Syrian Kurdish women attend a protest against so-called “honor killings” in Syria’s northeastern city of Hasakah on Tuesday. (AFP)
July 6. 2021 – HASAKEH, Syria: Hundreds of women protested against so-called “honor killings” in northeast Syria on Tuesday after the latest murders of young women by relatives in the Kurdish-run region.
The demonstrators marched down a street in the city of Hasakah, some wearing a white t-shirt marked “No to violence” in red letters.
“Stop killing women,” read one sign. “There is no honor in murder,” said another.
The protesters gathered outside the home of the latest victim, a 16-year-old girl Tid members of her tribe had shot her after she tried to run away with her lover.
Protester Intissar Al-Hamadi demanded the perpetrators of such murders be held to account.
“No religion or morality allows this,” she said.
In the Kurdish zones of Syria, “honor crimes” and “violence and discrimination” against women are officially outlawed, as is polygamy, although it is permitted in Islam.
In Damascus last year, authorities scrapped part of a law that allowed those who had killed a female relative to invoke mitigating circumstances to cut their sentence.
Syria’s decade-long war has killed half a million people and displaced millions more, and also compounded violence against women.
Rural areas are still deeply conservative and tribal, often imposing severe restrictions on women’s freedom.
Categories: Releases, Slider Featured
