IRIN Web Special - "Hear our Voices" :

Victim of domestic violence

Centre for battered women in Northen Iraq

Awaz's story

"My name is Awaz and I live in the northern Iraqi city of Sulaymaniyah. I was subjected to domestic violence by my husband because I asked him to stop having an affair. But he refused to stop seeing the other woman and I couldn't take this any more, so I decided to take my own life. Luckily for me this didn't work and I am still alive today to tell this story.

"WADI NGO saved me from a miserable life of torment. They spoke to me and my husband and they convinced him to stop beating me. Now staff from the NGO visit us regularly and give us counselling and make sure that I am OK. I don't know what I would have done if the NGO had not helped me. This issue of domestic violence is not discussed in our society and women often do not tell others what is happening at home, if they are subjected to it.

"WADI NGO currently has three centres for distressed women in northern Iraq, but there is a need for more assistance in the south, where facilities for women who suffer from domestic violence are virtually nonexistent. There are no recent statistics on incidences of domestic violence in the north, but a study by the Sulaymaniyah-based Rewan Women's Information and Cultural Centre (RWICC) recorded 3,979 cases of women killed as the result of domestic violence in the north in the 1980s.

"RWICC believes the number to be much higher, as many cases go unreported. The NGO has started an exchange programme with NGOs from the south, encouraging them to visit the north and learn from the experience of staff working in the centres run by them."

Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2004

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