Iraqi lawyer Sameera Salih Ali al-Nuaimy was tortured and publicly killed this week by Islamic State fighters after a "Sharia court" ruled that her women's rights advocacy constituted an abandonment of Islam.
According to The New York Times, the horrific acts continued the Islamic State's "pattern of attacks on professional women." The execution follows the July killing of two candidates contesting Iraq's general election, and numerous reports to the U.N. that gunman have abducted and killed women in several areas.
"Educated, professional women seem to be particularly at risk," said one U.N. monitor.
Two people with direct knowledge of al-Nuaimi's execution
told The Associated Press that gunman with the militant group's newly declared police force abducted her from her home in a northeastern district of Mosul while her husband and three children were present. She was taken to an undisclosed location, and five days later her family was called by a morgue to retrieve her corpse, which had signs of torture.
"By torturing and executing a female human rights' lawyer and activist, defending in particular the civil and human rights of her fellow citizens in Mosul, ISIL continues to attest to its infamous nature, combining hatred, nihilism and savagery, as well as its total disregard of human decency," Nickolay Mladenov, the U.N. envoy to Iraq, said in a statement confirming her death.
The U.N. Assistance Mission in Iraq reported that Islamic State militants destroyed a number of Mosul's historic landmarks and religious sites in August, because they thought they promoted idolatry. Al-Nuaimi's arrest and trial were said to be a reaction to Facebook posts she made condemning the destruction.
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