The graveyards of "unknown women"

The hills of “sinners” … tribal graveyards for women

Hanin says that six girls were murdered in the same village, simply because their behaviour was seen as suspicious. Some were buried in a graveyard that it was impossible to even talk about, given the power of the tribe.

While we were looking into Hanin's story, we discovered that there are several graveyards in Nasiriyah, as well as in other provinces in the north, south and west of the country (according to the testimony of those we met while working on this investigation), where women who are the victims of honour killings, are just buried without any inquiry being made, specifically to avoid any legal follow up.

One particular honour killing shocked the whole province of Nasiriyah in 2020, when a father brutally killed his two teenage daughters, and buried them in the Batha desert, near the archaeological sites there.

The details of this incident were publicised at the time by the Iraqi Women's Organisation (translator’s note: no such organisation found online. Possibly the “Iraqi Organization for Woman and Future” or “Organisation of Women’s Freedom in Iraq”) and it was confirmed as having happened by human rights activist Rana Mansour, who herself comes from Nasiriyah. She said that this infamous event had encouraged people to talk about the graveyard in Batha, and the burying of “sinners or outcasts”. Nasiriyah alone has several other burial places for victims of honour killings, each belonging to one or other of the local tribes, she said.

Regarding the murder of the two girls, Rana recalls that it happened in 2020, when the eldest ran away with someone she loved to Kirkuk, in northern Iraq, and her younger sister went with her, as she was frightened of staying behind alone. The two girls were arrested after the young man abandoned them. They were taken to a police station in Nasiriyah, where they were handed back to their father, after he promised not to harm them. But he nevertheless killed both of them in cold blood.

The “Hills of Sin” graveyard is situated in the al-Batha area west of Nasiriyah in southern Iraq, about 40 kilometres from the ancient city of Ur, according to activists we spoke to.

Graveyards for immoral women across Dhi Qar

Baghdad-based lawyer and activist Zainab al-Hassan tells of how she once visited the Tall al Lahm region of Dhi Qar, on the edge of the Nasiriyah desert, the site of a famous historical cemetery. Over time it has become a place to bury babies born out of wedlock or women victims of honour killings. Zeinab describes the graveyard as “a deserted, barren place where raised graves bearing no name stretch far into the distance.”

Such graveyards are found not just in the Nasiriyah but in many provinces, where the tribe or clan uses a special place to bury “immoral women,” says Ali Al Bayati, former spokesperson for the Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights.

The Jiyan graveyard: secrets buried and stories untold

Our search for these graveyards took us to the most famous one – in Sulaymaniyah, in the northern Iraqi region of Kurdistan. Although this region, unlike the rest of Iraq, enjoys a fine reputation regarding rights and freedoms, the reality is quite the opposite.

We eventually found the graveyard, which lies at the back of the Tallat Siwan cemetery. Entry is forbidden, but we manage to navigate our way past the official graves to the rear section. There, as far as the eye could see, were nameless gravestones that bore only the words “Yarakaya zhiyan” – Kurdish for “stable” and “life.”

A girl was standing in front of one of the tombstones holding a small flower and a Qur’an. Then she sat down in front of one of them and, trying to hide her face, prayed to her sister buried beneath.

The 25-year-old girl told us how her sister had fallen in love with a fellow student at university three years before. When he proposed marriage, her family refused. But they carried on seeing each other and, when her brother found out, he killed her. After the murderer had fled, her father buried her without a ceremony.

Suicide: drawing a veil over the crime

Shaima (a girl from Baghdad, but not her real name) says that the family of her cousin “Fatouma” forced the girl to write a note saying she was committing suicide, aged 17. Shaima says that her aunt’s family had moved to central Baghdad from a rural province. In line with tradition, they had agreed that Fatouma should marry her cousin. But she was in love with the son of a neighbour, who would speak to her secretly on a phone she had obtained with the help of her female friends.

Fatouma’s brother found out about the phone, and discovered letters between her and the boy. He beat her severely and then he and his father forced the girl to write a suicide note, and later forced her to swallow a large number of pills.

Fatouma’s case is far from unique. Families often pretend that a woman has committed suicide to cover up a murder in the name of “honour”. “Rana”, an activist from Dhi Qar, in southern Iraq, says that her province has the highest rates of suicide, but that these are actually “honour killings”.

This is also the view of Rozkan Ibrahim, a lawyer specialising in cases of honour killings in Kurdistan. She says that many cases of murder, carried out to “erase shame,” are portrayed as suicide, to cover up the murder carried out by family members themselves.

