SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Authorities said on Thursday as many as 328 cases of violence against women and families have been recorded in the Kurdistan Region in the past 10 months.
The Kurdistan Region’s General Directorate to Combat Violence against Women and Family released statistics of 10 months of violence against women on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
The directorate said it had registered 40 cases of murdering, 61 cases of self-immolation, 72 cases of suicide and 155 cases of sexual harassment.
As many as 12,085 complaints were also recorded between January and November, it added.
In a statement, Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said the government “works on helping women to develop, be safe and participate in all areas of the Kurdistan Region using their expertise”.
“I hope that the Kurdistan Region becomes an example of protecting human rights in general and ends violence, especially that which is gender based, with the help of everyone,” he added.
Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani said they remain committed to protect and support women rights, and end gender-based violence.
“On International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, we denounce all forms of violence and abuse against females,” he tweeted.
In Iraq, more than 14,000 women had faced violence, according to the Iraqi organization for women’s rights.
“Women face sexual assaults, beating and other kinds of violence in Iraq,” the organization added.
In statement, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said violence against women “is not inevitable”.
“Change is possible, and now is the time to redouble our efforts so that together, we can eliminate violence against women and girls by 2030,” he added.
In September, the World Health Organization (WHO) said nearly one in three women worldwide was subjected to physical or sexual violence during her lifetime.
“Violence against women is endemic in every country and culture, causing harm to millions of women and their families, and has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic,” WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
Some 31% of women aged 15-49, or up to 852 million women, have experienced physical or sexual violence, the WHO said in what it called the largest-ever such study, encompassing national data and surveys from 2000-2018.
