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27 Iraqi Kurdish women die in 'honour
killings' over the past four months in Kurdistan
27.11.2007
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November
27, 2007
Erbil-Hewler, Kurdistan Region 'Iraq', -- At
least 27 women have died in so-called "honour
killings" over the past four months in Kurdistan
autonomous region in 'northern Iraq', an official
from the regional government said Monday.
Aziz Mohammed, human rights minister in the Kurdish
regional government, said 10 of the murdered women
were from the Erbil, 11 from Duhok and six from
Sulaimaniyah -- the three provinces making up the
Kurdistan region.
"These are alleged honour killings. We can say that
the violence against women continues" in Kurdish
Iraq, Mohammed told AFP.
He said 97 women -- 60 in Erbil, 21 in Duhok and 16
in Sulaimaniyah -- had attempted to commit suicide
by self-immolation during the four months.
The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq has
regularly highlighted "honour killings" of Kurdish
women as among Iraq's most severe human rights
abuses.
Most of such crimes are reported as deaths due to
accidental fires in the home.
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 of
'Iraq'.
www.ekurd.net
Iraq's Kurdish autonomous region runs its own
affairs and has enjoyed relative peace and growing
prosperity since the US invasion of March 2003,
while Arab areas of Iraq have been plunged into
sectarian warfare.
Crimes against women are continuing despite
campaigns by human rights activists and regular
denouncing of the oppression by the three women
ministers and 28 female MPs in the 111-member
autonomous Kurdish parliament.
AFP
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