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June 11, 2008
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Social fascism- the tragedy of women killings and deaths in Kurdistan Region: reality, reasons, solutions - Part 11
Kurdishaspect.com - By Dr Kamal Mirawdeli
Social fascism- the tragedy of women killings and deaths in Kurdistan Region: reality, reasons, solutions
(3) How many women are killed?
In the context of the reality described above it is impossible to answer this question as it is impossible to answer: how much is Kurdistan’s budget and how is it spent? These two questions, though look separate and different, are in fact organically linked. No body, inside or outside Kurdistan Region, can answer these two questions. But the obvious thing is that the brutal practice of women killing, rather than being a traditional problem because Kurdistan is a patriarchical society as some apologetics of these crimes assume, is the creation of Kurdish power. It came to existence with the return of Kurdish political parties from ‘mountains’ to rule in ‘the cities’ and worsened day by day with the continuation and strengthening of their total totalita rian control over Kurdistan’s wealth, land and opportunities and over Kurdish society and life.
(4) Media reporting of massacre of women
Just to give an idea about the scale of the ongoing tragedy of femicide, I will only try to translate some items and reports of killings in the last three or four months. These are only the items that I came across and I have not been able to do a proper research.
The month of May like all other months since the beginning of 2008, was a massacre month for women. These reports are however just the ones that have appeared mostly in the private-sector media. Of course many killings remain unreported. The lack of any independent agency not directly or indirectly controlled by dominant parties makes it impossible to know the scale of the tragedy and the reasons for failure not only of finding a solution for this tragic situation but even to allow information and discussion about it
A. Some reports of general killings as appeared in private-sector Kurdish media
(1) [Report: 12500 women killed from 1991 to 2007.UN: Women killing in Kurdistan is the worst aspect of abuse of human rights in Iraq.] Report published in //Midya, Arbil, weekly newspaper in standard Kurdish published by Kurdistan Democratic National Union Party {YNDK), 27 May 2008 , p 1 & 9//
In its issue no 340 on 27 May 2008, this paper has translated and republished the report published on honour killing in Kurdistan Region by Presse-France Agence (AFP) in May this year. This report , depending on the estimates of a Kurdish organization, puts the number of women killings in Kurdistan Region during the sixteen years rule of Kurdish political parties at 12500 women. AFP number only includes those allegedly killed for honour-killing and does not include those women who have burnt or killed themselves in other ways. AFP report refers to the escalation of killings and burnings of women in May and says that “According to UN envoys to Iraq, women-killing in Kurdistan region is the worst aspect of abuse of huma n rights in Iraq.”
Midya follow-up
Midya newspaper follows up the report by masking some inquiries about ‘’the number of women killed in the last few months.” General Director of Investigation of Women’s Issues in the Interior Ministry Ari Rafi q gives these figures:
- “In the city of Arbil and its surroundings 60 women have burnt themselves in the last four months. Some have burnt themselves as a result of unbearable pressure by their families. Some have died accidentally.
- In the same period 15 women in Arbil and surrounding areas have been killed by their families.
- In the same period, 7 women in Duhok have been shot dead by their families and 15 have died as a result of burning tyhemsleves.
- In Soran. One woman was killed and two died as a result of burning.
- In the same period 177 complaints have been registered by women against their husbands (96) and families (39) and 42 against people outside their families [not identified] in the city of Arbil.
- In the city of Duhok , 51 complaints have been registered: 29 against husbands, 15 against family and relatives and 7 others.
- Ar Rfai adds: “There are complaints against fathers sexually abusing their children. But later these complaints have been withdrawn.”
As we notice these figures are only for Arbil and Duhok for four months by one government agency.
(2) Awena Report, 14 May 2008:[“In just ten days, 14 women are killed in Kurdistan.”]
//Report by Awena wesbite, Sulaymnaiya, independent newspaper in Kurdish, 14 May 2008: “In just ten days, 14 women are killed in Kurdistan
“In the last ten days seven women have committed suicide in different parts of Kurdistan, seven women have been murdered with seven more having been wounded. In the latest incident, an armed man shot a woman at Asuda organisation [for protection women in danger] and heavily wounded her.
