MOSCOW, August 29 (RIA Novosti) - The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is concerned about multiple forms of discrimination against women belonging to minority groups in Iraq, a report published Friday says.
“For example, it is reported that Yezidi women suffer from a higher suicide rate,” the committee says in the report.
According to media reports, several Yezidi girls committed suicide after they were raped by militants from the Islamic State (IS).
Moreover, the committee’s report says “that minority women in marginalized areas, such as Roma and Black Iraqi women, are less employed outside the house and more illiterate than women belonging to the majority population; and, that child marriage is more common among these groups of women.”
Since June, Iraq has seen a surge in violence as the Islamic State started seizing large parts of the country and declared itself a caliphate.
“The committee notes the persistence of terrorist attacks and the recent intensification of clashes between the Iraqi armed forces and the terrorist group calling itself the ‘Islamic State (IS)’,” the report says.
The document also states that over the past weeks, thousands of civilians have been killed or are at risk of death, and over 650,000 people are internally displaced, most of them belonging to ethno-religious minority groups.
