AN INVESTIGATION INTO HONOUR BASED VIOLENCE AND HONOUR BASED KILLINGS IN IRAQI KURDISTAN AND THE KURDISH DIASPORA IN THE UK

This is a pioneering and previously unprecedented project, directly commissioned by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraqi Kurdistan to investigate so called ‘honour’ crimes against women in Kurdistan and the UK. The project is being conducted by Professor Gill Hague and Dr. Nazand Begikhani of the Violence Against Women Research Group, jointly with Dr. Aisha Gill, University of Roehampton and the women’s NGO, Kurdish Women’s Rights Watch, in Kurdistan. The study will be policy oriented in both countries and will consist principally of interview data-sets with relevant agencies, policy-makers, religious leaders, women’s projects and services, together with a small data-set of interviews, if possible, with families where honour based violence has occurred in both Iraqi Kurdistan and the UK. It will result in an Action Plan to be presented at a high level Summit with the KRG.