According to statistics put together by Awena, seven of these women have committed suicide as a result of pressure put on them by their families to get married. Six others were killed by their own families because of [alleged] adultery and social problems. Those who have committed suicide have either used drugs, self-burning or self-strangulation. For the murders either Klashinkovs, pistols , knife-stabbing or strangling were used. The geographical area of the crimes starts from Zakho to Arbil, Sulaymnaiyah and Garmiyan area. The largest number of the crimes was registered in Arbil, Duhok and Soran. Within these ten days, 11 more girls in Duhok have attempted suicide by trying to burn themselves. Five of these have over 50 per cent of their body burnt and their lives are in danger. This happens at a time when only in the first four months of 2008, fifty women in Sulaymnaiya alone have been burnt and died. Three women have been shot dead and 8 women have been strangled by ropes.
In a most recent attack, an armed man attacks Asuda Centre [for women at risk] and shoots a woman heavily wounding her. “
(3) Rudaw Report, 05 May 2008: “It is women massacre in Kurdistan”
//Report by Rudawnet, Arbil, independent website/weekly newspaper, 05 May , 2008//
[“It is women massacre [the newspaper’s own expression “jin-qran “ ]in Kurdistan: In one week seven women are killed in south Kurdistan]
“In the last few days many women have faced death in different ways.
- Yesterday, the body of a 20-year old girl (R.R.H) was found on Qoshtapa road who is from Saydawa neighbourhood in Arbil. According to his uncle, the girl left her home in the morning and her body was found in the evening.
- On 3 May 2008, a 15-year old girl (H.M) was taken to Emergency hospital after burning herself.
- On 5 May a 16-year old girl in Surchi neighbourhood called (N.Kh) shot herself with two bullets and immediately died.
- On the same day a 14-year old girl in Haji Omaran town {B.A) strangled herself. Her family say she had mental disorder.
- On 6 May a woman in Delzian village burnt herself because of ‘a social problem’ and died.
- On 7 May, a woman in Kasnazan shot herself dead.
- On the Kuran neighbourhood in Arbil a woman shot herself with two bullets but survived after being taken to Emergency Hospital.
- In Ranya district town, in addition to the suicide of a woman journalist, three more women have attempted suicide.
- On 9 may 2008, a woman was threatened by her family for using a mobile phone, then she tries to kill herself by taking pills. She was rescued by police and taken to hospital.
- On the same day, a girl (S.H) burnt herself because of her brother’s oppression and was taken to Emergency Hospital in Sulaymnaiyah.
- A 28-yearv woman in Chwarqurna attempted suicide by taking poison.
- n Sangasar, a 68-year woman (A.M) left home and has not been seen for six days.”
(4) Payamner(daily electronic newspaper) report 7 May 2008: “In one week, 10 people died in Arbil, 96 wounded.”
Jalil Abdullah deputy Director of Arbil Emergency Hopital said that 5 people died as the result of shooting, and four citizens, all women, died of burning. [.....]”
(5) Payamner, 18 May 2008:
- In the village of Halana a 14 year old girl called Dalya Farzanda was killed with pistol. The family says she used her father’s pistol by mistake and killed herself.
- In Soran a 16 year old girl named S.R killed herself with Klashinkov. Her family say it was an accident but it is suspected she was killed for social reasons.
(6) Payamner news: (21 April 2004) [“Women victims in Pishdar increasing]
From the beginning of this year (2008) until now [20 April 2008] in the area of Pishdart and Bitwen, 38 extraordinary cases of burning, murder and wounding of women have been registered. On this issue the official in charge of Ranya Hospital registration Kamal Ali told Payamner that from 1 Jnauary 2008 until 15 April 2008 within the area of Pishdar and Bitwen 30 burnt women had been taken to their hospital and 16 of them lost their lives. Four women were killed because of ‘social problems’ and four other had been stabbed and wounded”.
