Death toll of Iraqi women increases due to honor killings

Honor killings in Iraq have severely increased in the last year, reported CNN on Friday.

In Basra, Iraq’s second largest city, at least 133 women were killed last year for violations of Islamic teaching or honor killings. Police report that these women were murdered “because they failed to wear a headscarf or because they ignored other "rules" that secretive fundamentalist groups want to enforce.” The majority of these cases remain unsolved as police are trying to find an “anonymous enemy.”

Women are killed “in brutal fashion -- some strangled to death, their faces disfigured; others beheaded. All bear signs of torture.” A fear has been instilled in Iraqi women in which everything they do will be judged. Attacks have intensified as British forces have withdrawn and left Iraqi police forces to maintain peace and stability. However Amnesty International has voiced concern over the increasing violence.

In a 2007 report, Amnesty stated “Politically active women, those who did not follow a strict dress code, and women [who are] human rights defenders were increasingly at risk of abuses, including by armed groups and religious extremists.” Since the fall of Saddam Hussein, the situation in Iraq has switched from “the best” to “the worst” in terms of freedom for women in an Islamic world.

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