Kirkuk recorded the highest number of suicide incidents with 106 in 2019. Majority of them committed by women.
According to the data that KirkukNow has obtained from the Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights (IHCHR), In the capital city of Baghdad, 102 incidents have been recorded, which is less than those of Kirkuk. However, women's rights organizations are doubtful and believe that the number of incidents in which the women have been killed has counted as suicide incidents.
Sajad Jumma, head of the commission’s office in Kirkuk, said, “Kirkuk is on the top of the list of suicides… most of the incidents committed women. That 106 incidents are those we have are of. Perhaps there have been more incidents.”
But Ihlam Nusrat Turmali, head of Turkmen women organization, stated, “We should not forget that tens of willful killing of women have been recorded as suicide incidents… their case has been considered as setting themselves on fire or accidental shootings.”
Nevertheless, she said that there are suicide incidents and said lack of awareness and jobs and the increase of drug use are the reasons for them.
“Sometimes, when two persons are in a relationship, the girls send their pictures to their partners and later when they break up, some of the boys' blackmail and threaten the girls with publicizing their pictures which lead them to commit suicide.
IHCHR has established a network for suicide prevention in Kirkuk, and government institutions are part of the network, which has indicated several reasons for the high number of incidents.
Financial difficulty, lack of jobs, social problems, and health issues are among the main reasons.
IHCHR launched a campaign to spread awareness in the IDP camps as numerous incidents in happened there.
According to the Iraqi central statistical organization, the unemployment rate among Iraqi youth reached 20 percent in 2014.
It has been demonstrated that the unemployment rate among people of Kirkuk, whose ages are between 15 to 24, was 5.2 in 2016 but has increased to 28.7.
