March 3, 2026
The Regional Coalition of Women Human Rights Defenders in South West Asia and North Africa (WHRDMENA) mourns the assassination of veteran feminist and WHRD Ms. Yanar Mohammed, winner of the French German Prize for Human Rights and the Rule of Law, and founder of the Women’s Freedom Organization in Iraq, by unidentified gunmen on motorcycles outside her home in Baghdad on Monday, March 2, 2026.
The Regional Coalition recognizes that the context in which Yanar Mohammed was assassinated is deeply interconnected with the war in Iran and Lebanon, with perpetrators from various groups exploiting these chaotic circumstances to take revenge on WHRDs and feminists. It is also linked to the general deterioration of protection mechanisms, particularly the protection of all women and girls, and those from various ethnicities, and diverse gender and sexual identities, not only in Iraq at the local level, but also in Southwest Asia and North Africa, with the rise of anti-rights narratives and discourses, and a wave of generally targeting feminist discourse, including feminists, WHRDs, and women throughout the region.
The Regional Coalition extends its sincere condolences to all her comrades, loved ones, and the feminist community in Iraq and around the world. Yanar dedicated her life to defending the rights of women and girls. She built a permanent feminist infrastructure to support women and girls facing violence, displacement, and systematic oppression, and to lay the foundation for a better future. She was also one of the first to establish shelters and safe routes to help and rescue abused women and survivors of violence and trafficking in Iraq. Through her organization and in collaboration with feminist associations, she worked to change laws and empower women, and called for an end to the US occupation and the wars waged on women’s bodies by local militias (1).
The Regional Coalition also condemns her despicable assassination, especially after the Women’s Freedom Organization in Iraq held its annual conference a few days ago, in which it criminalized the armed ISIS militias and demanded that they be held accountable for their horrific crimes against Yazidi women (2). Feminists and WHRDs are constantly targeted because of their work. In the case of Yanar Mohammed, she defended the right of Yazidi women to a life free from violence and crime, as is the right of all women survivors of violence in all its forms.
Yanar Mohammed’s life continues in the great feminist legacy she left to feminist communities in local, regional, and international contexts. The Regional Coalition calls on the entire human rights and feminist community to demand accountability for her killers and protection for all Iraqi WHRDs and feminists.
Finally, the Regional Coalition for Women Human Rights Defenders in South West Asia and North Africa (WHRDMENA) warns against the continuation of this systematic pattern of reprisals against women defenders in the region amid the chaos created by regimes and the influence imposed by external elements and factors in the context of ongoing wars and genocides. We call on Iraqi feminists, as well as feminists in other contexts in the region, to take the time to invest in and contribute to the creation of a strategy for their protection.
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(1) On the Assassination of Feminist Leader Yanar Mohammed
(2) According to an Iraqi feminist and WHRD who is a member of the Regional Coalition for Women Human Rights Defenders in South West Asia and North Africa (WHRDMENA).
