Rest In Power, Yanar Mohammed

Image source: OWFI

Yanar Mohammed, Iraqi socialist-feminist and co-founder of the left-feminist NGO Organisation of Women's Freedom in Iraq (OWFI), has been killed outside her home in Baghdad.

Yanar was born in Baghdad in 1960, and moved to Canada in 1995. She became active in a left-wing exile milieu, joining the Worker-Communist Party of Iraq, part of the political current founded by dissident Iranian communist Mansoor Hekmat. After the US invasion and the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, Yanar returned to Iraq and helped found OWFI, which opposed both the US-UK occupation and the sectarian-Islamist "resistance". She was subject to death threats because of her activism.

In recent years, she was active with the Organisation for the Communist Alternative in Iraq, a new left current founded in 2018 by activists from the Worker-Communist tradition. We republish their statement below.

With profound sadness, grief, and immense pain, we announce the passing of our dear comrade Yanar Mohammed, President of the Organisation of Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI) and member of the Central Committee of the Organisation of the Communist Alternative.

At 9am on Monday 2 March, two terrorist criminals on a motorcycle opened fire on comrade Yanar Mohammed at her residence in Baghdad, inflicting severe injuries. Shortly after arriving at the hospital, she tragically passed away.

While we condemn in the strongest possible terms this brutal terrorist crime against a great fighter for the cause of women’s liberation and equality, and a firm, persistent communist militant for human emancipation, we hold the government responsible for uncovering the perpetrators and bringing them to justice.

The memory of comrade Yanar Mohammed will remain a shining beacon for us in the struggle for women’s liberation and the communist struggle for a world free from all forms of injustice, discrimination, and oppression.

We will issue a later statement regarding the details of the life and struggle of our dear comrade Yanar Mohammed and will announce the dates for memorial services to honour her memory in Iraq and abroad.

The Central Committee of the Organisation of the Communist Alternative in Iraq

See also:

• Interview with Muayad Ahmed on the politics of the OCAI
• "Prominent Iraqi women's rights activist Yanar Mohammed killed by gunmen in suspected assassination", The New Arab
• Statement by OWFI
• "Who is Yanar Mohammed?", short profile on Yanar from our 2006 publication We Stand for Workers' Liberty