ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A man believed to have stabbed his wife multiple times with a knife in Sulaimani province was arrested a few days after the incident by the internal security forces (Asayish), a source from the forces confirmed to Rudaw on Wednesday.
A woman was stabbed at least 15 times, allegedly by her spouse, in Sulaimani’s Zargata neighborhood on Thursday, and was immediately admitted to one of the city’s hospitals. The woman survived after she underwent two successful surgeries to treat her wounds.
A source from the Asayish told Rudaw that her husband was arrested on Tuesday following a “precise investigation” conducted by the forces, and that his case was sent for legal evaluation by a specialized judge.
“On Friday, after news spread of a man stabbing his wife 15 times, Sulaimani’s Asayish general directorate assigned a special team to contact the woman’s family and listen to their demands and [know] the condition of the injured, a decision was made that night to arrest the woman’s husband,” said the source.
The General Directorate of Combatting Violence Against Women confirmed on Saturday that the woman was in stable condition and that she had left the hospital.
Forty-five women were killed in the Kurdistan Region in 2021, up from 25 the previous year, AFP reported in March.
At least 11 women were killed across the Region in the first two months of the year.
A day after a man was arrested for putting an end to his wife's life in neighboring Erbil city, a 28-year-old woman was allegedly strangled to death by her husband using a wire on Tuesday, leaving behind a motherless child.
The increase in gender-based violence comes despite the Kurdistan Region’s efforts to end the phenomena which results in the killing of tens of women each year.
Suspects of attacks on women in the Region are often arrested but investigations yield little or no result.
“We must bolster efforts to challenge the toxic masculinity and patriarchal social norms that continue to result in violence. Together we must advocate for the prosecution of perpetrators and the strengthening of the Kurdistan Region Law to Combat Domestic Violence,” the Erbil-based NGO SEED Foundation said in February.
In December, the Region launched an app to tackle violence against women. It also set up a support hotline for victims of violence in 2018, about seven years after the Kurdistan Regional Government passed its Combating Domestic Violence Law, criminalizing domestic violence and equipping the directorate to combat violence by investigating it.
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