ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Erbil police said Thursday that they have arrested four individuals accused of involvement in killing a woman and throwing her body in a village northeast of the province.
The police were “notified” about the body near the Shekh Turab village and subsequently launched an investigation, their statement read.
Meanwhile, Kifah Hassan, spokesperson for Erbil police, told Rudaw’s Soran Hussein that the “motive was a social issue, and some of the arrested suspects are relatives of the woman."
No additional details are known about the incident, which could involve femicide or “honor-killing.”
Coinciding with the statement, the March 8 Network - an umbrella group for women rights advocates and NGOs based in Sulaimani - said killing women “is not a personal or individual family issue” but a phenomenon rooted in harmful social practices.
“These [femicide incidents] stem from a social, legal, political, and cultural system that treats women as second-class citizens and imposes patriarchal dominance over society,” the network’s statement read.
It further traced the practice to “patriarchal relationships, harmful traditions, and weak protective measures that require legal, political, and social accountability.”
The March 8 Network also stated that the Kurdistan Region witnessed 69 femicide cases last year, a notable rise from the 48 women killed in 2024. It indicated that 46 women have been killed since the beginning of this year while three others drove to self-immolation “under the pressure of violence.”
The Kurdistan Regional Government has not published any figures regarding femicide cases in recent years.
A similar incident happened in Sulaimani earlier in October, when a father killed his 30-year-old daughter. Under initial police interrogation, the father confessed to firing the weapon during an argument, claiming he did not intend to murder his daughter.
Kizhan Burhan was shot with three bullets. She succumbed to her wounds after being admitted to hospital. Sulaimani police categorized the crime as stemming from a "family dispute.”
Under Kurdistan Region law, killing a woman under the guise of "honor" is treated as premeditated murder under Article 406 or intentional homicide under Article 405 of the Penal Code, carrying severe penalties up to life imprisonment or the death penalty, without automatic sentence reductions for "honor” that are still applicable under Iraqi law.
The Region also deals with minor offenses like coercion, forced marriage, or physical battering under its 2011 anti-domestic violence law.
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