ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Several UN agencies have called on the Iraqi Parliament to rapidly adopt an Anti-Domestic Violence Law amid a reported rise in domestic violence during the COVID-19 lockdown.
“The UN in Iraq urges the Iraqi Parliament to speed up the endorsement of the Anti-Domestic Violence Law amid alarming reports of a rise in gender-based and domestic violence cases perpetrated across the country, especially with increased household tensions as a result of the confinement due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” reads a statement by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), UN Women, and a number of other agencies released Thursday.
Iraq does not have any specific laws to protect people, disproportionately women, against gender-based violence.
The past weeks have seen a number of stories of gender-based violence in Iraq make headlines, in line with news of a rise in domestic violence around the globe.
The alleged abuse and immolation of Malak Al Zubaidi, 20, by her policeman husband in Najaf, as well as the rape of a Kurdish woman with special needs in Kirkuk, also allegedly by a policeman, have caused public uproar on social media.
The UN statement also lists credible reports of the sexual harassment of minors, and suicide due to domestic abuse as taking place recently.
Human rights groups warn of the dangers those who experience domestic violence face being under lockdown with their abusers.
Women’s rights campaigners have lobbied Baghdad to pass an Anti-Domestic Violence Law, but the draft bill has largely lain dormant.
While the country’s constitution forbids “all forms of violence and abuse in the family", laws also allow husbands to “discipline” their wives, leaving much legal room for abuse.
Domestic violence remains common in Iraq. One in five Iraqi women reported suffering physical domestic violence in a 2006/7 Iraq Family Health Survey.
Thirty-six percent of married women say they have experienced some form of psychological abuse from their husbands, according to a 2012 Ministry of Planning study. Twenty-three percent reported verbal abuse, 6 percent reported physical violence, and 9 percent reported sexual violence.
Because of weaknesses in the legal system, perpetrators are often given mild sentences because they are seen as having ‘honorable motives’.
