Shafaq News– NajafA criminal court in Najaf has sentenced a man to death afterconvicting him of killing his wife by setting her on fire, a source told ShafaqNews on Thursday.The source said the man confessed to the crime during theinvestigation, citing family disputes as his motive. Najaf authorities did not issue an immediate public statementbeyond the court ruling.The verdict comes years after an earlier high-profile incidentin Najaf in which a young woman was severely burned in a domestic assault, acase that sparked widespread public anger and advocacy campaigns and renewedcalls for stronger protections for women.Iraq has recorded a sharp surge in domestic violence in recentyears, with nearly 14,000 cases reported in the first half of 2024 alone,according to the Strategic Center for Human Rights, following 18,436 in 2023and 21,595 in 2022, pushing the three-year total before 2025 to above 53,000.Rights groups, including Human Rights Watch (HRW), haverepeatedly warned that such cases highlight gaps in Iraq’s legal framework ondomestic violence. HRW has noted that a draft domestic violence law hasremained stalled in parliament for years, while only the Kurdistan Region hasenacted specific legislation addressing domestic abuse.Globally, data referenced by the World Health Organization (WHO)found that nearly 840 million women worldwide have experienced intimate partneror sexual violence, a crisis that has seen almost no progress in two decades.: From love to bloodshed: Iraq’s family violence epidemic