(7) Aso Report: (7 April 2008): [In three months 9 women burn themselves in Chamchamal. Another woman killed herself by burning in Chwarqurna:]
According to statistics of the emergency section of the General Hospital in Chamchamal in the last three months 9 women in Chamchamala aged between 15 and 63 have burned themselves. About the reasons for burning the source said: “according to the statements atken by police all [their families] say that they died because of gas heater explosion. But we doubt the truth of these statements. For whatever reason, they do not say the truth that they have burnt themselves because of a problem. ‘’ On the other hand, on 5 April a girl from Chwarqurna called Bei Azad died as a result of burning herself. A source confirmed this news to Aso and said: “This girl is 15 years old and was in the second year of the intermediate school. Her psychol ogical condition was not OK and she burnt herself in her own home.” This is the second case of death of women in Chwarqurna sub-district by burning in two days.
(8) Mydia Report (12 February 2008): [ In just one week [in Arbil and Ranya] seven women are killed, five others are burnt and one commits suicide.]
According to the information obtained by Midya from police sources in the first month of this month (February), within the borders of Arbil governorate and Ranya district, seven women have been killed by their families, five women have been burnt and one has committed suicide. Only three people have been arrested in connection with these deaths. According to the information collected by Midya correspondents, from 1 February 2008 to 7 February 2008, within the borders of Arbil governorate five women have been killed by their families and one woman has committed suicide because of pressure by her family, another student girl has burn herself because of pressure by her brother and died of her burns. In the district of Ranya in the same week two women were killed by their families and four others have burnt themselves and three of them have died. Only three people have been arrested in relation to the murder of these seven women.”
(9) Sbey website 7 April 2007: [Two women burn themselves in Arbil and the body of a woman found:]
Director of police against violence against women revealed that in two separate incidents two girls have burnt themselves as a result of pressure from their families and the body of a woman was found on Kirkuk-Sulaymaniyah road...”
(10)Payamner, 11 April 2008:[Female student strangled herself : In Arbat, Penjwin district, a 20-year old woman strangled herself . This woman whose name is Dashti name q Muhammad was a sixth year student at the secondary school. It is alleged by her father that she killed herself because she failed in her exams.
(11)Jamawar newspaper 14 April 2008:
- [A girl thrown herself down from the third floor of her school] Without the reason for her suicide been known, a girl of the commercial school in Duhok throw herself down from the third floor of her school and died instantly.
- A girl aged 18 called K in Peeramagrun camp burnt herself because of a social problem. Two hours later she died because of the gravity of her burns.
- Three women in different incidents were burnt by gas heater. On 18 April 2008, a 28 year old woman in Koya called M was burnt with gas heater fire and died alter. On the same say a woman in Bardarash aged 44 called S burnt while making bread. On 12 April a woman aged 28 had 67 per cent of her body burnt by gas.
11) Payamner: 19-05-2008: [“On 11 May 2008, a 14 year old girl called D.H in the second year of the intermediate school at Penjwin, burnt herself and died in hospital two days later. A source told Penjwinnet that an unknown person had phoned her on her mobile She was put under great pressure by her family afterwards and she committed suicide. Police has investigated the death but no one has been arrested.
12) Payamner , 16 April 2008: [“On 15 April 2008 a female student at the second year intermediate school called Zhwan Zahir killed herself with Klashinkof, Family says she used the Klashinkov by mistake not knowing it had bullets”]
a) Official annual statistics
As I mentioned there is no independent organisations monitoring and recording the cases of murder and death in particular and the more prevalent general abuse and oppression of women in general. There is a Human Rights Ministry in Arbil and only in 2007 a Directorate for following up cases of violence has been established but they are inadequate and of course ineffective as they are controlled by political parties and cannot even publish accurate statistics. However some annual data published by these bodies give some idea of the scale of the tragedy of women-killing although they by no means give the whole picture.
