A Kurdish man stabs his wife 15 times in Sulaimani city in the Iraqi Kurdistan region on Saturday, the police said.

According to Raz Farya, the spokesperson for the Violence Against Women Directorate in Sulaimani, on Saturday the man went to his in-laws’ home, where his wife was at the time, and stabbed her over a dozen times.

The 25-year-old woman survived the attack and is in stable condition.

On Sunday, the husband flatly denied the allegations and stated that he is prepared to defend himself in court. He also stated that, if found guilty, he is willing to accept the consequences.

The mother of the victim said that her husband had threatened her daughter and that the family was terrified for her safety, to the point where they couldn’t sleep at night.

Over the past year, femicide, or killings motivated by gender, has increased dramatically in Iraqi Kurdistan.

On May 2, 2022, a Kurdish man fatally shot his wife and three of her family members, including a child in Chamchamal district in Sulaimani province due to a “social dispute”.

On April 21, 2022, a Kurdish mother of four was stabbed to death by her Husband in the Kurdistan neighborhood in Erbil.

On March 31, 2022, a woman was shot dead by her cousin in the Ibrahim Khalil area in the Zakho district of the Dohuk Governorate.

On March 18, a Kurdish teenage girl (15) was murdered by her father with six bullets using a Kalashnikov rifle in Soran district in Erbil. The reason for killing his daughter was that she went out with two people.

On March 7, a young Kurdish woman activist Maria was murdered in Iraqi Kurdistan capital Erbil.

On February 20, a man set fire to his 21-year-old wife in Sulaimani city after betting on her and pouring kerosene oil on her due to a domestic dispute.

On February 17, Maryam Yacoob, 40, was shot dead by her husband in Sulaimani, apparently, after she asked for a divorce.

On February 9, a 26-year-old Kurdish woman was shot dead by 10 bullets in the town of Koya in Erbil governorate by an unknown assailant.

On January 31, a young Kurdish transgender woman, Doski Azad, was killed by her brother in the Duhok governorate.

In Iraqi Kurdistan, gender-based violence, including sexual violence, domestic violence, honor killings, child marriages, and female genital mutilation FGM is common and endemic, despite the Kurdish administration, which called itself a Kurdistan Regional Government KRG, promises over the past decades to address the issue. Kurdish women often commit suicide to escape domestic violence or forced marriages.