Kurdish Islamic radical cleric Mala Mazhar Khurasani, Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan, 2019. Photo: nasnews.com
HEWLÊR-Erbil, Iraq’s Kurdistan region,— A court in Erbil, the capital city of Iraqi Kurdistan region, acquitted Islamic cleric Mala Mazhar Khurasani on Thursday during a second day of a defamation trial.
The Islamic religious leader was released from custody shortly after the verdict was announced.
Mala Mazhar’s lawyer Aso Hashim said after the trial that the court did not find enough evidence to convict the mullah and decided to find him not guilty.
“The organizations that have filed the complaint against him [Mala Mazhar] can appeal the judgment of the court within 30 days,” Hashim added.
Mala Mazhar was sued by a coalition of organizations that advocate for women’s rights in August 2018 after calling women “dinosaurs” during a television appearance in June 2018.
He has also advocated for polygamy on a number of occasions.
After his release, Khurasani said that “those organizations belittled and mocked religion with their complaints.”
“I forgive them on my part, but they should apologize to God and not to Mala Mazhar,” he added.
The organizations had filed the lawsuit in an attempt to confront sexism in Iraqi Kurdistan Region, saying that it was perpetuated when public figures felt able to demean women in the media with impunity.
In 2008, Iraqi Kurdistan parliament amended the Personal Status Law of 1959 making it obligatory for a husband to obtain the consent of his first wife before marrying a second. The Iraqi parliament has not passed a similar amendment.
Violence against women is still common in Iraqi Kurdistan Region, including from intimate partners, although the government has made a vocal commitment to combating it.
Honor killings are a common feature in traditional Iraqi Kurdistan, where women who are deemed to have dishonored the family by associating with men who are not immediate relatives are killed by a relative.
Many other Kurdish women face forced and underage marriage, domestic violence or polygamy issues.
In December 2019 a fatwa issued by Iraqi Kurdistan Region Islamic body decreed unaccompanied women should not take taxis driven by male drivers they don’t know.
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