1. //Hawlati. Sulaymaniya, independent newspaper, 03 April 2007.[Report: Last year 533 women killed themselves]
According to a report published by the Ministry of Human Rights in Kurdistan, 533 women committed suicide in 2006. The report says that in 2005, 289 women committed suicide against 533 women in 2006 and this is an increase of 22%. The report says that the women who face domestic violence are those aged 13 to 18 years. The Ministry of Human Rights said that they had prepared a special project to stop violence against women in Kurdistan in co-operation with the British government.
2. //Hawler Post, Arbil, weekly paper of Arbil Governoraet 07 Jan 2007.[Report: In 9 months 395 women have attempted suicide.//
- According to a report published in September 2006 by the Ministry of Human Rights in just nine months 239 cases of women burning themselves were registered in the office of the Ministry.
- In these nine months 248 people in the city of Sulaymaniyah alone had taken drugs with the aim of killing themselves. 156 of them are females.
- According to statistics from Sulaymnaiya Emergency Hospital in ten months 887 people were burnt , 457 of them were females most of them have deliberately burnt themselves and 151 of them died.
- According to the statistics of the institute of medical justice 163 women faced violence for honour reasons and 151 of them died by burning themselves.
- The statistics do not include last three months of 2006 when most of the burnings and killings took place.
(3) /Hawlati, Sulaymnaiya, independent twice weekly newspaper in standard Kurdish, 9 February 2008// In this issue Hawlati published “Report of statistics of ‘violence against women’ in the city of Sulaymnaiyah and its surrounding areaswhich was prepared by “the Directorate of Investigation of Violence Against Women” set up by the Ministry of Interior on 9 July 2007. This Directorate held a press conference on 29 January 2007 and published a 35-page report about violence against women. The following is translation of the main information in the report as reported by Hawlati:
- “From 1 January 2007 to 31 December 2007, the acts of violence and crimes against women were 407. In Sulaymaniya h there were 313 crimes and incidents and 104 were in Garmiyan area. For obtaining these statistics we have relied on the information of police, newspapers and websites, some of the cases are not registered and remained secret (confidential).’’
- The number of murder cases were 17 in Sulaymnaiya and 13 outside Sulaymnaiya most of them happened in Chwarqurna and Sayidsadiq. From thes 17 murder cases, three of them the criminals are not identified, five had criminals arrested, nine no criminals arrested. The files of 17 cases are open and not closed.
- Number of burnings in that year in Sulaymaniyah was 96. They were normal burnings caused by gas heater and oven.! Total number of burnings inside Sulaymnautah city was 60 and 36 happened outside.
- The number of suicides were 8 which shows that suicide is decreasing.
- The number of self-burnings were 27.
- Number of acts of violence (beating) against women was 75. The reason for increase is that before they was not accurate registration and a body dedicated to [follow up] violence against women.
As we notice these figures are from an official body supposedly dedicated to monitor cases of violence against women but still have to collect their information from various sources and while their work is a positive thing but it is too little and too weak resulting in no change even in terms of offering accurate information. The report below shows that in the Emergency Hospital of the town Ranya alone 52 women deaths from burning alone were registered last year.
(3) //Hawlati , 8 June 2008, p 8// As part of a report about cases of women suicides, Hawlati refers to statistics of women killings from the Ranya Hospital alone. It says: .” The number of women killed or committing suicide in Kurdistan cities and towns is increasing by day. In this respect, Hawlati presents the statistics of Ranya Emergency Hospital as an example:
- Last year 56 persons died [in Ranya] most of them as a result of burning themselves. But there is a large number of cases who were referred to other hospitals and were not registered in that hospital.
- The matter that attracts attention most is that from these 56 persons , 52 are women and only four are females.
It must be noticed that the figure of 52 women deaths 1. relate only to one town Ranya 2. Include only death from burnings, 3. and represent cases registered by only one Emergency Hospital. It does not include those women who were murdered or who had killed themselves by other means or women from other areas. Hawlati concludes its report by saying: “What became clear to Hawalti is that still in the hospitals in the region, especially in the Emergency Hospitals in Arbil and Sulaymnaiyah, there is no investigation and statistics about the psychological condition of the women who have tried suicide”
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