27 Kurdish women reported dead from honor killings in past four months

Over the past four months, at least 27 women have died in honor killings in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq, an official from the regional government said Monday, according to Agence France-Presse.

According to the human rights minister Aziz Mohammed of the Kurdish regional government, 10 of the murdered women were from the Irbil, 11 from Dohuk and six from Sulaimaniya.

“These are alleged honour killings. We can say that the violence against women continues in Kurdish Iraq,” Mohammed told AFP.

During the same four months, he said that a total of 97 women – 60 in Irbil, 21 in Dohuk and 16 on Sulaimaniya – have attempted suicide by self-immolation.

The article noted that: “The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq has regularly highlighted ‘honour killings’ of Kurdish women as among Iraq’s most severe human rights abuses.”

According to the article: “Aso Kamal, a 42-year-old British Kurdish Iraqi campaigner, says that from 1991 to 2007, 12,500 women were murdered for reasons of ‘honour’ or committed suicide in the three Kurdish provinces.”

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