A Kurdish transgender woman, Doski Azad, who was shot dead by her brother last month, had been living in hiding from her family after repeated death threats, friends have said.
According to friends, Azad had had to move home regularly after several death threats by male members of her family.
Three weeks ago, her body was found dumped in a ditch outside of Duhok city, in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region. Her hands had been tied and she had been shot twice.
Police have issued an arrest warrant for her brother, who is believed to have traveled from his home in Germany to carry out the killing.
A talented makeup artist, the 23-year-old had supported herself since her family turned its back on her when she was a young teenager. She went to brides’ homes to prepare them for their weddings and built a reputation that earned her a job at a salon in Duhok.
“She was such a nice person, and everyone loved her so much,” a close friend said on condition of anonymity.
“She lived alone because when she went to her family home, they said to Doski: ‘Get out,’” the friend said. “They said: ‘When we see you alone, we will kill you.’”
The Duhok police said Azad was killed by one of her brothers in what was described as an “honor killing.”
Police were called to the village of Mangesh, 20km north of Duhok, the Iraqi-Kurdish news site Rudaw reported, by another of Azad’s brothers, but the killer had allegedly returned to Germany.
“Our investigation so far suggests that Doski Azad was killed by her brother at a location just outside the city before he managed to flee the crime scene,” Duhok police spokesperson Hemin Suleiman said.
Azad’s friend said that attempts had been made on her life before: “When I called her [a while ago] she didn’t answer me, and later I said: ‘Doski, where have you been?’ And she said: ‘My brother came to kill me and I went to the police.’”
Another Kurdish transgender woman was last year murdered by family members, Rudaw reported.
Yeksani, a Kurdish rights group, said: “Hate crime against LGBT+ community in the Kurdistan region is on the rise.”
Azad was one of a few openly transgender women in Kurdistan, Yeksani director Zhiar Ali said.
“This level of freedom in Kurdistan comes at a risk, and we witnessed this in Doski’s case,” Ali said. “Living openly as an LGBT+ person is deeply stigmatized.”
“Honor killings are very prevalent. We have hundreds of nameless graves, they are marked with numbers. The victims are so disrespected that, not only are they blamed, but they disrespect them even when they are dead,” Ali added.
Ali was critical of the Kurdish media’s coverage of Azad’s death, some of which was derogatory.
“It was a completely irresponsible and disastrous reporting by the Kurdish media,” Ali said, primarily about the Kurdish-language coverage.
The murder signaled the “climate of impunity” afforded to perpetrators of anti-LGBTQ+ violence, empowered under Iraq’s penal code to cause harm under the pretext of “honor,” Human Rights Watch researcher Rasha Younes said.
“This has a chilling effect on LGBT Iraqis, for whom the law does not offer protection, rendering any ‘suspicion’ of homosexuality or gender variance a cause for potential violence, which not only results in the death of LGBT people, but makes their lives unlivable,” she said.
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