Leyla Qasim (; 1952 – 12 May 1974) was a Feyli

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish language ** Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji) **Central Kurdish (Sorani) **Southern Kurdish ** Laki Kurdish *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern ...

activist against the Iraqi Ba'ath regime who was executed in

Baghdad Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...

. She is known as a national martyr among the

Kurds Kurds (), or the Kurdish people, are an Iranian peoples, Iranic ethnic group from West Asia. They are indigenous to Kurdistan, which is a geographic region spanning southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, and northeastern Syri ...

Birth and childhood

She was the third out of five children born to a Kurdish

farmer A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer ...

, Dalaho Qasim, and his wife Kanî. She was born in Xaneqîn but was relocated to

Erbil Erbil (, ; , ), also called Hawler (, ), is the capital and most populated city in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The city is the capital of the Erbil Governorate. Human settlement at Erbil may be dated back to the 5th millennium BC. At the h ...

when she was four years old.

Education

Leyla and her brother Çiyako were taught

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

and

agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

by their mother when they were aged six and eight. In 1958 she entered elementary and later finished secondary school in Khanaqin. In 1971 she moved to Baghdad to study sociology at the

University of Baghdad The University of Baghdad (UOB) (, also known as Baghdad University) is a public university, public research university in Baghdad, Iraq. It is the largest university in Iraq and the tenth largest in the Arab world. History The College of Isl ...

Political activism

Leyla Qasim was sixteen years old as

Abdul Rahman Arif Abdul Rahman Mohammed ʿArif al-Jumayli (; 14 April 1916 – 24 August 2007), better known as Abdul Rahman Arif, was an Iraqi military officer and politician who served as the president of Iraq from 16 April 1966 to 17 July 1968. He was the older ...

was overthrown by

Ba'ath Ba'athism, also spelled Baathism, is an Arab nationalist ideology which advocates the establishment of a unified Arab state through the rule of a Ba'athist vanguard party operating under a revolutionary socialist framework. The ideology is ...

party leader, General

Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr Field Marshal Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr (1 July 1914 – 4 October 1982) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fourth president of Iraq, from 17 July 1968 to 15 July 1979. He was a leading member of the revolutionary Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party a ...

in 1968. Leyla was disturbed by the violent takeover in the capital. During the late 1960s, Leyla and Çiyako wrote pamphlets on the horrors of the

party including the new leader,

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein (28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician and revolutionary who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 1979 until Saddam Hussein statue destruction, his overthrow in 2003 during the 2003 invasion of Ira ...

, whom they described as being against

Kurdish independence Kurdish nationalism () is a nationalist political movement which asserts that Kurds are a nation and espouses the creation of an independent Kurdistan from Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. Early Kurdish nationalism had its roots in the Ottoman ...

. Leyla spoke to several Kurds in the

Kurdistan Region Kurdistan Region (KRI) is a semi-autonomous Federal regions of Iraq, federal region of the Iraq, Republic of Iraq. It comprises four Kurds, Kurdish-majority governorates of Arabs, Arab-majority Iraq: Erbil Governorate, Sulaymaniyah Governorate ...

about the

regime and the loose

morals Morality () is the categorization of intentions, decisions and actions into those that are ''proper'', or ''right'', and those that are ''improper'', or ''wrong''. Morality can be a body of standards or principles derived from a code of conduc ...

of the members. Leyla was told that her words were inspiring sedition. In 1970 she joined the Kurdistan Students Union and the

Kurdistan Democratic Party The Kurdistan Democratic Party (), usually abbreviated as KDP or PDK, is the ruling Political party, party in Iraqi Kurdistan and the senior partner in the Kurdistan Regional Government. It was founded in 1946 in Mahabad in Iranian Kurdistan. ...

. On 28 April 1974 she was detained together with four others and accused of attempting to hijack a plane. She was arrested, tortured and, in Baghdad on 12 May 1974, ultimately hanged after a show trial, broadcast throughout Iraq. She was accused of having planned to kill Saddam Hussein. She was the first woman to be hanged by the Iraqi Ba'ath party. Executed along with Qasim were also Jawad Hamawandi, Nariman Fuad Masti, Hassan Hama Rashid and Azad Sleman Miran.

Remembrance

Many

families named their children Leyla after her. Every year the anniversary of her death is remembered by many

. In Kelar there exists a Leyla Qasim Park and a statue of her in Xaneqîn.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Qasim, Leyla 1952 births 1974 deaths Iraqi Kurdish women Kurdish women in politics People from Khanaqin Executed Kurdish people Executed Iraqi women People executed by Iraq by hanging 20th-century executions by Iraq Executed activists University of Baghdad alumni 20th-century Iraqi women politicians 20th-century Iraqi politicians