This beautiful young woman forced to marry at 13 and then divorced and forced to remarry a succession of relatives has been murdered after she refused a fourth marriage to her cousin.
The incident took place in the Iraqi capital Baghdad when the victim, named as Nurzan Al-Shammari, 20, was knifed to death in the street, prompting outcry in the country.
Footage reportedly showing the incident was subsequently released by the Baghdad Anti-Crime Directorate.
The Iraqi Ministry of the Interior first issued a statement saying they had “formed a working team of experts and investigators to find the perpetrators of that crime.” Police have reportedly arrested her brother and cousins for the deadly knife attack.
The young woman, dubbed “the beauty of Baghdad” by local media, was forced to marry her first husband by her family, according to local reports, when she was just 13 and after they divorced, she was forced to marry twice more, before her uncle, unnamed, tried to make her marry his son.
The ministry also said: “As preliminary information, there is no sexual assault on the girl, because the crime was carried out in the street, and the forensic report is awaiting.”
Al-Shammari was reportedly repeatedly threatened because she did not consent to marrying her cousin.
She was murdered in broad daylight by three people wearing headscarves and carrying knives.
Some of her family members are reported in local media as having said that she was threatened by her uncle, who has not been named, because she did not want to marry his son who was her cousin.
In a statement, the Iraqi Interior Ministry’s Relations and Information Director Major General Saad Maan said that they had arrested multiple suspects.
The 20-year-old who worked in a pastry shop worker was allegedly killed by her own brother and her cousins in an “honour killing” for refusing the marriage, according to local media outlet Alsumaria News of Iraq. The suspects have not been named.
Footage of the incident released by the Baghdad Anti-Crime Directorate reportedly shows the killing and the moment she forced the ground after being stabbed.
