Yanar Mohammed will continue to live in our struggles

The Network of Women Weaving the Future expresses its profound grief and outrage at the assassination of Iraqi feminist and human rights defender Yanar Mohammed, who was killed in Baghdad on 2 March 2026. Her killing represents a devastating loss for women’s rights movements in Iraq and across the world.

Yanar Mohammed was one of Iraq’s most prominent women’s rights activists and the co-founder and director of the Organisation of Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI). For more than two decades, she dedicated her life to defending women facing gender-based violence, including domestic abuse, trafficking, and so-called “honour killings.” Under her leadership, OWFI established a network of safe houses across several Iraqi cities, providing protection and support to hundreds of women escaping violence and exploitation. Yanar Mohammed supported campaigns to reform the Penal Code, including demands to repeal Article 409, which provided a mitigating defence in certain killings committed under the pretext of “honour”, and resisted legislative processes that threatened to lower the age of marriage and expand guardianship over the rights of women and girls.

Despite persistent threats to her life, Yanar Mohammed remained unwavering in her commitment to justice, secularism, and women’s equality. Since 2004 she had faced repeated death threats intended to silence her advocacy, yet she continued her work courageously in defence of the rights and dignity of Iraqi women. Her activism also brought attention to the thousands of women who suffered enslavement and violence under ISIS, whose suffering she insisted must be acknowledged with dignity, accountability, and justice.

According to an official statement from OWFI, at approximately 9:00 a.m. on 2 March, two unidentified gunmen on motorcycles opened fire on Yanar Mohammed as she stood outside her home. She was transported to hospital but tragically succumbed to her injuries. Reports indicate that she had returned to Baghdad from Canada only days before the attack, raising serious concerns regarding the monitoring of her movements.

Women Weaving the Future condemns this act of violence in the strongest possible terms. The assassination of Yanar Mohammed is not only an attack on a courageous individual but also a direct attack on human rights work, feminist organising, and the fundamental values of freedom, equality, and dignity. We see her killing as part of the increasing attacks against women social leaders all over the world including Sakine Cansız, Berta Cáceres, Marielle Franco and Gauri Lankesh among others. Such killings aim at the entirety of society and women with the goal of destroying the will and determination of resistance.

Women Weaving the Future calls on the Iraqi authorities to publicly condemn the killing of Yanar Mohammed and to initiate an immediate, thorough, independent, and transparent investigation into her assassination. Authorities must also take all necessary measures to guarantee the safety and security of OWFI members and other human rights defenders, and to ensure that activists can continue their vital work without fear of intimidation or reprisal.

Yanar Mohammed’s courage, vision, and tireless commitment to women’s freedom transformed countless lives. While her loss is immeasurable, her legacy will endure in the movements she strengthened and in the ongoing struggle for justice, equality, and dignity for women everywhere.

We stand in solidarity with her family, colleagues, and the global feminist community in mourning this profound loss and in continuing the fight against patriarchal oppression. We ask all the members of the Network to express their condemnation of Yanar Mohammed’s murder and their solidarity with her struggle. It is only by raising our voice against such assasinations in an organized, unified and loud manner that we can honor the exceptional lives led by women leaders that become targets of the patriarchal femicide machinery and prevent such murders from happening again.