SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – A 38-year-old woman was found dead on Wednesday in Halabja under vague circumstances with bullets traces on her body. The husband has been apprehended by police forces to undergo investigation, Halabja Police told The New Region.

“We were unfortunately alerted of a body in [Halabja’s] Sara neighborhood this morning,” read a statement by Halabja police on Wednesday. Police noted that the victim, a woman born in 1987, was a housewife who was found with “traces of bullet,” adding that the body has been referred to forensic testing.

Police Spokesperson Akam Qutbaddin told The New Region on Wednesday that the husband has been detained upon judicial orders. 

“We cannot say that he is a suspect yet,” but he has been arrested on grounds of being at the scene, adding that they are still unsure if the incident was a suicide or a murder. 

Qutbaddin added that talking to the neighbors and surroundings has not yielded any clarification, and that they are not aware of any potential issues between the couple that could have led to a possible violent confrontation.

Though this case has yet any implications of being an honor motivated murder, dozens of women in the Kurdistan Region have already fallen victim to honor killing.

Authorities in the Kurdistan Region and Iraq have aimed to address the phenomenon of honor killing. Kurdistan Region Interior Minister Reber Ahmed in late November revealed that upon directives from Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, femicide perpetrators are to be excluded from general amnesties.  

Despite these measures however, such cases still make headlines from time to time, often with impunity to the perpetrators, as families take the traditional way of resolving these issues and refuse to press charges. 

At least 30 women were killed by direct male family members in 2023, according to data from DCVAW, but the actual number is believed to be much higher. 

Cases of abuse against women are severely underreported in the Kurdistan Region and Iraq, as publicizing such issues goes against the population’s conservative-majority mindset and risks damaging “family honor.”