The former director of forensic medicine in Diwaniyah, Hussein Al Janabi, also confirmed that many of the cases of suicide he had seen turned out to be crimes committed to “expunge shame”. He recounts that, on one occasion, an autopsy performed on a woman who had been shot revealed that she had been pregnant, though she was unmarried. And a forensic report was submitted saying this.

Likewise, Director of Forensic Medicine in Sulaymaniyah Barzan Mohammed said that there were many cases of girls apparently killing themselves, which turn out to be murder.

Admissions from inside

A source we contacted in the Iraqi interior ministry said that up to 70 per cent of suicides were in fact honour killings. He said that, in many cases, it was tribal power that was stopping security agencies from investigating these crimes or releasing the details.

This source cited some “strange” cases that he had investigated. One was a teenage girl who was said to have hanged herself. But when he arrived on the scene, it was clear her feet were firmly on the floor.

On the same day that we contacted our source, he sent us two telegrams confirming what we had told us. On September 4, 2024, two 15-year-old girls had been murdered in the space of four hours, and their families reported that they had committed suicide. But after an inspection by the security services, it became clear that they had both been murdered to “expunge shame.”

Figures point to an unprecedented rise in suicides in Iraq in the last few years.

According to the Strategic Center for Human Rights in Iraq, over a two-and-a-half-year period (2022 to mid-2024) there were more than two thousand suicides and attempted suicides in Iraq. In 2022 there were 1,073 suicides and attempted suicides. In 2023, 700 people took their own life, and in the first six months of 2024, 300 people committed suicide or tried to.

The center’s figures for the years 2016 to 2021 show 3,063 suicides or attempted suicide:

Health and interior ministry sources report that the overwhelming majority of suicides and attempted suicides were of women.

Handing the victim to the murderer

Most of the murder cases we have documented appear to be of girls under the legal age (less than 18 years old). This points to a legal loophole that allows girls to be handed back to their guardians, who have no hesitation in murdering them in cold blood, supposedly to “erase shame.”

The amended Juvenile Welfare Act No. 76 of 1983, stipulates that people under the age of 18, must be returned to their guardians. Article 23 of the law give police the power to search for runaways from their families who are under the legal age, and also to return to their families those the police find in places of delinquency, such as cafes, cinemas, discos, and bars. Article 24 of the same law stipulates that a minor is considered a fugitive if they leave their guardian’s home without a legitimate reason.

Amnesty International's report, which was issued in July 2024, discusses a similar case of two sisters – one 17 and the other 19 - who were killed in Kurdistan Region. Their bodies were found after they had been handed over to their father, who had signed pledge that was not legally binding, according to the report.

Lawyer and judicial expert Mohammed Al-Qadi criticises the executive authorities for not taking seriously the fate of runaways or even looking into the reasons why they flee, only to be stopped by the police and handed over to the murderer.

Director of Community Police in the Ministry of Interior, Brigadier General Ali Ajami, did not deny that girls who run away are handed back to their guardians, but he insisted that the police acted cautiously and confidentially and according to procedures that the judiciary are informed of, so as to safeguard the family structure as well as the lives of the girls.

The response of the tribes

We reached out to the leaders of a number of tribes, but most refused either to talk or to comment on the findings if this investigation.

Sheikh Adnan Al-Danbous, head of the Kenana clan and a former member of the Iraqi parliament, told us that these crimes are not talked about in Iraq, because of the religious and tribal nature of Iraqi society.

He said that the victim is usually killed merely on “suspicion,” without any evidence being presented or investigation undertaken, and sometimes the girl is killed in such a way as to not attract attention. Among the examples he gave were girls being burned or electrocuted, or poisoned so as to make the crime look like an accident or suicide. On the question of the secret graveyards, Al-Danbous preferred to say nothing, because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Meanwhile, Sheikh Bassem Al-Hajami, Secretary-General of the Arab Tribal Cooperation Council, brought up the question of what he called “the horror of marital infidelity or adultery,” which he said was an issue of crucial importance in an oriental society, governed principally by tribal custom and religious teachings second.

He categorically denied that there were any hidden or tribal graveyards where victims were buried, insisting that “honour killings” happened the world over, and that in Iraq the rates were actually lower than the average.

But the former spokesperson for the Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights, Ali Al Bayati, made clear that crimes to “expunge shame” were widespread across all of Iraq, and that the country was witnessing a sharp increase in incidence. He pointed out that figures show at least 150 women and girls die each year in honour killings, and that “the actual number is even higher.”

Meanwhile, a report by Human Rights Watch, based on a statement by the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, indicates that there were about four thousand honour killings in Iraq between 1991 to 2001.

Activists in numerous rights organisations in Iraq are of the view that the published numbers of murders “on the pretext of honour” are much lower than the actual figure, considering the incidence of other crimes that take place in complete secrecy.