Women victims of violence in South Kurdistan

In the last four months 150 women set themselves on fire, 26 were killed and 48 raped
A hundred and fifty women set themselves on fire in the last four months in South Kurdistan, reported Rudaw paper on Tuesday. It was also reported that 26 women were killed or committed suicide, while 48 others were raped in the same region within the mentioned time.

The Rudaw report which was based on figures by South Kurdistan government also stated that 876 women in the region denounced right violations in the last four months.

In a report on violence against women in South Kurdistan region in 2012, government alied institution Kurdistan General Directorate of Trace Violence Against Women stated that the figures of violence victim women in the area is thought to be higher as most of these women mainly avoid applying to official authorities.
In the 2011 report of violence against women, the government of South Kurdistan reported 720 cases of systematic torture and 3766 cases of violence. The report said that 76 women were killed or committed suicide in 2011, while 330 others set themselves on fire, in the most common way of women’s suicide in the region.

However, the reports of the Forensic Medicine Institute in Silêmanî reveal higher figures. According to the figures by the Institute, 200 out of 831 women who set themselves on fire in 2009 as a result of the pressure and violence they faced lost their life in South Kurdistan. 218 women died in the first seven months of 2010, killing themselves or being victims of murder cases. As to the figures of the first six months of 2011, 48 women were killed and 207 others set their body on fire, while 671 suffered from severe torture and 63 others were subjected to sexual abuse.

According to researches by Human Rights Watch, 41 percent of the women in South Kurdistan are circumcised every year.

In a statement on acts of violence in the region in 2011, the Committee for Human Rights, Women and Children at Kirkuk Provincial Council (KPC) reported that 76 women died and 159 others were wounded as a result of the acts of violence against women along the year.

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