Shafaq News/ OnSunday, Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani attended the Kurdistan Women’s Union’sfirst-ever forum in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region.
Speaking at thetwo-day event that brought together 700 members of the union, Barzani honouredthe longstanding role of Kurdish women in the national liberation struggle,emphasizing their contributions across decades.
Barzani highlightedtheir vital support for Peshmerga forces and pointed to the courage manydisplayed by directly confronting ISIS militants. “Without the strength andsacrifices of Kurdish women, the path of our struggle would have been far moredifficult,” he remarked.
The leader also commemoratedthe legacy of Leyla Qasim, the first woman to be executed in modern Iraq. “Shehad been offered the opportunity to write a plea for clemency to then-presidentAhmed Hassan al-Bakr, but declined.”
Qasim, a leadingKurdish activist, was born in Khanaqin on January 27, 1952. She becamepolitically active in the early 1970s through the Kurdistan Democratic Party.In 1971, she began studying sociology at Baghdad University’s College of Arts.She was arrested on April 29, 1974, and executed on May 12 of the same year.
