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Why Are Women In Iraqi Kurdistan Burning Themselves?

In the Kurdistan region of Iraq, young girls and women, even those as young as 16 years old, are burning themselves as a way out because the levels of torture they face in their abusive households are intolerable. 

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Bhana Bisht
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Women Burning Themselves In Iraqi Kurdistan
Every other month, a young girl or a woman in Iraq's Kurdistan region is killed in order to protect the family's honour. The "honour" they're protecting is apparently attained by shooting their own sister, spouse or daughter because the latter have either not obeyed or not conformed to the traditional roles or social norms. We can never talk enough about gender-based violence because it's not only surging around the globe, as very evidently seen, it's fatally diminishing the existence of several women slowly from some parts of the map in one way or another. Coming to the Kurdistan region of Iraq (KRI), the intolerable violence is leading women to either take their own lives or immolate themselves.
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If you deeply search the state of young girls and women in Iraq, you'll find hundreds of journals on incidents and theories around gender-based violence. Honour killings, early or forced marriage, trafficking and forced prostitution, and sexual and gender-based crimes are not just terms. They’re real, and they're getting deadly because we would like to believe things have improved. Have they? In the Kurdistan region of Iraq, young girls and women, even those as young as 16 years old, are burning themselves as a way out because the levels of torture they face in their abusive households are intolerable.


Suggested Reading: How Iran Forces Targeted And Shot Women Protesters In Faces, Genitals


Women burning themselves in Iraqi Kurdistan

The level of domestic abuse in Iraq has long been rising with gender-based violence seeing a surge of 125 per cent between 2020 and 2021 alone. 2022 was way worse. Iraqi Kurdistan saw an unbelievable number of honour killings, and while the Kurdistan Regional Government is trying to put an end to all forms of violence against women, the majority still remains at high risk.

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In a rare access to one of the biggest hospitals for burns in Kurdistan, BBC met women across all age groups who had either burned themselves to die by since or to protest against their family members who were long torturing them through abuse. "I cry every day and night because I ask myself why I did do this to myself. I didn't get anything out of it, did I?" Not using her real name, the woman continues, "but I had to, I set myself on fire two years ago because of the intolerable abuse I suffered at the hands of my spouse, and knowing my own family did not have my back, I had to find a way out of suffering." she shared.

"The hardest thing is burning yourself and not dying."

Several women in the burns' ward were those who were forced to marry as teenagers. A woman, who chose to hide her identity, recalled how she was raised in a family, where women couldn't dare to make their own decisions, leave alone dream of becoming doctors or engineers. "I was forced to marry at 16, and I accepted my fate thinking I'll at least have a good family going forward, but I had a violent marriage and everything shattered."

Nigar, the head nurse who has been working at the burns hospital for over two decades, said she has seen thousands of women in that ward. "While some of them self-immolate, some were set on fire by their brothers or spouses because they did not fit into the mould. Most women have not made it and died." Expressing anger over society in general, Nigar said that the world may have moved on but some parts of it have not and lack of awareness and support may one day prove to be fatal for more women than we can imagine.

According to national research and data, about 1.32 million people in Iraq remain at risk for various forms of gender-based violence, and more than 75 per cent are women. Reports reveal that married women between 15 and 49 face about 26 per cent of 'lifetime intimate partner violence' in Iraq. The data solely forms an amalgamation of the reported cases. The cases that go unreported and unsupervised are far too many.

Legislations alone can't bring cultural shifts

More women are increasingly becoming aware of their rights and stepping out of their homes and, while they can avail them on paper, the factual world tells a different story. The change on paper is empowering, the change when accessed results either in an honour killing or a bridal form of emotional, mental or physical violence that deliberately pushes women behind four steps backwards.

In January 2022, together with the WHO, the Ministry of Health in Iraq launched the first strategic plan against gender-based violence that they are looking to implement and experiment with within the next four years. Legislations alone can't bring cultural shifts, change in perceptions will have to do that, and looking at how women have been fighting for the right to choose what to wear, whether or not to leave their hair open, or visit amusement parks in some parts of the world clearly shows the diabolical perception that several countries are still living with.

Violence against women Iraqi Kurdistan Women
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