Femicides and suspicious deaths of women are increasing in southern Kurdistan (northern Iraq).

According to a report by NuJINHA, most femicide cases in the region are reported as “honour killing.” 10 women and 3 children were killed or suspiciously lost their lives in May as a result of the policies in the region.

The cases of femicide and violence that took place in South Kurdistan in May are as follows:

* On May 2, a man killed his wife and 3 people with a firearm in the Sengawa neighbourhood of Chamchamal town in Sulaymaniyah, and seriously injured his mother-in-law. A complaint had already been made about the perpetrator before the incident.

*A Yazidi woman named E.Q.E was forced to commit suicide on May 5 in the Bêrsîvê Refugee Camp in Zakho.

* On May 5, a man named Nasir Elî Feteh murdered his wife Leyla Salih Mehemed in the Pence Elî neighbourhood of Kirkuk.

*A woman was murdered with a knife on the night of May 5-6 by her husband in the Zergete district of Sulaymaniyah. Relatives of the woman revealed that the man had been arrested before but was released later despite complaints about him. It is reported that the woman was exposed to violence 40 days after the wedding ceremony. The woman reportedly left the house and went to her father’s place when the man constantly demanded money from her. Their divorce case was pending for 7 months.

* On May 9, a man named A.T.M. killed his wife Bihar Zekerya Feteh in the Tecil District of Hewler.

* On May 10, a woman was murdered by her husband in the Serhildan district of Duhok.

* A man named D.A.M. attacked the house of his wife T.İ.M.’s family, where the woman had taken refuge as a result of systematic violence in the town of Chamchamal, Sulaymaniyah. One person died.

* On May 14, a man attacked the house of his wife’s family in the Şoreş neighbourhood in Hewler. The man injured the woman whom he had attempted to murder.

* The Pêncewîn police announced on May 17 the dead body of a 14-year-old girl had been found.

* A woman was found dead in Zakho on May 21.

* On May 23, a man murdered his wife in the Nezrawe village in the Berderesh town of Duhok.

* A child was forced to commit suicide in Gewreguska, Hewler on May 23.

* On May 25, a woman named Temine Eziz was found dead in a suspicious way in her house in Hewler.

* The bodies of a woman and a child were found within 8 hours in the Kelar town of Germiyan. It is reported that X.X.E, who allegedly committed suicide and whose dead body was found in the Hey Muzefini neighbourhood, had married 3 months ago. The dead body of a child named C.S.A. was found in the village of Salih Axa in the Quretu region.