Shafaq News- Baghdad
Iraq's Communications and Media Commission (CMC), the statebody that regulates media and telecommunications, called on citizens on Tuesdayto report digital violence against women and any abusive online contenttargeting them.
The commission held with the High Commission for HumanRights a workshop focused on the risks women and girls face online,particularly electronic extortion and privacy violations, and on buildingawareness of digital security and protection from online threats.
Asaad Nabil, the official in charge of the internationalcoordination file at the CMC, said the commission's media monitoring sectiontracks cases of digital abuse and has launched community-based monitoringmechanisms that treat citizens as partners in reporting content that targets orharms women and girls.
Ayam Sharif Jawad, legal advisor at the Baghdad office ofthe High Commission for Human Rights, told Shafaq News that the rise inelectronic extortion and the use of artificial intelligence to fabricate imagesand videos falsely attributed to women and girls prompted the workshop. She pointedout that some perpetrators use fabricated material to pressure victims,threatening to publish it unless they comply, placing women under heavypsychological and social strain, particularly where their own reputation andthat of their family are at stake.
She also urged women and girls facing such crimes not toyield to blackmail and to report quickly through the 911 emergency line orthrough community police and security agencies.
Many victims hesitate to come forward out of fear and socialpressure, said Suad al-Rawi, who took part in the workshop, making digitalsecurity awareness and clear information on legal protections a necessary step. She called for stronger cooperation between government institutions and civilsociety organizations to support and protect women subjected to onlineviolence.
According to the Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights, Iraqrecorded a 150% surge in domestic violence, with authorities logging 36,289cases in 2025 compared to 14,000 in 2024. Assaults by husbands against wivesdominated the recorded cases, at 19,587.
l: Iraq's Women: Fighting for rights in a patriarchal stronghold