Key Points
Iraqi women’s rights activist Yanar Mohammed, 66, was shot dead outside her home in Baghdad on 2 March 2026 by gunmen on a motorcycle.
Mohammed co-founded the Organisation of Women’s Freedom in Iraq and spent decades supporting survivors of violence, trafficking, and so-called honour killings.
International rights groups and the United Nations have called for a prompt investigation, describing the killing as an attack on human rights defenders.
Yanar Mohammed, one of Iraq’s most prominent women’s rights activists and a leading advocate for gender equality in the country, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen outside her home in Baghdad earlier this week, sparking widespread condemnation and renewed calls for the protection of human rights defenders.
According to the Organisation of Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI), the group she co-founded, two gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on Mohammed outside her residence at around 9 am on 2 March 2026. She was critically injured in the attack and rushed to hospital, but doctors were unable to save her.
The organisation said her death represented a profound loss to the feminist movement and pledged to continue its work defending women’s rights. “The passing of Yanar Mohammed is a tremendous loss to the feminist movement,” OWFI said in a statement, adding that her legacy would endure through the lives of women she helped protect from violence and discrimination.
Mohammed, 66, had been one of the most prominent voices advocating women’s rights in Iraq since the early 2000s. She co-founded OWFI in 2003, shortly after the United States-led invasion of Iraq, with the aim of providing protection and support to women facing gender-based violence.
Through the organisation, Mohammed established the first network of shelters for women in Iraq. These safe houses provided refuge for women facing domestic abuse, trafficking, exploitation and so-called honour killings. By 2018, the network had expanded to multiple cities and had supported hundreds of women.
Her activism also included assisting survivors of violence committed by the Islamic State group and campaigning for the rights of women who had been enslaved or abused during the conflict. Mohammed had repeatedly warned that many survivors continued to live in the shadows of Iraqi society without recognition or justice.
Born in Baghdad in 1960, Mohammed grew up in a liberal family where her mother worked as a school teacher and her father was an engineer. She later studied architecture at Baghdad University, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1984 and a master’s degree in 1993.
In the 1990s, her family moved to Canada. During that period she founded an organisation called Defence of Iraqi Women’s Rights, which later evolved into the Organisation of Women’s Freedom in Iraq.
After the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Mohammed returned to Baghdad and used her savings and work as an architect to help fund the organisation’s activities. OWFI quickly became one of the country’s most prominent groups advocating gender equality and protecting women from violence.
Her work extended beyond shelters and crisis support. Mohammed also ran initiatives to help women activists organise and speak out against discrimination, and she used Iraqi media platforms to promote gender equality. She also edited the feminist publication Al-Mousawat (Equality) and frequently appeared in international forums advocating women’s rights in Iraq.
She was also a critic of sectarian and discriminatory legislation and had campaigned against attempts to introduce laws based on religious jurisprudence that she believed would undermine women’s rights, including proposals that would grant husbands automatic custody of children and allow unilateral divorce.
Mohammed’s activism earned her global recognition. In 2008 she received the Gruber Foundation Women’s Rights Prize, followed by the Rafto Prize for human rights in 2016. In 2025 she was awarded the Franco-German Prize for Human Rights and the Rule of Law.
Despite the international recognition, her work frequently placed her in danger. For decades she received death threats from extremist groups and faced intimidation aimed at forcing her to abandon her activism. Government critics and activists in Iraq have long warned that human rights defenders face significant risks, including harassment, kidnapping and assassination by armed groups.
The killing of Mohammed is not the first such attack. In 2018, women’s rights campaigner Suad al-Ali was shot dead in Basra. Two years later, activist and nutritionist Riham Yacoub was killed in the same city. While successive Iraqi governments have pledged to protect activists and bring perpetrators to justice, rights groups say many cases remain unresolved.
Front Line Defenders, an international organisation that protects human rights defenders at risk, said Mohammed had been targeted by threats for years because of her work supporting women’s rights and challenging discriminatory practices in Iraqi society.
Amnesty International described the attack as “brutal” and warned that it appeared to be a calculated attempt to silence human rights defenders, particularly those advocating women’s rights. The organisation said Mohammed had dedicated her life to defending women facing violence and discrimination in Iraq.
Razaw Salihy, the organisation's Iraq researcher, said the killing highlighted the urgent need for Iraqi authorities to stop a pattern of targeted attacks against activists. “The Iraqi authorities must stop this pattern of targeted attacks in their tracks,” she said, calling for a thorough investigation and accountability for those responsible.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, also called for a prompt and transparent investigation into the killing and urged authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice.
As tributes continue to pour in from around the world, activists have stressed that Mohammed’s legacy lies in the institutions and support networks she built for vulnerable women. OWFI has vowed to continue operating the shelters she established and to keep advocating for women’s rights across Iraq.
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