Leyla Qasim ( ku, Leyla Qasim ,لەیلا قاسم; 1952 – 12 May 1974) was a Feyli

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish languages *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern Kurdistan **Eastern Kurdistan **Northern Kurdistan **Western Kurdistan See also * Kurd (dis ...

activist against the

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

Ba'ath Ba'athism, also stylized as Baathism, (; ar, البعثية ' , from ' , meaning "renaissance" or "resurrection" Hans Wehr''Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic'' (4th ed.), page 80) is an Arab nationalist ideology which promotes the creation ...

regime who was executed in

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesipho ...

. She is known as a national martyr among the

Kurds ug:كۇردلار Kurds ( ku, کورد ,Kurd, italic=yes, rtl=yes) or Kurdish people are an Iranian peoples, Iranian ethnic group native to the mountainous region of Kurdistan in Western Asia, which spans southeastern Turkey, northwestern Ir ...

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 mig ...

, Dalaho Qasim, and his wife Kanî. She was born in

Khanaqin Khanaqin ( ar, خانقين; ku, خانەقین, translit=Xaneqîn) is the central city of Khanaqin District in Diyala Governorate, Iraq, near the Iranian border (8 km) on the Alwand tributary of the Diyala River. The town is populated by ...

but was relocated to

Erbil Erbil, also called Hawler (, ar, أربيل, Arbīl; syr, ܐܲܪܒܹܝܠ, Arbel), is the capital and most populated city in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. It lies in the Erbil Governorate. It has an estimated population of around 1,600,000. H ...

when she was four years old.

Education

Leyla and her brother Çiyako were taught

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walte ...

and

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled peop ...

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) ( ar, جامعة بغداد ''Jāmi'at Baghdād'') is the largest university in Iraq, tenth largest in the Arab world, and the largest university in the Arab world outside Egypt. Nomenclature Both University ...

Political activism

Leyla Qasim was sixteen years old as

Abdul Rahman Arif Hajj ʿAbd al-Rahman Mohammed ʿArif al-Jumayli ( ar, عبد الرحمن محمد عارف الجميلي, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ʿĀrif; 14 April 191624 August 2007) was a career soldier and the third president of Iraq from 16 April 1966 to 17 J ...

was overthrown by

party leader, General

Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr ' (1 July 1914 – 4 October 1982) was the fourth president of Iraq, from 17 July 1968 to 16 July 1979. He was a leading member of the revolutionary Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party and later the Baghdad-based Ba'ath Party and it ...

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 ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolution ...

, 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 Ottoma ...

. Leyla spoke to several Kurds in the

Kurdistan Region Kurdistan Region ( ku, هەرێمی کوردستان, translit=Herêmî Kurdistan; ar, إقليم كردستان), abbr. KRI, is an autonomous region in Iraq comprising the four Kurdish-majority governorates of Erbil, Sulaymaniyah, Duhok ...

about the

regime and the loose

morals Morality () is the differentiation of intentions, decisions and actions between those that are distinguished as proper (right) and those that are improper (wrong). Morality can be a body of standards or principles derived from a code of cond ...

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 ( ku, Partiya Demokrat a Kurdistanê; پارتی دیموکراتی کوردستان), usually abbreviated as KDP or PDK, is the largest party in Iraqi Kurdistan and the senior partner in the Kurdistan Regional G ...

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

Kelar Kalar (; ckb, کەلار, Kelar) is a city in the Kurdistan Region in Iraq, located on the west bank of the Sirwan (Diyala) river in Sulaymaniyah Governorate. It is located east of Kifri and west of the towns of Qasri Shirin and Sarpol Zahab, lo ...

there exists a Leyla Qasim Park.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Qasim, Leyla 1952 births 1974 deaths Iraqi Kurdish women Kurdish women in politics People from Khanaqin Executed Iraqi people 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