Leader Barzani opens first-ever Kurdish Women's Forum in Erbil

Shafaq News/ On Sunday, Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani attended the Kurdistan Women’s Union’s first-ever forum in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region.

Speaking at the two-day event that brought together 700 members of the union, Barzani honoured the longstanding role of Kurdish women in the national liberation struggle, emphasizing their contributions across decades.

Barzani highlighted their vital support for Peshmerga forces and pointed to the courage many displayed by directly confronting ISIS militants. “Without the strength and sacrifices of Kurdish women, the path of our struggle would have been far more difficult,” he remarked.

The leader also commemorated the legacy of Leyla Qasim, the first woman to be executed in modern Iraq. “She had been offered the opportunity to write a plea for clemency to then-president Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, but declined.”

Qasim, a leading Kurdish activist, was born in Khanaqin on January 27, 1952. She became politically 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.