ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The news of the death of 9-year-old Mayar in Baghdad shocked the Iraqi public on Friday. Authorities claim that the young girl’s father and stepmother beat her with a broom, scalded her with hot tea, and left her tied on a rooftop under the scorching sun until she succumbed. Signs of torture, burns, and beatings could be seen across her entire body. Mayar's mother, who divorced her husband two years ago, said she had not heard from her daughter for a year. “All I ask is that he be killed the way they killed my daughter. I want him to be executed and punished. He must be punished in front of God. He must be punished in this life and the next. He is a criminal. No father would kill his daughter so brutally. He even raped her,” Mayar's mother, Nour Madhloum, told Rudaw’s Hunar Hamid on Sunday. She had previously filed a complaint and accused the ex-husband of kidnapping Mayar as he would not allow her to see the child. She claims that the judge brushed her off and told her it was a family issue, not a legal one. The father is originally from Baqubah, southwest of Diyala province, but moved to Baghdad over a year ago after marrying his second wife and Mayar had been living with them ever since. In addition to filing a complaint against her ex-husband and the stepmother, Mayar’s mother has also filed a complaint against the judge whose negligence she believes led to the killing of her daughter.
