WARNING: Distressing. Doski Azad had been in hiding from her own family. The make-up artist, 23, had been forced to move to another city and start a secret life to avoid scrutiny about her sexuality. In Iraq, being transgender comes at a cost. Members of the LGBTIQ+ community are not only shunned, they are hunted down and, in extreme cases like hers, murdered for being who they are. Azad, who is Kurdish, was killed in January in what police believe was a so-called “honour killing” by her own brother. She was murdered execution style – with her hands tied and a gun pressed against her face. Her body was dumped in a ditch near the city of Duhok in the Iraqi autonomous Kurdistan region. Her brother is wanted by police who say he travelled from his home in Germany to murder his sister in a twisted bid to restore honour to his family. A Duhok police spokesperson said: “Our investigation so far suggests that Doski Azad was killed by her brother just outside the city before he managed to flee the crime scene.”