ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – The Kurdistan Region’s Independent Human Rights Commission on Monday announced filing a lawsuit against a religious cleric over comments deemed disrespectful to Kurdish female fighters in northeast Syria (Rojava).

In a recent interview with local media, Mullah Mazhar Khorasani, a controversial Kurdish cleric, commented on a circulating video which depicted members of armed factions linked to the Syrian government ruthlessly throwing the body of a female Kurdish fighter off a building during last week’s clashes in the city’s Kurdish-majority quarter.

“In Islam women must sit at their homes… women [are made] to pour tea for their husbands,” said Khorasani when asked if the act was justified, adding that in the Islamic culture “women stay at home. Women are not fighters.”

The remarks made by Khorasani, already ill-famed for previous sexist comments, drew widespread criticism and condemnation from the Kurdistan Region’s general public, demanding legal action against the cleric.

In a statement on Monday, the rights commission said that Khorasani’s comments contained “a lot of disrespect” towards women and their role in society, criticizing the cleric for reducing the role of women to being “housewives”, and noting that his words are in contradiction of both religious and human rights principles.

“Accordingly, the Human Rights Commission through the prosecutor general will file a case and bring him to justice because Mullah Mazhar's statements are against Article 14 of the Iraqi constitution, which clearly states that there is equality between men and women,” read the statement.

The footage of the female fighter emerged amid the days-long clashes between Kurdish-led internal security forces (Asayish) and the Damascus-affiliated factions which wracked the Kurdish-majority neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiyeh in Aleppo.

More than 100 people were killed during the conflict, according to rights monitors, with hundreds more injured and over 150,000 displaced.

After taking over a large part of the area, the government-affiliated forces were filmed desecrating corpses, insulting detained residents, and vandalizing Kurdish symbols.

Kurdish women have long fought alongside the men in the marginalized nation’s liberation movements across all four parts of Greater Kurdistan.

Female fighters in Rojava, spearheaded by the all-female Women's Protection Units (YPJ), have become a symbol of resilience and strength worldwide for playing a key role in defeating the terror of the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria.

Khorasani has previously faced lawsuits and mass backlash for his sexist remarks, including endorsing polygamy and the depiction of Kurdish women as disobedient and calling them “dinosaurs,” while encouraging Kurdish men to marry Arab women instead.