All forms of bias against people based solely on their gender are considered to be gender discrimination. In other words, when a person gets faced with a circumstance, gender plays a role in that person's decision, without taking into consideration any additional personal or societal traits, abilities, or pre-existing conditions. 

The potential for such discrimination exists for both men and women. A closer examination of national histories, however, reveals that women are more frequently the victims of such treatment. The practice of discriminating against women has permeated all aspects of society and will continue to do so. Some of these include: 

Honor killing, female genital mutilation, child marriage, forced or prevented marriage, wife-to-wife or wife-to-blood, polygamy, adult-to-child, forced or prevented abortion, forced or prevented childbirth, rape and Sexual harassment, trafficking in women, threats of humiliation, restrictions on divorce and inheritance, lack of freedom of candidacy, lack of freedom of expression, restriction on how one should dress, lack of equality before the courts and lack of equal employment opportunities, lack of equality in property rights, physical and psychological abuse. 

According to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, to which Iraq is a member, the state must, in addition to enacting new laws and amending old laws to eliminate systematic discrimination, examine customs, culture, religious beliefs, and tribal values that encourage the maintenance of women's undesirable circumstances and work on the eliminating those aspects of the prevailing culture of society, where prejudice is pervasive and regularly practiced. 

The governments of Iraq and the Kurdistan Region have not only not significantly altered their legal systems and eliminated social practices against women, but they also refuse to implement certain provisions of the Convention on Women's Rights, particularly in the area of personal status law, on the grounds that they go against the tenets of Islamic law. 

In response to the rise in gender-based violence against women in the Kurdistan Region, the General Directorate for Combating Violence against Women and Family was founded in 2007 under the Ministry of Interior in the Kurdistan Region, that have branches in all Kurdistan cities and towns. According to the statistics of the department, in 2022 alone, 16,604 complaints were registered under the law No. 8 against domestic violence, and according to statistics of women's rights organizations, about 50 women are killed annually in the Kurdistan Region for a variety of reasons, including to restore their honor. 
State institutions should, in collaboration with organizations, fight against cultural dominance, patriarchy, discrimination, and hate speech against women in educational institutions and society with an intensive and comprehensive plan, in order to eliminate violence and gender discrimination against women. 
If you are a woman and are being subjected to violence, you can ask for help, legal guidance, and family counseling through the General Directorate for Combating Violence against Women and Families' 24-hour hotline number 119.