With fierce anger burning in our hearts and an unbreakable resolve, we mourn the assassination of the courageous feminist and leftist leader and fighter Yanar Mohammed, president of the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq, who was struck down by the hand of darkness in Baghdad on the morning of March 2, 2026 — as though they believed a bullet could extinguish the fire of feminist struggle and liberation. Two gunmen on motorcycles opened fire on her in front of her residence in the Al-Shaab district, in a crime whose perpetrators we all know.

The assassination of Yanar is a fully premeditated political crime targeting the feminist and leftist movements and every voice demanding justice and equality. It is a declaration of war against free women and against all who refuse to submit to the power of repression, sectarianism, and savage patriarchy.

Yanar: An Idea That Took Human Form

Yanar embodied a profound idea at the heart of class and social struggle — the idea that women’s liberation is central to any project of justice. The idea that no true equality exists without dismantling the structures of patriarchal violence protected by political, religious, and tribal authority. The idea that socialism without feminism remains incomplete, and that feminism which fails to confront class exploitation remains limited in its impact.

Yanar opened the doors of her organization to dozens of Iraqi women who sought refuge from domestic and social violence, enabling many of them to break free from forced marriage, denial of education, and deprivation of their rights. Her organization was never merely a human rights office issuing reports and statements — it was a frontline of daily life, receiving hundreds of distress calls every year from women living under crushing violence.

They Targeted Her Because She Was Dangerous to Oppression

They targeted her because she exposed violence, uncovered human trafficking networks, and opened the doors of safe houses to those cast aside by society. They targeted her because she said what no one wanted to hear: that the situation of Iraqi women has been deteriorating for decades, and that occupation and political Islam are two faces of the same coin in producing oppression. Yanar saw that the American invasion had turned Iraqi streets into zones without women, and she exposed the false choice between two options with no third alternative — either occupation or political Islam — insisting that choosing between them meant a life neither free nor dignified.

Her organization faced a campaign by the state media labeling them “those who humiliate Iraqi women,” because she openly raised the issue of human trafficking and demanded that the state recognize victims and ensure their protection. This is a familiar pattern: when a crime is exposed, those who expose it are attacked; when killing goes unaddressed, those who demand justice are accused of damaging the national reputation.

They wanted to intimidate activists and drive women back into the cage of silence. They ignored the reality that Yanar’s voice was never a single voice. It was the echo of tens of thousands of women who learned from her that freedom is seized, not granted.

The Climate That Bred the Crime: Power Is Complicit in Blood

The sectarian, nationalist, and patriarchal government of Iraq bears direct political and moral responsibility for the climate that produced this crime. The quota system that entrenched sectarian and ethnic division, shielded militias, and turned a blind eye to hate speech and violence against women is the incubator for targeting defenders of freedom.

This climate does not produce violence by accident — it manufactures it systematically through three intertwined channels: first, the religious pulpit, which reinforces the image of woman as a dependent being requiring a male guardian to govern and decide on her behalf. Second, the patriarchal media, which distorts the image of activists and portrays them as enemies of religion, family, and nation — thereby granting moral justification for killing in the minds of those who carry it out. Third, the culture of impunity that protects militias and makes political assassination a cost-free instrument.

When feminists are incited against and their reputations smeared without accountability, the bullet becomes an extension of that incitement. The killer executes what the culture of hatred produces daily from pulpits, screens, and mosques.

Impunity: Complicity in Blood

We condemn this cowardly crime and demand the killers be identified and publicly held accountable. The Iraqi Interior Minister has ordered the formation of a specialized investigative team to determine the circumstances of the crime — a step we acknowledge in form, though we will not forget that dozens of human rights and women’s rights defenders were killed in Iraq before Yanar without their killers ever being identified. Impunity is not merely a failure of the judicial system; it is a deliberate political message: activists can be killed, and no one will be held responsible.

There is no justice in a homeland where fighters are assassinated while sectarian and patriarchal structures continue to reproduce violence. Protecting activists is a political obligation that tolerates no delay, and cannot be satisfied by forming investigative committees that save face and bury files.

The Idea That Does Not Die

A bullet pierces the body. The idea endures. Yanar Mohammed was born in Baghdad and was known for her defining words: “We women are capable of knowing what is best for us, our families, and our communities.” This simple sentence is, at its core, a complete revolution against every logic of guardianship and exclusion that governs women within a patriarchal sectarian context that claims to protect them while imprisoning them.

The idea Yanar planted — the idea of liberation, full equality for women, and a socialist future — will take deeper root. It will transform into collective action, into a feminist movement more resolute in confronting violence, discrimination, exploitation, and the system that sustains them. Because every fighter who has fallen throughout the history of feminist and human struggle has not extinguished the movement — she has ignited within it a deeper anger and a stronger resolve. A single bullet does not stop a movement. It kindles within it a new conviction: that what she fought for is worth the sacrifice.

Yes to the Women’s Revolution

A revolution that links women’s liberation to the liberation of society from sectarianism, tyranny, and corruption. A revolution that insists no true equality exists as long as the sectarian constitution elevates religious law above civil law, and as long as women in Iraq lose their rights to custody, marriage, divorce, and inheritance through the decrees of clerics rather than through equal civil law. A revolution that affirms that women’s liberation is the measure of society’s progress and development.

Today we stand at a defining moment: either the movement breaks under the weight of shock, or it reorganizes itself and raises its hand higher. We choose the second. We choose organized anger over helpless despair. We choose to continue until the name Yanar Mohammed becomes a reference point for every Iraqi girl learning the meaning of resistance.

They will not silence our voices. We will raise them higher. We will not be afraid. We will not be silent. We will not compromise on the freedom of women.

Yanar did not die. Death claims bodies — but she who planted freedom in the hearts of thousands walks among us every time a woman raises her voice and refuses silence.

[Yanar Mohammed (1960 — March 2, 2026): architect, founder of the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq, editor-in-chief of Al-Musawa newspaper, protector of hundreds of women in safe houses, recipient of the Gruber Foundation Women’s Rights Prize in 2008 and other international awards. She fell to the bullets of darkness — and darkness will never extinguish what she lit.]

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