Credit: Matthew Peyton for Getty Images
We are devastated by the killing of our beloved friend, Iraqi feminist leader Yanar Mohammed, co-founder of the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI), who was shot outside her home in Baghdad on Monday.
In 2003, she founded the first women’s shelter in Iraq to protect women from trafficking, honor killings, and systemic abuse becoming the target of death threats over her activism.
With Yanar’s assassination, we have lost a courageous and visionary leader. Her killing is a painful reminder of the grave dangers faced by women human rights defenders around the world at a time when women’s rights are increasingly under threat.
V (formerly Eve Ensler) first met Yanar during a CNN interview in 2003. After the segment ended, V immediately asked to be connected to her and the beginning of a deep friendship began.
“Yanar was a warrior for women’s freedom. She understood that imperialism, patriarchy, war, occupation, and fundamentalism all feed violence against women. She risked everything to protect women in Iraq. She built shelters when it was dangerous to even speak about women’s rights. We will continue her fight.”
– V (formerly Eve Ensler), playwright, activist, founder of V-Day and One Billion Rising
Credits: Matthew Peyton for Getty Images; Getty Images
Despite constant threats to her life, she continued to establish shelters across the country, offering protection and hope to women with nowhere else to turn. Through OWFI, she built a feminist resistance movement in Iraq — challenging military occupation, imperialism, religious militias, patriarchal violence in all its forms.
Yanar served as Editor-in-Chief of Al-Mousawat (“Equality”), a feminist newspaper dedicated to reports on violence against women and advocating for Iraqi women’s empowerment and liberation. She was an internationally recognized voice for Iraqi women, exposing the unfathomable atrocities facing women in Iraq and Kurdistan.
Credits: Matthew Peyton for Getty Images; Paula Allen
V-Day stood alongside Yanar and OWFI in developing and sustaining women’s shelters across Iraq. In 2004, in recognition of her extraordinary courage and leadership, V-Day Europe honored her with the “Vagina Warrior” Award.
Yanar never stopped fighting for women’s rights, dignity, and freedom. We honor her and her life’s work.
Credit: Joyce Tenneson
Read more about Yanar Mohammed:
