Yanar Mohammed, Co-Founder of OWFI, Killed by Gunmen in Baghdad Morning Shooting

Prominent Iraqi women’s rights activist Yanar Mohammed was shot dead on Monday in the Iraqi capital, according to her organisation. The Organisation of Women's Freedom in Iraq (OWFI) said two gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on Mohammed outside her residence at around 9:00 am local time. She was critically injured in the attack and later died in hospital despite efforts to save her. OWFI called on authorities to identify and prosecute those responsible for the killing.

Mohammed co-founded OWFI in 2003 to provide protection and shelter to women facing violence, including victims of honour crimes and sexual abuse. She was widely recognised for her advocacy on behalf of women and minority communities in Iraq.

In 2016, she received the Rafto Foundation for Human Rights’s Rafto Prize for her work supporting women subjected to sexual violence and discrimination. Reacting to her death, the foundation said it was “deeply shocked” by the attack, describing her as one of the most courageous human rights defenders of her time.

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“The assassination represents not only an attack on Yanar Mohammed as a person but also on the fundamental values she dedicated her life to defending: women’s freedom, democracy, and universal human rights,” the foundation said in a statement.

Iraq has seen a series of killings, abductions and attempted assassinations targeting activists and public figures in recent years. Among them was academic Hisham al-Hashemi, who was shot dead near his home in Baghdad in July 2020.

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