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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Anonymous

‘My 15-year-old relative was killed for refusing to marry her cousin. My family celebrated by dancing in the street’

Kawthar Bashar al-Husayjawi in a patterned headscarf looks at the camera in a room with yellow walls
Kawthar Bashar al-Husayjawi, the 15-year-old girl who was killed by family members in Iraq after refusing to marry her cousin Photograph: Handout

The men of my tribe [extended family] threw my relative Kawthar Bashar al-Husayjawi, 15, into a pit and put a little dirt over her body. They had killed her hours earlier with 10 bullets, and split her small head with an axe. My family then joined others in coming on to the streets to dance and celebrate her death.

Kawthar lived in al-Nahrawan, a district in the south-east of Baghdad. She had been taken out of school and at age 13 forced to marry an alcoholic years older than her.

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