Naza is visiting her daughter’s grave in an unmarked section of a cemetery in Sulaymaniyah, in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq. She goes there in secret – the girl’s death has been shrouded in a veil of family shame, so much so that her grave is unmarked.
The reason? “My beautiful girl was killed by her cousin when she refused to marry him,” Naza says.
“Nothing happened to him. The police took his word that he was innocent. Then, because the elders said she had brought disgrace, they put her in a grave with no name, no headstone, as if she had never existed.” Naza is accompanied by her 15-year-old son, who must also come here in secret.