of women. This pervasive mentality exists among both men and women in Kurdish society - making it much harder to challenge.

Without a doubt, the Kurdistan Region is not the only place where violence against women is surging. Across the globe, we are seeing violence, so-called honor killings, and the raping of women increase. Why is this happening and what can be done to reduce or contain the scale of violence?

The nature of violence against women in the Kurdistan Region is warped by a prevalent system of beliefs that places women’s conduct in a subservient relation to men’s honor, self-worth, and societal standing. This includes women who are perceived as modest and those who defy familial structures intended for them.

he Region has a domestic violence law in place that criminalizes violence against women and mandates its investigation. In contrast, Iraq has yet to pass its domestic violence bill. There are shelter houses and a hotline for victims of violence, but despite this, the services remain poorly communicated to those most vulnerable, particularly women outside of city centers.

The cases we hear of in the media are about women who are at the very end of a cycle of violence. Other women who continue to put up with domestic abuse - verbal and physical - are not drawn into the equation here. Research shows that women survivors of violence have long-term ramifications such as mental health issues, suicide attempts, and homelessness.

Women in the Kurdistan Region face an uphill battle against a largely conservative society that is currently going through a transitional phase. This society is struggling to accept the greater freedoms and opportunities that women are increasingly being exposed to. Simply uttering words like “enough is enough” carries little force in curbing violence against women and girls.

At least 11 women have been killed across the Region in the first two months of this year. Forty five women were killed in the Kurdistan Region in 2021, up from 25 the previous year, AFP reported in March.

Without public outrage against the killing of girls and women very little will be achieved. And this is for two reasons: the Kurdistan Region is landlocked and faces constant threats to its security. It has multiple crises unfolding, from its oil exportation being ruled unconstitutional by Iraq's top court, to internal political disunity that appears to be reaching a breaking point. When all these factors are considered, women are simply not seen as a priority, and little effort has been made at a national level to change this.

Until women’s welfare becomes a priority, violence against women and girls will continue to increase.

Without a plan in place to reduce the scale of violence against women - harsher laws for perpetrators, and efficient services in place to enable women to escape abusive relationships, we are not going to see change happen soon.

Ruwayda Mustafah is a British-Kurdish political commentator, and advocate for women’s rights

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rudaw