Feminist Leader and Human Rights Activist Yanar Mohammed Assassinated

On Monday night, while scrolling through headlines about the first hour of the Oscars, which I had missed, a news item came up that sent shockwaves through me. It read: “Yanar Mohammed, 65, Iraqi Women’s Rights Advocate, is Killed by Gunmen.”

I immediately clicked through to the story about Mohammed, whom I had interviewed in 2011. Her photo confirmed what my sinking heart already knew to be true.

The Times cited a statement on Instagram from the Women’s Freedom Organization (OWFI) in Iraq, where she served as Executive Director and had co-founded. Her death occurred on March 2. The hit was carried out at her home in the northern sector of Baghdad. Two men approached her house on motorcycles and fired their weapons at her while she was standing outside. Despite an immediate transfer to a hospital facility, it was too late. One of the militia groups that had repeatedly threatened Mohammed was ISIS.

Mohammed believed that all women, including those in the LGBTQ community, needed to achieve social integration and equality in order for democracy to occur. She was an ongoing target of those sectors in Iraq whose beliefs upheld patriarchal norms and were complicit in the existence of domestic violence, “honor killings,” and trafficking. Mohammed’s efforts in creating safe houses for abused women in Iraq were instrumental in bringing safety to over 1,000 victims of brutality.

I distinctly remember the setting of our meeting. Mohammed was in Manhattan to speak at a conference. The article was an exclusive for the Women’s Media Center, arranged by the group MADRE (which has set up the Yanar Defense Fund in her name).

It was a warm day. At a low-key pasta place on York Avenue, Mohammed spoke openly and passionately about her beliefs and goals. At that time, she did note the enmity of the Islamic fundamentalists that she had incurred. I remember being somewhat anxious about thoroughly conveying all the details of her mission with the depth and precision required.

During this moment in time, people are being killed every day. Often, they are faceless casualties in wars we, as individuals, may rally against but don’t ultimately have the final say on. In a fast-moving news cycle, we get glimpses of the tragedies around us. A service member killed in Iran, whose photo and casket we briefly view on television. The murders of Renée Good and Alex Pretti, whose names will forever be synonymous with the fascism of Donald Trump’s regime, ICE, and the courageous activists in Minnesota, USA. In the West Bank, the Odeh family of six. They went on a car ride for sweets, and after their car was attacked by a hailstorm of Israeli bullets from soldiers who were in the area responding to a “terrorist threat,” only two brothers survived.

For those not tied into the Feminist activist space, Mohammed’s name may not have been familiar. What remains is that her tireless efforts were invaluable to all the women she influenced and impacted.

It is hard to absorb all the death and destruction that has been taking place. It is ongoing and overwhelming.

Yanar Mohammed was a person whose path crossed directly with mine. For me, her killing serves as a permanent reminder of them all.