Story By: Alex Cope, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Newsflash
Strict religious families in Iraq are reportedly stopping their female relatives who have coronavirus from being quarantined in hospitals because of the “shame” it would bring to their “honour”.
Ali Al-Bayati, a member of Iraq’s High Commission for Human Rights, told reporters that families had refused to allow hospitals to quarantine daughters to maintain their “honour”.
Local media report one such case occurred in the capital Baghdad when a woman tested positive for COVID-19 but her family stopped doctors from placing her into quarantine in a hospital.
Reports state the unnamed family thought quarantine was “dishonourable” and went against “traditions and customs” which prevent women from staying out of the family home without a chaperone.
Al-Bayati told reporters that some families had demonstrated outside hospitals where COVID-19 patients are quarantined.
The incidents have seen social media users using the hashtag “epidemic of ignorance” to slam the families’ actions.
One user claimed a family in the city of Najaf had attacked healthcare workers to prevent them from quarantining their daughter.
The user claimed the family accused the medics of wanting to rape the woman.
Iraq has suffered 346 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 27 deaths according to the latest data from the Johns Hopkins University.
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