Monitor documents killing of three women by Syrian opposition members
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The human rights organization Syrians for Truth and Justice (STJ) on Friday reported the killing of three women by members of Syrian opposition groups in recent months.
"The first femicide took place in the city of Ras al-Ayn/Serê Kaniyê, which is controlled by the Turkey-backed SNA (Syrian National Army)," the STJ report said.
Hassan, a fighter with the Sultan Murad Division, shot and killed his wife Nadiya with his rifle in their house in Ras al-Ayn on July 2, 2021, it added.
"The victim’s family say that the fighter killed their daughter and faked her suicide, while de facto authorities did not conduct any investigation into the murder nor interrogate her husband."
In a separate incident, two women were killed in Sarmada, Idlib province, a region controlled by the military group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a group formerly known as al Qaida’s Syrian affiliate Jabhar al-Nusra.
“STJ documented the honor killing of a young woman and her mother. A paternal male cousin of the young woman killed her with her mother after the young woman posted a photo of herself on social media without a hijab,” HTS said.
"The perpetrator escaped to Shaykh al-Hadid district, in the Afrin region, which is controlled by the Turkish Army and the SNA since 2018, seeking protection from his armed group the Suleiman Shah Brigade (also known as al-Amshat)."
The STJ report said that two perpetrators are still free with "total impunity."
"Both murderers resumed their normal life after they obtained "protection" from the SNA’s factions they fight with or the tribes they belong to," the report said.
According to STJ, local authorities in Turkish-controlled areas did "not take any legal measures to address the femicides and eventually closed the cases with the burial of the three victims' bodies."
Last year, the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Syria said in a report that, in multiple known cases, Turkish-backed armed groups in areas under their control such as Afrin, Ras al-Ayn, and Tal Abyad have subjected women, girls, men, and boys to sexual and gender-based violence in Syrian areas occupied by Turkey.